PART VI – RETURNING TO JAPAN, THEN MOVING TO THE U.S.

In March 1976, to the surprise of his British students, Chiba Sensei left the UK to go back to Japan and assume the position of general secretary in the newly created International Aikido Federation (IAF). The IAF’s first congress was held that same year in Tokyo.

Hombu then asked Chiba Sensei to study the problem raised by the ever-growing number of global Aikido students and devise a way to control the development of the teaching of O-Sensei’s art. He wrote a draft proposal in consultation with various IAF members, but the reaction of Hombu and some IAF members were not In line with his expectations, and he resigned from his General Secretary position.

Between 1976 and 1980, Chiba Sensei taught one class a week in Hombu, while also leading a private class with a small group of foreign students. Then, in 1980, four years after his return from England, he left Hombu Dojo and moved to the United States, where he opened a dojo in San Diego, California. The circumstances of his return to Japan and his subsequent resignation are not fully known and he never really explained the reasons for his decisions.

Around the end of the 1990s, as he was celebrating 40 years in teaching Aikido, Chiba Sensei agreed to be recorded and recall the time gone by. While moving home he had come across a few notebooks that were saved from the complete burning of all his private papers. But these “memoirs” ended in 1976, after his departure from the U.K. Although he refrained from penning any more recollections after this time, Chiba Sensei wrote and published a number of essays and papers related to Aikido that throw a light on his thoughts and personal growth in the study of this martial art.

 

The United States of America

 

Chiba Sensei dedicated his life to following the path of O-Sensei and saw as his mission the transmission of his knowledge to succeeding generations. Fascinated by a picture of the Founder that he had discovered in a book, Chiba decided to become his disciple at any cost, and his encounter with O-Sensei turned out to be a true revelation.

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Kisshomaru Ueshiba had secured the authorization from the occupying administration to reopen the old Kobukan Dojo under the name Aikikai. This is where Kazuo Chiba in 1958 requested to be admitted as a disciple, before discovering that O-Sensei was only occasionally present at Hombu, having moved to Iwama, far from Tokyo, in 1942.

Chiba thus became Kisshomaru Doshu’s student, but he had the opportunity to spend time with O-Sensei, probably more so than any other student at the time, by being his otomo (お供) – attendant – of choice during the trips that he took around Japan, which sometimes lasted several weeks. In 1966, eight years after entering Hombu Dojo, Chiba Sensei was dispatched to England. Three years later, on April 26^th, 1969, O-Sensei passed away and Chiba lost his guide and his inspiration. He found himself alone in a country where the language was still foreign and where he was not welcome, thanks to still-bitter British memories of the behavior of Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War. When he returned to Japan in 1976 Chiba Sensei was shocked. The country had changed, and he no longer recognized the place he had left.

In 1980 (1979?), following his resignation from Hombu over the IAF dispute, Chiba Sensei moved to Hatake, a village in Shizuoka Prefecture where a friend, a Zen Buddhist priest named Hogen Yamahata, led a temple and practiced meditation. There, he could consider his options. Opening a dojo in Japan looked difficult if not impossible in view of his relations with Hombu. Going back to England was not possible either since he had already named a successor. Ultimately, it seems that Yamada Yoshimitsu Sensei succeeded in convincing him to move to the United States.

Chiba Sensei is a paradoxical character: an ardent supporter of the Ueshiba family, and thereby Kisshomaru and Moriteru Doshu, he did not hesitate to resign from Hombu Dojo in protest and then challenge it to make reforms. He was at the root of Hombu’s long-delayed granting of the title of Shihan to non-Japanese Aikido teachers. A conservative and strong upholder of tradition, he ultimately chose to settle in the US to pursue his mission and O-Sensei’s work.

He moved to San Diego in the early months of 1981. Darell Bluhm, an Aikido student who had traveled to Japan and trained under Hikitsuchi Sensei and Saito Sensei, had been tasked by Yamada Sensei to help Chiba to find a place where he could start teaching. This first space was a yoga studio in the Ocean Beach area. Chiba Sensei was introduced to California Aikido practitioners during a seminar jointly taught by Yamada Sensei, Tohei Akira Sensei and Kanai Sensei. However, the success of the seminar was mixed, as Chiba’s ‘vitality’ did not win over various organizations that operated in Southern California, whether they were affiliated with Hombu Dojo or not. Only a few practitioners joined the newly arrived teacher, including Pablo Vasquez and Gloria Nomura in Los Angeles, Nobu Iseri in Ventura, Jack Arnold in the San Fernando Valley, and Steve Sasaki in Berkeley.

At the end of 1981, Chiba Sensei and his students (including Archie Champion, who was just beginning, Coryl Crane, a British woman living in the US, and a young Julia Hall among them), moved to a judo dojo in the North Park district. Several locations followed: the famous ‘pressure cooker dojo’ opened its doors in June 1982 on 4^th Avenue of the Hillcrest area, then the University Avenue dojo in March 1986, Fairmount Avenue in the early 1990s, and eventually Adams Avenue in 1996.

It is in the United States that Chiba Sensei was able to fully implement his project of reinvigorating the art of the founder of Aikido. He had initiated this in the UK, between 1966-1976, continued it in Japan the following years and resumed in San Diego from 1981. He used the various dojo as laboratories and his students (kenshusei) as his subjects. Over time, a type of teaching emerged: the practice of ukemi, of body arts, and of weapons (ken, jo, sword), some of it discarded then soon revived.

Like he has first started in the UK, he set up an uchideshi (内弟子) program (the dojo on Fairmont Avenue hosted up to 15 uchideshi at once) and kenshusei  (研修生) (students pursuing a special intensive course) system which allowed him to go on with his study project and, at the same time, to train new followers who would then be able to start new research and to help new students. Meanwhile, he unified the various dojos and organized groups which followed his teachings under the name Birankai (毘嵐会), an organization with branches in Europe, and profited from the cooperation of assistants with very high level such as Morihiko (Mark) Murashige and Ichiro Shibata (dojo-cho of Berkeley Aikikai).

Fostering quality over quantity, he requested passion and dedication from his students. Practice involved not only Aikido techniques but also weapons mastery.

Chiba Sensei was also aware of the importance of spirituality in the study of Aikido as witnessed by O-Sensei’s religious involvement. Deguchi Onisaburo, the Omotokyo sect leader, played a major role in the development and the maturation of O-Sensei’s work (on this topic, refer to the studies published (in French language) by the Éditions du Cénacle and “Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburo, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan”, by Nancy K Stalker). However, Chiba Sensei was not a dedicated religious person and to rediscover the spiritual element that seems essential to Aikido study, he turned to Zen practice.

In the long run, Chiba Sensei’s legacy lives and reflects in some of his students whom he trained and who have in turn dedicated their lives to Aikido study and transmission.

 

Former uchideshi and kenshusei :

– Juba Nour            Ÿ Actuellement installé au Mexique, il organise régulièrement des stages dans son dojo de Todos Santos, Baja California.  Voir aussi ici.

– George Lyons      Ÿ Doylestown, Pennsylvanie. George et Patti Lyons y dirigent le Bucks County Aikido dojo.

– Robert Savoca     Ÿ Brooklyn, New-York. Robert et Kate Savoca y dirigent le Brooklyn Aikikai Dojo.

– Jenny Flower       Ÿ Ancienne du Fairmont Avenue’s dojo, cette anglaise s’est établie en Grèce. Athènes Aikido.

– Frank Apodaca     Ÿ (Deep River Aikikai, Durham, North Carolina)

– Darrel Bluhm       Ÿ (Siskiyou, Ashland, Oregon)

– Coryl Crane          Ÿ (North County Aikikai, Encinitas, California)

– Diane Deskin       Ÿ (Sonoran Aikikai, Tucson, Texas)

– Deena Drake, Julian Frost, Leslie Cohen, Gary Payne Ÿ  (San Diego Aikikai, San Diego, California)

– Roo Heins             Ÿ (Kalamazoo Aikikai, Kalamazoo, Michigan)

– Philippe et Bernadette Vargas Ÿ (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

– Kristina Varjan    Ÿ (Aikido of Kohala, Kapa’au, Hawaï)

 

Former students:

– John Brinsley       Ÿ (Aikido Daiwa, Burbanks, California)

– Ea Murphy et Eric Gillet Ÿ (Tacoma Aikikai, Tacoma, Washington)

– Benjamin Pincus Ÿ (Burlington, Vermont)

 

Other kenshusei and former students outside the United States:

– Mike Flynn           Ÿ (Thistle Aikikai, Chryston, Écosse] (‘Scottish and Border Birankai’ )

– Maggie Kay          Ÿ (Goldstream Aikikai, Langford, Canada)

– Chris Mooney      Ÿ (Welshpool, Pays de Galles)

– Miguel Moreno   Ÿ (Venice Aikikai, Venise, Italie)

– Janet Clift et Eamonn Devlin Ÿ (Athènes, Grèce) Aikido of Athens

– Piotr Masztalerz Ÿ (Wroclaw Aikikai, Wroclaw, Pologne)

 

The list of all dojo affiliated to Birankai can be found on the following websites:

– Birankai North America : https://birankai.org/

– Birankai Europe : https://www.birankai.eu/

 

For more information:

– A Life in Aikido   –  (https://aikidodidierboyet.com/2019/10/28/1ere-partie-les-annees-hombu-dojo/ and following)

– Liese Klein           – The Life Giving Sword (biography of Chiba Kazuo) (available in English on amazon.com)

– Stanley Pranin    – Aikido Pioneers (Interview of Prewar Era O-Sensei’s students) Recently reedited by Aikido Journal on souscription but out of print

Some interviews are available on the Aikido Journal website.

– Aikido Pioneers (Interview of Postwar Era Aikido Students) Recently reedited by Aikido Journal on souscription but out of print

Some interviews are available on the Aikido Journal website.

– Interview de Kazuo Chiba