The Founder, Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969, pronounced "way-she-bah"), one of the most talented martial artists in living memory. He is often called O Sensei (great teacher) by people who practice Aikido.

In his youth, Ueshiba had studied many martial arts around Japan in his youth, including several styles of jujitsu (fighting system, usually empty handed), kenjitsu (sword fighting systems), and spear fighting.

Most notably among the arts Ueshiba studied was a style of jujitsu called Daito-ryu. Many of the joint-locking techniques in Aikido descend from Daito-ryu.

In the early part of the 20th century, Ueshiba synthesized elements of the arts he had studied, and refined them into his own system. Early in its history, he called his art by several names, including "aikibudo." By 1942, he was calling his art Aikido.

Ueshiba was also a deeply spiritual individual, and was very strongly influenced by his religious beliefs. He was a member of a neo-shinto religion called Omotokyo. Ueshiba's vision of Aikido was very spiritual, and he spoke of it in extremely esoteric terms that many of his students found difficult or impossible to understand.

Throughout his life, Ueshiba continued to improve and develop his Aikido.

Jugoro Kano

No history of Tomiki style aikido can be complete without mentioning the founder of Judo, Jugoro Kano (1860-1938), because Judo has had a profound influence on Tomiki and his students.

Kano had established his Judo in 1882 because he wanted to preserve the old jujitsu traditions, which he feared were being lost as Japan rapidly modernized. Additionally, Kano believed that by applying modern teaching methods to the martial arts, they could become an integral part of the Japanese culture--by, for example, being taught in the schools and colleges as part of the physical education program.

Like Aikido, Judo is based on the older fighting systems of Japan. While Judo today is perceived mostly as a sport because of the influence of the Olympics, in its early days it was very much a modern martial art (some people continue to teach and practice it in that way today) rather than a sporting system.

When Kano first personally observed Ueshiba's techniques in 1930, he is reported to have said "this is my ideal judo." Kano sent several of his top students to study with Ueshiba, looking toward the goal of bringing its ideas into the Judo system.

Incidentally, among Kano's innovations in the martial arts were the application of the kyu and dan ranking system, and the distinctive white pajama-like practice keigo gi (training uniform) with which the martial arts are so well associated today.

Kenji Tomiki

Kenji Tomiki (1900-1979) was a well known, and very talented judo technician in the early 1920. Later, he would be instrumental in creating the last official judo kata, called the Goshin Jitsu Kata (Self Defense Forms) , which was partially based on ideas he learned as an Aikido student.

Tomiki began studying with Ueshiba in 1926, and in 1940 became his first student to be awarded a menkyo kaidan--roughly equivalent to an 8th dan. (In old style martial arts, there were no ranks as such--instead various teaching scrolls or licenses were given to top students. In many systems, the menkyo kaidan was the highest level license.)

As he studied Aikido, Tomiki began to believe that by including the more modern educational methods espoused by Kano, Aikido would be able to become more accessible and more popular. Tomiki began to systemize the techniques of Aikido into a collection of principals and katas, much as Kano had done for the old jujitsu systems when he created Judo. Some of Tomiki's most influential students at this time included Hideo Ohba, and Tsunako Miyake.

Reportedly, Ueshiba asked Tomiki to call his system something other than aikido, but Tomiki declined, because he believed strongly that his system was in its essence, truly Aikido.

While Tomiki's major accomplishment and contribution to the martial arts was his educational system, he is best known for creating a method of practicing Aikido competitively, which has been very controversial among aikido practitioners ever since.

Tomiki, like Kano before him, wanted his art to be a part of the university curriculum to facilitate its growth. Tomiki was a professor at Waseda University. The University required that Tomiki show that Aikido had a viable method of competition prior to allowing him to establish an official Aikido Club, and teach aikido as part of the physical education curriculum. With this condition, Tomiki founded the Waseda University Aikido club in 1958.

Tomiki and his students analyzed Aikido and isolated the techniques he felt were safe for free-style play (these were the original seventeen techniques of the Randori no Kata). He eventually settled on a form of match where one person holds a practice knife, and the other person is empty handed and responds to the knife attacks. This form of match, with some evolution, is still practiced today in the Japan Aikido Association, which Tomiki founded in 1974.

Among Ueshiba's other senior students, there were individuals who felt very strongly that there was no place for competition in Aikido at all and who attempted to ostracize Tomiki from the mainstream Aikido community. In the face of this, it is important to recognize that Tomiki's active study with Ueshiba began in 1926, and he was teaching in Ueshiba's hombu (headquarters) dojo until the early 1960's, an active association of well over thirty years, which extends through all phases of the evolution of Ueshiba's Aikido.

Karl Geis and Our Style of Aikido

Karl Geis (pronounced to rhyme with "ice") was introduced to Tomiki through one of his Judo teachers, Tsunako Miyake. As Geis studied with Tomiki, Tomiki realized that Geis shared a background in Judo, and asked him to spread his aikido among the retired judo players in the United States, and to research a safe and effective system of randori (free practice) that could be done empty handed.

As Geis writes on his website, "The Fugakukai International Association was formed in July of 1982 by Tsunako Miyake Shihan, one of Mr. Tomiki Shihan's original top three students, Takeshi Inoue Shihan, a student of Ms. Miyake Shihan and Mr. Tomiki Shihan and the first Waseda team captain to do an extended teaching tour in London, and myself, Karl Geis Hanshi who to the best of my knowledge, was the first, and only, non-Japanese ever to be promoted to Rokudan by Mr. Tomiki."

For more information about Karl Geis' history, resume, and approach to Aikido, please see his website.

We practice Tomiki aikido, as taught by Karl Geis, including his KiHara method.