Where do myths begin? Jungian psychologists assert that myths reflect primordial patterns within the unconscious. Myths, therefore, impose a one form of order on chaos. This order is based in both reality and illusion, like the stars in the sky, subject to both the science of astronomy and the illusion of astrology. Myths are the constellations of the human mind.
Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with! William Shakespeare, Macbeth, from Act 3, Scene 4
It ain't necessarily so It ain't necessarily so The t'ings dat yo' li'ble To read in de Bible, It ain't necessarily so. George and Ira Gershwin
Myths are based on what we have seen or heard, what we wish to perceive, what others tell us we should perceive and beyond that, patterns imposed upon us simply because we are human beings. Myths can even kill, because they may divide the world into darkness and light, and it is all too easy to place living beings, in some way other to you, into that darkness. Myths make us greater than ourselves alone, part of stories upon which the universe seems to rest. Myths give our lives meaning, even if the meaning is a lie.
Let us consider a picturePublished in Shioda Gozo's biography (see note below) along with the following legend: "左から、石田和外氏（無刀流剣術宗家・最高裁長官）、堀川幸道氏（大東流合気術師範）、剛三、古田常二氏（日韓親和会事務局長） / From the left, Mr. Kazuto Ishida (Muto-ryu Soke Soke, Supreme Court Secretary), Mr. Yukimichi Horikawa (Daito-ryu Aikijutsu Master), Gozo, Mr. Tsumiji Furuta (Secretary General of Japan-Korea Affinity Association)". The photo has also appeared in other Yoshinkan publications, such as the Yoshinkan 50th anniversary (合気道養神館 創立50周年記念誌) booklet published in July 2005, and the History of Yoshinkan Aikido (合気道養神盤沿革) booklet published in 2008..
Photo taken at the Yoshinkan headquarters on October 22nd, 1967, showing from left to right: Ishida Kazuto, Horikawa Kodo, Shioda Gozo, and Furuta Tsumigi.
We see, here, from left to right: Ishida Kazuto, Horikawa Kodo (one of the greatest of all Daitō-ryū instructors), the brilliant aikidō practitioner, Shioda Gozo, and Furuta Tsumigi. The picture has been widely disseminated, and is treasured both by the Kodokai and by the Yoshinkan, particularly Gozo Shioda, who published it in his book, "Shioda Gozo's Aikido Life"塩田 剛三 (著), 塩田 泰久 (著) － 塩田剛三の合気道人生, 海鳴社 (July 1, 2012).. There is nothing secret about this picture whatsoever: both the Kodokai and the Yoshinkan show it with pride.
Cover and excerpts from a commemorative booklet produced in 2008 by Shioda Yasuhisa.
This picture, however, is part of a myth. There has been a story floating around for many years, in both Japan and America, that Shioda never received the secrets of aiki from his teacher, Ueshiba Morihei—it is often implied that Ueshiba didn’t know them—and in 1967, Shioda invited Horikawa Kodo to the Yoshinkan where he was taught what he never learned.
Each faction of Daito-ryu, as well as numerous factions of aikidō, have different definitions of aiki, quite at variance to one another. In my experience, however, I rarely hear a statement such as “There are many different ways of understanding aiki, all equally valid. Rather, I mostly hear statements much like this: “We are the only one’s who practice ‘true aiki.’ All the others are wrong, incompetent or lying.”
Sounding almost like a spy novel, Horikawa was allegedly conveyed to the Yoshinkan in a large limousine with a small entourage, the doors were locked, and Shioda and his senior students undertook an intensive study of aiki under Horikawa, every night, for a two-week period. Thereafter, the story goes, Shioda’s technique was transformed; one can see recognizable elements of Horikawa’s Kodokai Daitō-ryū in Shioda’s technique that were not present before. This story is a given in some circles, and people many generations removed from either man blithely assert it with absolute conviction. I’ve heard more remarkable embellishments on the tale, including one version in which a ranking non-Japanese member of the Kodokai, speaking no Japanese, by the way, was delegated to visit Shioda at some important anniversary, and right in the middle of the celebration, confronted him with a copy of this photo and other documents from the Kodokai, and Shioda blanched like MacBeth, confronted by Banquo’s ghost.
There’s Evidence! He Signed the Eimeiroku! . . . . . No, He Didn’t
Takeda Sokaku, though not in the least the figure of evil that was drawn in earlier aikidō mythology, was a profoundly irascible, suspicious man, who clutched his secrets closely. Everyone who took a seminar from him had to sign an Eimeiroku (‘record of honored names’). In essence, it was a kind of registryWert, Michael, Rural Swordsmen in Early Modern Japan, Unpublished work-in-progress. Eimeiroku were actually rather common in the late Edo period; however, they were generally used somewhat differently from how Takeda Sokaku used his. Typically, individuals on musha-shugyō would request that the heads of dōjō sign and stamp their book after their visit. Later in this essay, the reader will see that Horikawa Kodo followed a practice similar to this (though as a teacher rather than a shugyōsha), in a document entitled Fumetsu no Aiki. Through this, he could be assured that no one could teach elements of Daitō-ryū while claiming they had come up with it on their own, or that it was part of their own ryūha. In other words, Takeda’s Eimeiroku is a kind of ‘intellectual property protection.’ The tradition of signing an Eimeiroku, either as an inducted member of a dōjō, after participating in a seminar or even after a single lesson, has been maintained by several factions of Daitō-ryū, among them the Kodokai, as well as Ueshiba Morihei during his Kobukan Dōjō period.
There has long been a claim that Shioda Gozo signed Horikawa Kodo’s Eimeiroku. I have read it repeatedly in internet discussions, in both Japanese and English, and have heard it personally. I am acquainted with people who have seen entries in a document with Shioda Gozo’s name, handwritten and hanko’d (signed with a personal seal)—in fact, I have seen a photograph of one of those pages myself. The only problem is that what they are talking about is not Horikawa’s Eimeiroku.
The Eimeiroku of Horikawa Kodo has been held by the Horikawa family. It has never been publicly released, and other than the cover, it has never been photographed. In fact, it has been viewed only by the most senior shihan of the Kodokai. The Kodokai recently gave permission to a researcher to look through the complete Eimeiroku, page by page. He stated categorically that there is no signature of Shioda Gozo anywhere within that document, and the Kodokai will attest to this statement.All information in this section concerning the Eimeiroku and the Fumetsu no Aiki are from Inoue Yusuke and Nomoto Tadashi, and are official statements of the Kodokai concerning this matter. What people are talking about is another document, one that is, in fact, in public domain. I have viewed a copy forwarded to one of my associates from the Kitami library in Hokkaido, Japan—and there you will find Shioda Gozo’s name.
Cover and page 84 of "Fumetsu no Aiki", which contain the sole mentions of the Yoshinkan and/or Shioda of the entire document.
The text accompanying one of the two entries is identical to photograph I viewed that I referred to in the last paragraph. They are undeniably the same. This is from a document called Fumetsu no Aiki. This document, rather than a registry of students, is the equivalent of a ‘guest book.’ The Fumetsu no Aiki, in addition, includes occasions where Kodokai personages, in their official capacity, visited someone else’s place. There are two entries with Shioda Gozo’s name. The first entry, in October 22nd, 1967, concerns Horikawa’s visit that was commemorated in the above photograph. The second, on May 18th, 1968, commemorates an enbu offered at the Yoshinkan by Horikawa. Here is the exact wording of the two entries.
| 回 | 講習主催者 | 人員 | 開催年月 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 四五 | 養神館道場 | 教師 五 | 四二、一〇、一日間 |
| 四七 | 合気道養神館 | 観衆二〇〇 | 四三、五、一日間 |
And now with the translation in English:
| # | Course organizer | Number of persons | Holding date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45 | Yoshinkan Hombu | 5 teachers | October 1967 |
| 47 | Aikido Yoshinkan | 200 spectators | May 1968 |
If the distinction between the Kodokai’s Eimeiroku and their Fumetsu no Aiki are obscure to some, let me offer an illustration. Some years ago, I visited Tobin Threadgill. Threadgill sensei is headmaster of the Takamura-ha Shindō Yoshin-ryū. I observed a class in his personal dōjō. After the class, his students asked if I would show something of Araki-ryū. I crossed bokken with several people so they could feel the essential quality of my art, and also showed several torite kata (attacks on a person with a knife on his belt, enacted on a willing member of the dōjō), in which tori, using a combination of grappling and atemijutsu, ‘wins’ the fight. At the end of my visit, were I to have followed the custom of the Kodokai, I would have pulled out my (hypothetical) ‘Fumetsu no Araki-ryū’ and the entry would read, “Visited TSYR dōjō of Toby Threadgill sensei, and presented a small portion of Araki-ryū to TT sensei, assembled students and guests.” Were Threadgill sensei also to follow this custom, he’d have signed and hanko’d the entry.
This is the equivalent of a diary entry; within the cultural context of Japan, Threadgill sensei would be certifying that my memory is true. Thereafter, in my dotage, when I showed this entry to my students, they could ask, “Tell us about Threadgill sensei? What was it like visiting him?” In this sense, it is an aide-mémoire.
The Memories of Inoue Kyoichi
Inoue Kyoichi was perhaps Shioda Gozo’s closest student. After Shioda’s death and a near lifetime in the Yoshinkan, Inoue separated from that organization in 2006, starting his own training group. Inoue sensei focused for most of his career in teaching techniques centering around kokyu-ryoku (breath-power techniques), which, in Yoshinkan, fall under the rubric of those which manifest a sharp, explosive force. Shioda was famed for these techniques, as was Ueshiba Morihei in the pre-war period. In his latter years, however, Inoue sensei also taught nuki (emptying or draining) techniques, where there is minimal footwork and small movements that, nonetheless, cause a big movement in one’s partner. Ueshiba was also described by his students as manifesting these techniques, and Shioda was well-known for exhibiting them in his later years. It is a version of these techniques, in fact, that the partisans of the Kodokai claim as their specialty.
At my request, in 2011, Lance Gatling (within his very impressive resume, Gatling was a student of Inoue’s), showed him the above photograph without, initially, asking him any questions about it. He wrote to me:
He knew the photo immediately. He said, “The Yagyukai regularly rented space from the Yoshinkan, arranged by Furuta-san. They had some relationship with Horikawa-sensei, and invited him to visit them when he was in Tokyo. Since he was in the Yoshinkan, they arranged a courtesy call on Shioda-sensei, and this is the photograph. Shioda-sensei invited Horikawa-sensei onto the mat to demonstrate his art, and therein Horikawa-sensei demonstrated Daitō-ryū."
Gatling asked Inoue what Horikawa’s technique was like. Gatling reported,
He said it was like Yoshinkan aikidō, except that Horikawa-sensei performed it in a very compressed space, like a single tatami.
In other words, rather than something new or previously unknown, Inoue sensei is recalling a particularly refined version of something that was familiar to him.
Then and only then, Gatling asked about the legend that Horikawa was at the Yoshinkan for an extended time, teaching behind closed doors, conveyed in a limo. Gatling wrote,
According to Inoue-sensei, there was only a single visit with Yoshinkan aikidō practitioners present, and it was ad hoc, not a seminar. It was sort of a courtesy, based on of a spur-of-the-moment invitation on the part of Shioda kancho.
Inoue sensei did not mention 2nd occasion that Horikawa and Shioda were in each other’s presence, the May 18th, 1968 enbukai.
Was This Photograph a Record of an Actual Yagyukai Event?
Why in the photograph, do we see Ishida Kazuto and Furuta Tsumigi? Furuta Tsumigi was the kanji (‘coordinator’ 幹事) of the Tokyo branch of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryū’s ‘Yagyukai.’ Essentially, he oversaw administrative duties for the Yagyukai. He was also a member of the Yoshinkan.
Ishida Kazuto was quite a prestigious individual, the fifth postwar Chief Justice of the Japanese Supreme Court. He was the president of the Kendō Renmei, and soke of Ittō Shoden Mutō-ryū (一刀正伝無刀流) He was also the 18th soke of a line of Hozoin-ryū Takada-ha sōjutsu (宝蔵院流高田派槍術). Germane to our discussion, he was a student of Horikawa Kodo when he was a student at Tokyo University. Finally, this eminent man was also a sewanin (‘adjunct sponsor’) of Shinkage-ryū’s Tokyo Branch of the Yagyukai. Please note that neither he nor Furuta (also a seiwanin) were formal students; Ishida, both a prominent judge and budōka, occasionally attended Yagyukai events and practices, and through his good auspices, supported them, something quite common in 20th century Japanese budōIn fact, Ueshiba Morihei’s career from the late-1920’s, could be described as a trajectory from one eminent sponsor to another. Seiwanin could be regarded as similar to members of a ‘board of directors’ in a corporation.
The Yagyukai was founded in 1955. They did not, however, originally practice Yagyu Shinkage-ryū; rather, Yagyu Toshinaga would teach Yagyu Seigo-ryū battō, an adjunct system of drawing-cutting-returning the sword to the scabbard, as well as lecture on various matters. Toshinaga only instructed Yagyu Shinkage-ryū on a private basis to those he found worthy of teaching.
The Yagyukai actually began using the Yoshinkan during the era of Toshinaga’s successor, Yagyu Nobuharu. The impetus was a memorial service of Toshinaga, on one of the anniversaries of his death, for which Furuta arranged the use of the Yoshinkan for a honō-enbuA presentation of one’s art as an offering to kami or to the spirit of a deceased person.
Sometime after that, Nobuharu initiated teaching Yagyu Shinkage-ryū to members of the Yagyukai. Josh Reyer, a long-time member of the Yagyukai writes:
Once a month, the soke holds what we call a kodo (講道, lit. ‘lecture of the Way’), in which the students are instructed on the history of Shinkage-ryū, including kudensho, and other historical documents, followed by physical training.
Parenthetically, Shioda Gozo was known to occasionally drop by the Yagyukai kodo, and observeThis is something typical of Shioda sensei. Contemporary accounts describe him as a man very much committed to his own path, but very curious about that of others..
It would be quite understandable for Inoue Kyoichi sensei to assume that the visit was part of a Yagyukai function—forty years later, could he really be expected to remember exactly when the Yagyukai started renting the Yoshinkan?
What Does the Kodokai Have to Say?
Horikawa Kodo and Ishida Kazuto first met in July, 1938, at Tokyo University’s First High School gekiken (old kendō) summer camp, using a factory building of the Kusaka farm. Ishida came as the supervisor of the group and met Horikawa sensei during that time through the mediation of Kusaka Sainosuke (a direct student of the 4th headmaster of Ittō Shoden Mutō-ryū, Admiral Kusaka Ryūnosuke).
Horikawa sensei was a small man so the young university students laughed at him. However, when they attacked him, Horikawa threw them one after another. Ishida started a several year association with Horikawa. Thirty years later, Horikawa and Ishida started to exchange letters. In the August of 1967, Ishida visited Hokkaido, and had an emotional reunion with Horikawa on August 4th at the Onneyu Hotel. Bringing thirteen of his students, Horikawa welcomed Ishida, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with a demonstration of Daitō-ryū. Ishida returned to Tokyo and contacted fourteen students of the 1938 Gekkiken Summer Camp (who survived the war) and invited Horikawa to Tokyo. Horikawa and his wife Chieko then spent thirteen days in Tokyo in October of the same year.Hiden, 2019 June P. 22
It is my best guess that Ishida informed Furuta Tsumigi, his fellow seiwanin within the Yagyukai, that Horikawa, in his eyes, a remarkable budōka and former teacher, would be visiting. There has to be such a missing link, because otherwise, how would the Yoshinkan have been aware that Horikawa was visiting Tokyo? Is it not logical to assume that Furuta, a student of the related art of aikidō, would be interested? Furuta contacted the Yoshinkan and arranged for Horikawa to visit and thereby meet Shioda. Given that Shioda had studied Daitō-ryū with Ueshiba Morihei, is it any wonder that he would welcome a senior to his own teacher?
Upon direct inquiry to the Kodokai concerning this event, they forwarded an English translation of a portion of an interview with Inoue Yusuke, the successor to Horikawa, and another senior member, Shinbo Takeo, from Hiden Magazine, in order to represent their perspectiveAt the most significant points, they must rely on inference/interpretation; as I will write later, there are other possible interpretations. I will note that at the most significant points, they must rely on inference/interpretation—as I will write later, there are other possible interpretations:Hiden 2007 February, p. 24 The English translation of this article was provided by the Kodokai.
Q. Did Kodo sensei have an interaction with other martial arts or other branches of Daitō-ryū?Inoue: He was acquainted with Shioda Gozo sensei of the Yoshinkan.
Q: Is there any story about his meeting with Shioda Sensei.
Shinbo: When Shioda sensei and Kodo sensei met, the present kancho of Yoshinkan, Inoue Kyoichi sensei, and others were there. People were asked to leave, so only two of them were in the room. This is also mentioned in the 会誌 journal of the Yoshinkan. So, nobody knows what they did in that room. However, after Kodo sensei returned to Hokkaido, what he said about it was, “合気とはこういうものだ. Aiki is this,” and he showed various techniques. This is not known by the Yoshinkan people and Shioda sensei also never told it. At the moment, nobody except for us heard about it
Q: What did they do in detail?
Inoue: I don’t know exactly, but I can imagine. Most likely, he said, “This is the aiki of Daitō-ryū,” and let him grab his hand and showed it.
Shinbo: I think he showed that it’s possible to control the partner easily (effortlessly) like this. They couldn’t have been able to do that in front of the students.
Horikawa Kodo’s Enbukai of May 18th, 1968
As mentioned above, Horikawa Kodo visited the Yoshinkan a second time, this time presenting an enbukai of Daitō-ryū. As shown in the Fumetsu no Aiki, Horikawa Kodo gave successive demonstrations on May 18th, 1968 at the Yoshinkan headquarters in Yoyogi, and on May 19th, 1968 at the Nihon Budokan.
Concerning this event, here are extracts of an interview of April, 2021 undertaken at my request, between Jacques Payet and Shioda Yasuhisa (son of Shioda Gozo),
Payet - Was this demonstration a formal invitation from Yoshinkan to the Kodokai, or was the Kodokai merely renting the Yoshinkan Dōjō for the demonstration?Shioda Y. - I believe I was in my third year of high school or first year of college. Horikawa sensei called the Yoshinkan to ask if he could present an enbu at the (Sangubashi) Yoyogi dōjō, to which Shioda sensei agreed.
Horikawa sensei used his own uke, members of the Kodokai, and after the enbukai was finished, one of the Yoshinkan uchi-deshi (Komagata or Onishi), took ukemi for Horikawa sensei.
“He did a few locks on him.”
Suffice it to say that there are different memories as to the effectiveness of those techniques.
Shioda Yasuhisa recalls,
Afterwards, I think Horikawa sensei and Shioda Gozo chatted in the office on the second floor of the dōjō. I think I was in the next room, the room for the uchideshi. I remember an uchideshi was bringing tea to them.
Payet – “Was this just a demonstration, or was it also a day of training and teaching?”Shioda Y. - At the time, we were only having the demonstrations at the Yoshinkan Dōjō. There was no training or teaching involved.
Payet - Yasuhisa sensei, did you ever hear your father talking about this event? About Kodo-sensei, about Daitō-ryū, etc.
Shioda Y. – I was there when Horikawa sensei came. I heard many things about him at that time. In the office, I think they were talking about Ueshiba sensei, about aikidō.
What Was Ueshiba Doing? What Was He Showing?
Ueshiba had an agenda in public demonstrations from early on, somewhat at variance to the presentation of pure aiki, in the Daitō-ryū sense of the term. Therefore, is a perusal of extant films of Ueshiba truly the best way to evaluate all that he knew? Consider that with two exceptions, all of the films of Ueshiba were post-war.
This dilemma of uchi and soto is illustrated in the story of the famous presentation Ueshiba made at Kenkoku University in Manchukuo, in 1942, where Ohba Hideo gave Ueshiba an all-out attack, using all his high-level martial skills. This required Ueshiba to abandon his agenda of sketching out his goals in the air by means of Ohba’s ukemi and return, instead, to a fierce expression of aiki. It seems that Ueshiba wanted to present himself, even in early days, as almost a kami, a being who could manage formidable opponents effortlessly. He was able to manage Ohba’s all-out attacks, even without injuring him, but he had to act like an ordinary man, a trained fighter to do so. Ironically, it was that authenticity that impressed the brilliant Sonobe Hideō of Jikishinkage-ryū.
Takeda Sokaku taught different Daitō-ryū students with different emphases, even different aspects of this skill. It seems, for example, that although the Sagawa and Horikawa families lived in the same town, they did not train together, and were taught differently by Takeda Sokaku. Apparently, Ueshiba didn’t train with either of them. Therefore, it is definitely possible, even likely, that different people learned different aspects of Takeda’s overall martial art, and one man would possess some information that others did not—and vice versa.
Shioda studied Daitō-ryū with Ueshiba in the 1930’s for eight years (and, for what it’s worth, was possibly present during some of Takeda Sokaku’s visits, accompanied on at least one occasion by a young Sagawa Yukiyoshi). The famous sumō wrestler, Tenryū, a student of Ueshiba in the same period and close friend of Shioda, said that his aikidō, among all Ueshiba’s disciples, was closest to that of the founder. Interestingly, he stated this despite the marked differences in the way each manifested aikidō techniques as recorded on film. Obviously, he was discussing something far deeper than the angle of the feet when executing an arm-lock; rather, he was asserting that Shioda could manifest the gokui, the essence of what Ueshiba taught. Some outsiders claim that Shioda was able to manifest what Ueshiba could not, learned from another source, yet one of Ueshiba’s most attentive disciples, Tenryū, also a close personal friend and training partner of Shioda, said that they were doing the same thing.
Aiki seems to have at least two aspects—the ability to deliver a kind of shocking, ‘electric’ force to one’s opponent, as well as the ability to cause the opponent to fall without him knowing what happened . . . Shioda sensei possesses and manipulates both a strong, intense power and a light, mysterious power that makes you feel as if you’re grabbing onto a cloudStanley Pranin, ‘Interview with Takafumi Takeno’ Aiki News 99 (1994)
To ‘extract or pull out the opponent’s power’ requires that you ‘extract your own power,’ a secret that Shioda stated he got from Ueshiba. He says that it is vital that you keep the whole-body connection (from the big toes through your shoulder to your fingers). In keeping this connection you must extract or pull out your own powerPersonal communication from Yawata Tomō, a translation of Shioda’s Aikidō Shugyo.
Ueshiba Sensei always said, ‘You must enter the opponent, get inside him, and then draw him into you.Interview with Kamata Hisao by Laszlo Abel from the March 1984 edition of the Japan Martial Arts Society Newsletter
A research associate of mine, Yawata Tomō, who studied both Yoshinkan Aikidō and Okamoto Seigo’s version of Daitō-ryū, wrote to me:
Okamoto sensei detailed me about how to discern whether a person really applied aiki to the opponent or whether it was something different. He stated that when an opponent had aiki applied to him, in most cases (I remember him saying 70% or something like that), his knees would begin to tremble, as he would instantly lose power in the knee. Furthermore, his heels would begin to rise so that he would be standing on his toes. I’ve since thought that the above description is probably only one side of aiki, unique to Kodokai. Nonetheless, it is interesting is that in films of the Yoshinkan black belt seminars, Shioda displays very ‘Kodokai-esque’ techniques. These seminars began in 1978 (this is officially stated in Yoshinkan history). Those seminars were very unlike what Shioda had previously displayed (and certainly very different from typical Yoshinkan), given that he always emphasized the basics in public demonstrations.
Evidence That There Was Something Missing—Or At Least, Hard To Find
Among the many post 1950 students of Ueshiba Morihei was one who was utterly inspired by Ueshiba, yet found something missingThis information was given to me in confidence—I am welcome to write as I have, but not reveal the individual whom I am describing.. Of the skills we have been discussing, this man felt that, although Ueshiba was undeniably remarkable, he not only did not teach them explicitly—he apparently hid his tracks so well, that there was nothing left to ‘steal.’In Dueling with O-sensei, I described Ueshiba as erasing his footsteps behind him in the snow as he walked. Of Ueshiba’s senior students, Tohei Koichi was, in his view, second to him in skill and power, but he stated that Tohei only manifested a portion of what Ueshiba occasionally allowed him (my informant) to glimpse.
The man, therefore, eventually associated himself with a high-ranking practitioner of Daitō-ryū, and afterwards, began to emphasize the famous aiki-sage/aiki-age that Horikawa, among others made so central. In addition, he incorporated a number of exercises, most of which a Daitō-ryū practitioner would find very familiar: strength building exercises and others that ‘make it possible to do aikidō effectively.’ This man does not regard himself as doing Daitō-ryū; he defines himself as an aikidōka, following Ueshiba Morihei’s legacy. He believes however, that without returning to the ground from which Ueshiba emerged, he would never understand how Ueshiba came to his final approach to his martial art.
Remember, Ueshiba founded his latter-day spiritual practices on kotodama. It is fair to say that Ueshiba’s post-war version of aikidō (beginning to evolve in this direction in the 1930’s) was a physical inscribing of kotodama in space, with himself the brush and his uke the ink. As most clearly exemplified in his aikijō forms, he was doing kagura-mae (a sacred rite, an offering to kami, that had the subsidiary value of being an exemplary martial practice, at least in his hands). He only used the elements of Daitō-ryū aiki that enabled him to achieve this, creating a truly ‘circum-scribed’ art.For a more extensive analysis of Morihei's solo work, read this article on my website.
The question, therefore, is whether Shioda, who learned in the 1930’s, was in the same position as my informant, who trained in the 1950’s and 1960’s, or if he learned a more complete version of Daitō-ryū aiki directly from his teacher.
What Did Shioda Learn And From Whom Did He Learn It?
We are left with a couple of alternative explanations for Shioda manifesting skills that some recognize as similar to that of the Kodokai:
Scenario #1: One genius met another, and found commonality. Shioda Gozo learned Daitō-ryū from Ueshiba Morihei (and continued training with him, by the way, for a few years postwar when the name of Ueshiba’s art had been changed to aikidō). There are descriptions throughout Ueshiba’s history of him performing the method of aiki that Inoue Kyoichi referred to as nuki. Despite such descriptions—several of which I enumerated above—Ueshiba did not choose to exhibit them in his public demonstrations nor films. Shioda recognized the same techniques in his observation of—and perhaps physical contact with—Kodo Horikawa, and subsequently chose not only to exhibit them publicly, but attempted to teach them to his students in his ‘black belt seminars.’
Any disinterested observer can see Shioda a) demonstrating a remarkable level of skill b) meticulously striving to teach these techniques, so at variance to the basic level of Yoshinkan Aikidō. He definitely succeeded in passing it onwards. Inoue Kyoichi was demonstrating similar skills in his last years,
and Chida Tsutomu, another senior student of Shioda, is demonstrating it today.
In Scenario #1, Shioda recognized in Horikawa something he had learned from Ueshiba, something that he then decided to present and teach more publicly from that point further. There would be no requirement for Shioda to have given Horikawa credit, because there was no credit to be given. On the other hand, he offered clear respect, (hence the publication of the photograph by the Yoshinkan).
Scenario #2 - One genius met another: Shioda Gozo, amazingly, could recognize and learn the essence of Kodokai aiki in a few moments. In this scenario, Shioda was a man of such brilliance that, through a single experience (likely a few demonstrations of aiki-age and aiki-sage while conferring together in an office for an hour or so), he recognized, understood and could execute Horikawa’s technique, making it his own. This would be truly remarkable, that Shioda, in a single meeting was able to discern the essence of this sophisticated version of aiki that is the Kodokai specialty.
In SCENARIO #2, we are saying, in essence, Ueshiba prepared fertile ground, a thorough education in Daitō-ryū, so that when Shioda experienced Horikawa’s unique expression of it, he ‘stole’ it, in the sense of realizing, “Oh, this is another way to express aiki.” Or perhaps, “So, this is what Ueshiba sensei was doing all these years that I never understood!” He wasn’t ‘taught,’ per se. He simply noticed, recognized, grasped and made it his own. Another way of regarding this is that Ueshiba Morihei taught Shioda 99% of Daitō-ryū. Either Shioda missed it the last 1%, Ueshiba left it out, or even, if one prefers, did not know it. This grounding, however, made it possible for Shioda to grasp this missing piece in a single momentBy the way, think of the genius this would require! There are people openly demonstrating Daitō-ryū gokui, others teaching different versions of aiki body mechanics – and their students, some of whom have been working for many years, have not achieve what Shioda did in a single informal meeting. Consider even within Shioda Gozo’s own ‘house’—although Shioda is trying hard in his Black Belt Seminars and his students are quite dedicated, they are finding it quite difficult to comprehend what he is doing..
Scenario #3 – Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Shadows! The third alternative is that there was a conspiracy, secret meetings like a masonic cabal at midnight, dark limousines driven down dark rain-swept streets, and an elderly man ushered by minions into closed-door sessions where he taught Shioda the secrets that he never learned after forty years as a disciple of Ueshiba. For this scenario, there has been years of innuendo—and even confabulation—but not one scintilla of evidence.
What’s the Point of All of This?
I must confess that in revising this essay, originally published several years ago, I asked those questions myself. I have a mountain of writing to do, training goals to accomplish, and life is short. Why waste any further time on this issue, seconded by partisans with various agendas, often voiced with heat, even accusation or anger? Part of this can be ascribed to my own quirks of personality. When I see an inconsistency in a shibboleth, I feel compelled to track it down.
Some might take a perspective that this is a trivial issue; almost all the concerned parties are dead, and this is irrelevant to anyone’s current training so, in a post-modern sense, people can say, “It is my truth.” At least as far as their own students, as well as those they influence, it soon becomes ‘The Truth.’ However, I regard it as a ‘Red Guard’ approach, that nothing is lost when one fabricates, alters, imagines or erases history. I currently live in a nation where sloppy research, unfounded accusations and internet rumors are a means of gaining social capital. If one does not question unfounded claims, and enough people believe them, they become the new dominant myth. Therefore, the application of ‘Occam’s razor’ to historical claims, particularly concerning the martial art we are training is, in my view, worthwhile.
The second issue concerns one of the hallmark qualities that should be inherent in studying a traditional Japanese martial art—respect. A claim that Ueshiba Morihei was inept in what should have been the essence of his martial art, that Shioda Gozo secretly went behind his teacher’s back and learned something elsewhere and then lied about it, is either the truth or it is a slander. There is no middle position—it is one or the other. It holds both Ueshiba and Shioda up to contempt. I believe one should watch one’s words in cases like this, unless the evidence is clear.
The bottom line:
- All people still alive who witnessed the visit of Horikawa Kodo to the Yoshinkan state that there was not two weeks of secret classes behind closed doors, only two visits.
- Shioda did not sign Horikawa’s Eimeiroku, he signed another document that records contact, not a teacher/student relationship.
- The first visit included Horikawa informally presenting a few techniques and then, Horikawa and Shioda going behind closed doors to ‘compare notes’ – the interpretation of this is up to the inclinations (or prejudices) of the reader.
- The second was a public enbu in front of several hundred people.
As for me, I find both of the above scenarios, #1 and #2, equally plausible. Both redound to the credit of Ueshiba, Horikawa, but most of all, to Shioda Gozo.
If anyone can prove otherwise, through evidence, anything in this essay, contact me directly. I absolutely promise that I will rewrite this essay in congruence with the facts. Otherwise...
My thanks to Inoue Kyoichi, Shioda Yasuhisa and Jacques Payet of the Yoshinkan, researchers Lance Gatling, Tomō Yawata and to the Kodokai for the information they so graciously and openly provided.
