User:Cesiumfrog/Iwama aikido

History
The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, resided in Iwama from 1942 onward. Morihiro Saito, the senior aikido student in Iwama, continued running the dojo until 2002. After Saito died, the Aikikai Hombu (run by the founder's grandson) took control of the original Iwama dojo. Many of Saito's students, seeking to preserve Saito's legacy in the lineage of aikido which they had inherited, have established their own organisations.

Morihei Ueshiba was born in 1883 and began teaching martial arts in the 1920s. In 1927 he moved his family to Tokyo, and by 1931 had established the present Hombu dojo there. This was a turbulent period, and he narrowly escaped government suppressions of Oomoto. In 1942 Morihei Ueshiba retreated (with his wife) to the small town of Iwama, leaving his son Kisshomaru Ueshiba to defend Hombu dojo from firebombing. Martial arts had been militarised at the beginning of WW2 and were banned to some extent afterward.

It was in Iwama, in 1942, that Morihei Ueshiba gave the name "Aikido" to the discipline he was synthesising.

The Aiki Shrine was completed in 1943, and Iwama dojo in 1945. The dojo was named Aiki Shuren Dojo. (Shuren, 手練, means masterful.)

Iwama was a location of spiritual significance for Morihei Ueshiba, and he engaged in intensive training, farming, meditation and ascetic training. Iwama is near Mt. Tsukuba which is associated by legend with the mythological bridge between heaven and earth and the spear that was twirled to form the earth, which are both among the metaphors Ueshiba used in the dojo.

Morihiro Saito (1928-2002) was a personal student of Morihei Ueshiba from 1946 until 1969. During this time, due to Saito's unusual work schedule, he was frequently Ueshiba's sole training partner (especially for weapons training before other students arrived). Because of the length and intensity of this relationship, Saito was one of the most renowned students of Ueshiba.

Before Ueshiba died he gave Saito responsibility to continue teaching at the Iwama dojo and maintaining the shrine.

Saito never formally split with the Aikikai, which remains centered around the Ueshiba family, however Saito did issue his own grading certificates.

In 2006 the Nishiibaraki district of Ibaraki, which included the small town (machi) of Iwama, was dissolved into part of the city of Kasama.

Iwama ryu
The aikido that Morihiro Saito learned from the founder at Iwama and subsequently passed on to his own students has become known as Iwama Ryu. (In Japanese, ryu means "style".)

The Iwama style is most distinctively associated with greater emphasis on weapons, specifically Aiki-jō (staff) and Aiki-ken (sword), as compared with Hombu. It also had a reputation for harder training, since Iwama dojo was largely attended by farm labourers as contrasted to the white collar demographic at Hombu in Tokyo.

Most of Saito's longest students have remained affiliated with Aikikai. Many such groups belong to the Takemusu Aikido Kyokai umbrella organisation. (Kyokai simply means organisation.) It is led by Saito's two most senior students, who are Paolo Corallini shihan and Ulf Evenås shihan. Both were appointed as official representatives and graded to 7th dan by Saito in 2001, and their ranks have also been subsequently ratified by the Aikikai.

Takemusu aikido generally conforms to the Aikikai syllabus but has also has further requirements in addition to it (such as demonstration of greater weapons proficiency at gradings).

Takemusu means creating bushido. It was a concept taught by Osensei at Iwama, describing a level of aikido involving spontaneous birth to original and effective technique. Takemusu appears in the names of many aikido groups descendant from Iwama (not necessarily members of Takemusu Aikido Kyokai).