Chiba T. Kazuo was born in Tokyo on 5 February 1940. He died in San Diego, USA, on 5 June 2015. After a few years of judo, he discovered Aikido and became the pupil of Ueshiba Kisshomaru and his father, Morihei, the founder of Aikido. After seven years of intense training and numerous trips alongside O-Sensei as an otomo (assistant) and kaban-mochi (accompanying) he is invited to teach in Great Britain where he will reside for 10 years. In 1966, he was called back to Japan to take over the secretariat of the new International Aikido Federation. In 1981, he moved to the United States in San Diego, California. He remained there until his death, at the head of the Aikikai de San Diego and Birankai group, which he founded in 2000. I met Chiba Sensei in 1973 or 1974, I don’t remember much about myself, when Tamura Sensei ran the Villefranche-de-Rouergue summer internship every year. Chiba Sensei was only 33 or 34 years old and he had incredible energy to develop an aikido of exceptional dynamics. I was immediately seduced and when Chiba Sensei returned to Japan I didn’t hesitate long before joining him there. Arrived in Tokyo on October 4,1977, I was introduced to Hombu Dojo and Kisshomaru Doshu by Chiba Sensei himself. I also immediately met and joined a group of Americans and English who were studying under his guidance in private classes at Hombu. In 1981, Chiba Sensei left Japan again, but this time for the United States where he established a dojo, the Aikikai of San Diego, and an organization of Aikido practitioners who follow his teachings. He died on 5 June 2015 in San Diego at the age of 75.
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