The Kobukan Years
By Stanley Pranin
An Aikido Journal publication.
Reprinted with the kind permission of Aikido Journal
PART II
Establishment of the Budo Senyokai
Although Morihei had physically distanced himself from the Omoto religion with his move to Tokyo in 1927, he still maintained close ties with members and leaders of the sect. In August of 1932, at the behest of Onisaburo Deguchi, an association for the promotion of martial arts called the Dai Nippon Budo Senyokai was created. Onisaburo had earlier set up numerous auxiliary organizations under the umbrella of the Omoto religion in an effort to accomplish specific tasks in the propagation of the sect. This association was tailor-made to support the efforts of Morihei in developing his budo and also served the purpose of demonstrating the patriotic role of the Omoto religion.
Morihei was appointed the first chairman of the Budo Senyokai. Branches were established all over Japan and training sessions were held at Omoto facilities even in far-flung places like the village of Iwama in Ibaragi Prefecture. Parenthetically, the existence of the Iwama chapter of the Budo Senyokai led to the enrollment in the Kobukan Dojo of Yonekawa and Akazawa, two of Morihei’s most valued uchideshi.
The official headquarters of the association were established in Kameoka, the administrative headquarters of the Omoto religion, but the large dojo opened in the town of Takeda in Hyogo Prefecture soon became the de facto training center. Several of the uchideshi of Morihei’s Kobukan Dojo in Tokyo were sent to Takeda at various times for intensive training and to assist in instructing. Yoichiro Inoue also played a significant role instructing at Budo Senyokai branches in the Kanto and Kansai areas.
Kisshomaru recalls that friction developed between Morihei’s students from Tokyo and certain hot-blooded Omoto believers—particularly members of the Showa Seinenkai (Showa Youth Association)—who practiced at the Takeda dojo. This amounted to something of a rivalry between the Kobukan Dojo and the Takeda school. [From Aikido Kaiso Ueshiba Morihei, pp. 223-223]
Yoichiro alluded to the type of young Omoto men who trained at the Takeda dojo of the Budo Senyokai by adding this perspective:
“We initially taught in Ten’onkyo in Kameoka. I was teaching then but as you know those practicing martial arts are all mischievous type! I couldn’t put them in place every time I went there. So, I talked to Reverend Deguchi about the problem. He said: ‘Inoue, why don’t you get rid of them by sending them to Takeda?’ To tell the truth they were all kicked out of Kameoka! They say the reason was because a dojo was built in Takeda but that’s not true. They were sent to Takeda because they were so selfish.” [from Aikido Masters, edited by Stanley Pranin]
A total of 75 affiliated dojo were eventually set up giving a large boost to Morihei’s efforts to spread his aiki budo throughout Japan. It appears that there were even branches established on the continent and that Yoichiro and Aritoshi Murashige taught seminars in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and Korea in 1933 in connection with the Budo Senyokai. To a certain extent, other martial arts were practiced within the framework of the organization, in particular, kendo. In fact, Hakudo Nakayama was the kendo advisor to the Budo Senyokai and this undoubtedly was related to his friendship with Morihei. Nonetheless, the practice of Morihei’s aiki budo was the centerpiece of the activities of this organization.
Expanding to Osaka
One of the effects of the launching of the Budo Senyokai was the strengthening of Morihei’s network of dojos in the Kansai region. Coincidentally, at the urging of Mitsujiro Ishi in the spring of 1933, the Osaka office of the Asahi News contracted with Morihei to have him teach regularly at the newspaper dojo. Ishii had trained for a time under Morihei in Tokyo in the late 1920s during the Mita Tsuna-cho period and was a higher up at the Tokyo Asahi News office.
The timing of the commencement of training at the Osaka Asahi News office had to do with the occurrence of several violent attacks by political factions on the newspaper company because of its political stands. Ishii arranged for Morihei to give instruction at the newspaper in order to have the employees acquire self-defense skills to be used in an emergency.
The key figure at the Asahi News dojo was Takuma Hisa who had earlier worked in the Tokyo office performing well as a security director. In 1933, Hisa was promoted and transferred to Osaka and was thus a logical choice to oversee the Asahi News dojo given his work background and love of the martial arts.
Morihei began spending a week—some accounts say two weeks—out of each month in Osaka teaching at the Asahi dojo and other locations that had sprung up about this time. Several uchideshi from the Kobukan Dojo were soon assigned to Osaka. These included Tsutomu Yukawa who married and settled down in Osaka about 1934, Kaoru Funahashi, Shigemi Yonekawa, and Rinjiro Shirata. Since he was then based nearby in Kameoka, Yoichiro Inoue was probably the first of Morihei’s assistants to teach in Osaka.
Thus, by the mid-1930s, Morihei was busy going back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka and, as we have seen, he had a large number of affiliated dojo throughout Japan due to the operation of the Budo Senyokai.
In June of 1936, a rather mystifying string of events led to Sokaku Takeda relieving Morihei of his teaching duties at the Asahi News dojo. Those interested in reading the details of this puzzling episode may refer to my article titled Remembering Takuma Hisa which appeared in Aiki News 129. Despite the fact he no longer taught at the Asahi News, Morihei continued his regular visits to Osaka and instructed at the other locations overseen by his uchideshi. For a time, Morihei even maintained a home in Osaka and he and his wife spent considerable time there.
Second Omoto Incident
By 1935, Japanese government authorities had become increasingly irritated with the widespread activities of the Omoto religion that had arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of the brutal suppression of 1921 known as the First Omoto Incident. The sect now had something approaching two million adherents and was rapidly gaining in influence. In addition to the sect’s many domestic activities that irked the government, Onisaburo was heavily involved in the affairs of Manchuria and was advocating an independent nation under Pu’yi, the “Last Emperor” of movie fame. Furthermore, Onisaburo was suspected of funneling large amounts of money to various right-wing causes including the activities of Mitsuru Toyama and Ryohei Uchida. We will have more to say about these topics in part two.
The aggressive actions of the Showa Shinseikai, a new organization established by Onisaburo in July 1934, may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the Japanese government was concerned. Luminaries such as Toyama, Uchida, leading politicians, army and navy officers, and many leaders from the business world and other fields attended the high-profile inaugural ceremony of the Shinseikai held in Tokyo. The organization espoused the broad goal of “universal love and brotherhood” (jinrui aizen) and promoted the “Sacred Imperial Way.”
Describing the purpose of the Shinseikai one year after its founding, Onisaburo wrote:
“The Showa Shinseikai means the changing of the order from ‘the spirit subordinated to the flesh’ to ‘the flesh subordinated to the spirit,’ thereby starting everything afresh putting it on a glorious path that accords with the principles of Heaven… The family spirit of true love will expand to the level of the state so that a brilliant Japan based on the spirit of one large family will be born, and this will further spread to cover the whole of humanity and the whole of earthly creation.” [From Deguchi Onisaburo Kyojin, by Kyotaro Deguchi]
By late 1935, the authorities hatched a secret plan to destroy the religion once and for all. A large-scale raid was launched on the Omoto centers in Ayabe and Kameoka before dawn on December 8, 1935. Onisaburo, his wife, Hidemaro Deguchi, Uchimaru Deguchi and scores of other Omoto leaders were arrested and imprisoned.
Morihei, too, was among those Omoto leaders whom the authorities had planned to arrest. At that time, he happened to be in Osaka. He was forewarned of the crackdown on the sect by his student, Osaka Police Chief Kenji Tomita and was kept safely in hiding. Rinjiro Shirata, the former Kobukan uchideshi who was instructing in Osaka at that time describes this episode in a 1984 interview:
“The Kyoto Police Headquarters issued an order to the Osaka Police Headquarters for [Morihei’s] arrest because he was a leading member of the Omoto religion. It was sudden, but there was some advance warning. There was a man named Kenji Tomita who was Chief of the Osaka Police Department and an ardent admirer of O-Sensei. He believed that it was impossible for O-Sensei to be accused of lese majesty, and that although he was a member of the Omoto religion, he was devoting his life to budo. However, the Kyoto police said that if the Osaka police were not going to arrest Ueshiba Sensei, they would send their own officers to Osaka to arrest him.”
Ueshiba Sensei was told about this immediately. There was a man named [Giichi] Morita who was head of the Sonezaki Police Station who was also a strong admirer of O-Sensei. He sheltered Ueshiba Sensei in his own house until the storm blew over. The police came from Kyoto to look for him, but since he was in the police chief’s house they couldn’t find him anywhere, not in Tokyo, Osaka, or Wakayama!
Back in Tokyo, the authorities also raided Morihei’s Kobukan Dojo in connection with the Omoto suppression. Kiyoshi Nakakura recounts what happened:
“[Ueshiba Sensei’s] wife, Hatsu, was also there [in Osaka]. I was in Tokyo. Kisshomaru was here also. In the Ueshiba Dojo there were shrines dedicated to Omoto deities and many framed calligraphic works by Reverend Onisaburo Deguchi hung on the wall. Mr. Ueshiba valued them highly. However, I tore all of them down and burned them. The uchideshi were surprised and asked me if it was all right for me to do so. However, it had nothing to do with being right or wrong. To hang up or display such things was an act of lese majesty. If Mr. Ueshiba’s wife had been present then, I don’t think I could have done such a thing. I could only do it because nobody was there.”
Aftermath of the Second Incident
The second attack on the church was designed to “leave no trace of Omoto” and had far-reaching consequences for Morihei both professionally and personally. The Budo Senyokai network of affiliated dojo was immediately disbanded, although apparently some groups continued training while maintaining a low profile. Morihei could no longer openly associate with Omoto believers or display images or symbols connected with the religion. The incident and its aftermath caused Morihei great stress as his life had been centered on the Omoto for some 15 years and he still held Onisaburo in the highest esteem.
Morihei was hurt deeply on a personal level as well. Many of the sect leaders thought it highly suspicious that Morihei escaped arrest given his prominent status within the religion and leadership of the Budo Senyokai. They regarded him as a “Judas,” a traitor to the Omoto cause. This reaction on the part of Omoto leaders was perhaps also related to the rivalry that existed within the Takeda dojo of the Budo Senyokai among the Kobukan Dojo uchideshi and the Omoto practitioners.
Even his own nephew Yoichiro seriously faulted Morihei for not sharing the fate of the brave Omoto leaders who were imprisoned and some of whom tortured. There arose a distance in their relationship, and even though they continued to associate on an occasional basis through 1942, this proved to be the wedge that eventually drove them apart.
In part one, we saw the dramatic effect of the Second Omoto Incident and its aftermath on the life and psychology of Morihei Ueshiba. Many of the ties he had developed over a period of 15 years became instantly severed or pushed into the background due to the persecution by the Japanese government of the Omoto religion. After a period in hiding in the house of the Sonezaki police chief, Morihei was able to resume his life and teaching activities.
Some things had changed. The interior of the Kobukan Dojo had all of the calligraphic works and symbols of Omoto removed or destroyed and there were no more visits from the Omoto sect’s dignitaries who had frequently come in previous years. The Budo Senyokai network was dismantled although it appears that some groups kept training while maintaining a low profile. Morihei Ueshiba continued with his teaching assignments at the various military institutions and also with his regular visits to the Osaka area where several of his students were active teaching and where he had affiliated dojos.
There was one other dramatic change in Morihei’s life at this time that had nothing to do with the Second Omoto Incident. In June 1936, Sokaku Takeda appeared at the Asahi News in Osaka announcing himself as Morihei’s teacher and Sokaku ended up taking over instruction in Ueshiba’s place. A number of puzzling events surround this incident and I cover what is known in some detail in my article “Remembering Takuma Hisa.” Although the loss of such a prestigious teaching assignment must have been troubling, Morihei still had a strong presence in Osaka and continued to teach there regularly up until his retirement to Iwama. About this time another blow for Morihei was the departure of several of his top assistants. Shigemi Yonekawa relocated to Manchuria where he helped Kenji Tomiki. Rinjiro Shirata was conscripted into the military in 1937. Kaoru Funahashi disappears from the scene about this time although little is known about the remainder of his life. Zenzaburo Akazawa also departed to Manchuria as an assistant to General Toshinari Maeda. Also, Kiyoshi Nakakura and Morihei’s daughter ended their marriage the same year leaving the issue of Morihei’s successor in limbo. Yet perhaps the greatest difficulty was the fact that the Kobukan Dojo and other affiliated branch schools were losing increasingly more young men to the war effort leaving few students in the dojos.
Among Morihei’s prominent students who remained on the scene was Gozo Shioda. Shioda was the son of a wealthy pediatrician who loved the martial arts. Still a student, the young Shioda was able to continue training at the Kobukan long after many of the other Kobukan instructors were called into military service. Shioda would go on to become a major figure in the postwar development of Aikido as the founder of the Yoshinkan Aikido school. Also, Morihei’s son Kisshomaru began to practice regularly in the mid-1930s and would frequently assist his father in demonstrations as his sword partner. Kisshomaru also spent about a year studying Kashima Shinto-ryu sword when instructors from this classical school would make weekly visits to the Kobukan Dojo starting in 1937.
Morihei’s frail health
A word about Morihei’s rather frail constitution is perhaps called for here. Kisshomaru mentions this in his 1977 biography of his father and attributes Morihei’s condition to the ill effects of a bizarre saltwater drinking challenge in 1925 that Morihei participated in while living in the Omoto community. Apparently, someone calling himself a “Brahman Practitioner” kept challenging Onisaburo to a drinking contest and Morihei stepped in his place imbibing large quantities of salt water.
Of course, it is only speculation what combination of factors led to Morihei’s frequent illnesses, but his frail health condition is often alluded to in episodes recounted by Ueshiba’s prewar disciples. His nephew, Yoichiro Inoue, made mention of how often he would have to teach in Morihei’s place in the early Tokyo years due to his uncle’s illnesses. Gozo Shioda recounts how Morihei was very sick with jaundice in 1941 at the time of a demonstration before the imperial family.
Even without these first-hand testimonies it would be a simple matter to deduce that Morihei was frequently ill because of the constant and sometimes dramatic weight fluctuations apparent in surviving photos of the founder.
Remember that Morihei traveled constantly all-around Tokyo and then to the Kansai area each month. His eating and sleeping habits were irregular and this surely had a negative effect on his health. In fact, careful scrutiny of photos from this period will reveal that Morihei aged rapidly between the years of around 1935 to 1940. Just before the Second Omoto Incident, we see him in his physical prime sporting an elegant Kaiser mustache. Photos of him dating from 1938 and beyond reveal that he has grown completely white and aged noticeably. No doubt it was a combination of all of the factors alluded to above that contributed to his poor health condition.
Morihei’s right-wing associations
Having earlier described the events of the Second Omoto Incident, this is an opportune moment to broach the subject of Morihei’s extensive right-wing associations and what significance should be attached to them. This topic has recently been alluded to by several Western writers. Until recently, aikido historians have mentioned Morihei’s many military and political associations mostly in an effort to demonstrate the high regard in which he was held by the elites of prewar Japan.
To be sure, this is a delicate matter because if it were adjudged that the aikido founder was active in the support of militarist causes then his portrayal of aikido as a “spiritual” martial art would be brought into question. On the other hand, the whole martial arts subculture of Japan has been bound up with the political and military happenings of the times going as far back to the beginnings of recorded history. So in one very profound sense, how could Morihei Ueshiba not have been involved deeply in right-wing activities given his profession and the types of people he associated with in his daily life? The whole matter is extremely complex so what I would like to attempt to do here is provide relevant background information on this subject.
Beginnings of right-wind contacts
The majority of Morihei’s right-wing associations can be traced back to his involvement in the Omoto religion starting about 1920. For example, his connection with Vice-Admiral Seikyo Asano, an Omoto beliver and one of Morihei’s early students in Ayabe, would serve as the basis for the creation of a vast network of contacts with high-ranking naval officers. Later, beginning in the mid-1920s when Morihei established himself in Tokyo, his connections would grow to include many leading army officers and police officials. In the numerous photos remaining from the late 1920s and 30s, it is common to see uniformed military officers interspersed among Morihei and his students.
Of course, Morihei’s mentor, Onisaburo Deguchi, was also deeply involved in politics and cultivated many right-wing contacts. These included such famous figures as Mitsuru Toyama and Ryohei Uchida, both key figures in the notorious Black Dragon Society and other right-wing organizations. Toyama and Uchida’s activities very much involved Manchuria and Mongolia. Many of their efforts were designed to thwart Russian advances in this region thus furthering Japanese colonial interests on the continent. These famous figures were among the powerbrokers behind the aggressive activities of the Guandong Army (Kantogun) that would later lead to war against China and Russia.
Mongolian expedition
Given Onisaburo’s behind-the-scene activities and involvement with the likes of Toyama and Uchida, it is naive to hypothesize that his ill-fated expedition to Mongolia in 1924 had no political dimension beyond the stated goal of establishing a “religious utopia.” Someone as intelligent and politically astute as Onisaburo was certainly aware of the hidden agendas of the secret Japanese groups operating on the continent and may even have been working in concert with them. And let us not forget that Morihei Ueshiba was one of only several men handpicked to accompany Onisaburo on his secret trip to Mongolia. Morihei was certainly “in” on these political and military maneuverings from early on in his career.
Morihei’s network of right-wing contacts would later be amplified by the associations and activities of his students. To mention several examples, Yoichiro Inoue, Kenji Tomiki, Gozo Shioda, and Zenzaburo Akazawa all had extensive contacts that included military and political higher-ups, some of which surely overlapped with Morihei’s associations. This is simply a reflection of the times and the circles in which these martial arts figures moved.
Teaching at military institutions
From a westerner’s viewpoint, the most problematic aspect of Morihei’s prewar activities is his numerous teaching assignments at military institutions. In part one, we documented his involvement with the Naval Staff College, the Army University, the Military Police School, the Toyama School, and the Nakano “Spy” School among others. The question that comes to mind is, to what extent, if any, did the founder’s activities in these circles go beyond the instruction of martial skills and strategies? Surely, Morihei interacted with the staff and students of these institutions and kept abreast of current events. But if Morihei was involved in some way in the unending political intrigue that constantly destabilized Japanese politics of the day, what evidence of this is there?
There is one curious episode that can be mentioned in this regard that may suggest some, heretofore, unknown role of Morihei in the political going on of the times. Kisshomaru published an old undated photo in his Moriheiden in 1977 commemorating a visit to the Kobukan Dojo of a Chinese-looking foreign dignitary. The visitor is referred to merely as “Tokuo” and no information about the significance of this visit is given.
A little digging yielded the fact that Tokuo’s Chinese name was Prince Teh Wang (1902-1966) and that he sided with the Japanese authorities in Mongolia in the 1930s. Teh Wang forged a certain degree of political unity among Mongolian chieftains and declared an independent nation called Meng Chiang in December 1937. This government was backed up by the Japanese interests on the continent and the whole setup was reminiscent of Manchukuo headed by Pu-yi of Last Emperor fame. Teh Wang reigned in his largely symbolic capacity until 1945.
In any event, Prince Teh Wang visited Japan in 1938 and received an audience before Emperor Hirohito befitting his role as a foreign head of state. On this same visit, Teh Wang also paid a courtesy call at the Kobukan Dojo of Morihei Ueshiba. At least two photos of this event survive, one of which we reproduce here:
What significance should be attached to this visit is unclear. Besides the Mongolian emperor and Morihei, one army officer is present as is retired Admiral Isamu Takeshita. Others identified in the photo are Mrs. Ueshiba, Gozo Shioda, Kenzo Futaki and Aritoshi Murashige. It would be intriguing to learn more of the circumstances of this royal visit but judging from the presence of several young men wearing keikoki, we can safely conclude that Morihei gave a demonstration for the emperor.