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Henry Kono (born August 24, 1927) is an Aikido instructor and the only Canadian student of Morihei Ueshiba, the Founder of Aikido.

"'Life'"

He is a second generation Canadian of Japanese descent and he and his family were sent to an internment camp during World War II. After the war, Henry settled in Toronto. In 1964 he saved enough money to visit his parents‘ families in Japan. After the visits, he still had time left on his visitor's visa and so decided to check out Hombu dojo in Tokyo where O-Sensei was teaching. Henry was so impressed, he stayed. At age 34, with no prior athletic training, he spent the next four years studying Aikido at Hombu dojo.

"'Aikido Experience'"

Throughout the four years, Henry was determined to learn what O’sensei was doing despite O'sensei repeatedly saying he was not going to tell you what he was doing. He knew O'sensei was different from all the other students. “When they threw you, you knew they threw you, but when O’sensei threw you, you felt like you threw yourself”. Henry described feeling like an “idiot” because “how can you throw yourself?”

Towards the end of the four years at Hombu, a group of foreign students at the dojo had a birthday party for O’sensei. While O’sensei was eating a bit of cake, Henry asked him, “why can’t we move the way you move?” At first, O’sensei glared at him, but then answered, “I know Yin and Yang and you don’t”. Henry thanked him and took this answer to heart.

On his way back to Toronto, Henry spent some time in Hawaii house-sitting for a friend. To his good fortune, this friend had a collection of books on Yin and Yang and Henry began reading and meditating on the subject. Every morning and evening Henry would draw yin and yang in the sand and ask questions about it. Eventually, he ran out of questions and told himself to just listen.

Eventually, Henry understood that Aikido was balance. The white doesn't disturb the black or the black doesn't disturb the white. In the Yin and Yang symbol, Henry saw a third part... the center, which does not move. After applying this epiphany to Aikido, Henry discovered that one could keep an attacker in such balance that they could not continue attacking while in balance.

He returned to Toronto, where he worked as a commercial artist in advertising until retirement. He still teaches a few classes and seminars in Canada, the U.S. and in Europe. Though many people use the term “sensei” as a term of respect for all teachers in Japan, Henry prefers being called “Henry.”

When Henry was in Japan, he was asked how long he was staying. When he replied, “four years”, he was told, “then practice uke for 3 years, nage is the easy part”. Since uke is the role of the attacker, Henry thought this was a waste of time since he was coming to class to learn how to throw someone using Aikido, not to be thrown himself. What he discovered after the three years of uke practice was a knowledge that comes out of this study and which he never would have understood beforehand.

==References==

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