Honolulu, Hawaii – Oahu
“The Secret Teachings of Budo (Poems)” – From “Budo Renshu” – 1933 The 1933 training manual “Budo Renshu” (published in English under the name “Budo Training in Aikido“) was initially given to the students of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba as a kind of a teaching license. It was filled with illustrations depicting techniques (such as the one above) taught at the Kobukan Dojo which were drawn by … Continue reading Three Doka and the Aiki O-Kami
Kisshomaru Ueshiba – Morihei Ueshiba – Koichi Tohei What does all of this mean? It means that the common view of the spread of aikido following the war taking place under the direct tutelage of the Founder is fundamentally in error. Tohei and the present Doshu (*Kisshomaru Ueshiba) deserve the lion’s share of the credit, not the Founder. It means further that O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba … Continue reading The Ueshiba Legacy – Part 1, by Mark Murray
September 1964 Aikido Seminar at Andrews Gym in Hilo Hawaii Second Row: Meyer Goo, left, seated next to Sadao Yoshioka Front Row: Koichi Tohei, Yukiso Yamamoto, Gyokuei Matsuura, Yorio Wakatake Aikido arrived in Hawaii with Koichi Tohei in 1953, its first expansion to the United States after the war. One of the students that Koichi Tohei attracted in his trips to the Hawaiian islands … Continue reading Finding Aiki – and Aikido – in Hawaii
Takashi Nonaka, Yasu Iwasa, Koichi Tohei, Kazuo Takaki, Kiyoshi Nagata 1955 – Hilo, Hawaii at the teahouse in Liliokulani Park (Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitsuo Adachi Sensei – orginal photo by Bernie Lau) The oldest of eight children (three boys and four girls), Takashi Nonaka was born on the Big Island of Hawaii on May 8, 1925, he was the oldest of eight children. His … Continue reading Flow Like a River: Takashi Nonaka and the Hilo Ki-Aikido Club
Harry Eto Sensei Harry Eto, promoted to eighth degree black belt in 1998 at the age of 92, was one of Koichi Tohei’s first students in Hawaii. Here is a section of the article that appeared in the local Honolulu Advertiser newspaper when he passed away in 2001: Harry Setsuo Eto, a barefoot Kaua’i plantation boy who literally helped build Honolulu and at middle age became … Continue reading Aikido’s Harry Eto: The Wisdom of ‘Slow and Steady’