Ueshiba Morihei’s Mysterious Scrolls Part 1: Aikijujutsu Mokuroku

In our previous series “Looking into the Secret Scrolls of Daito-ryu”, we investigated the technical evolution of Daito-ryu and its influence on Aikido. We saw that Daito-ryu probably started with Takeda Sokaku in 1899, and that there were two Daito-ryu Jujutsu scrolls from the beginning, hiden mokuroku, and hiden okugi.

Ueshiba Morihei enrolled in Daito-ryu fifteen years later in Hokkaido, and he received these two scrolls in 1916. In 1922, after Sokaku spent five months teaching at Morihei's first dojo, the Ueshiba Juku in Ayabe, Morihei was appointed kyoju-dairi (teaching representative) of Sokaku. During this period, the term "Aiki" was also incorporated into the name of the art.

Sokaku continued to develop his art, now known as Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, throughout his life, and it reached its ultimate seven-level curriculum in 1939, including new technical items such as goshinyo no te, nito-ryu, kaishaku soden, and kaiden. These technical groups were included in two subsequently created Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu scrolls hiokugi, and kaiden no koto.

In 1931, Ueshiba received additional instruction in Daito-ryu up to the goshinyo no te level, earning a certificate that represented the highest level of transmission in Daito-ryu at that time. This marked Morihei's last recorded training in Daito-ryu. Consequently, Sokaku’s later curriculum, including techniques involving two swords, kaishaku soden, and kaiden, mostl likely did not influence the development of Ueshiba's art. In 1939, Morihei’s earlier student, Hisa Takuma was awarded menkyo kaiden by Sokaku and thus received the aforementioned four (two jujutsu and two aikijujutsu) scrolls, amounting to the full transmission of the art.

Although Morihei did not receive the hiokugi and kaiden no koto Aikijujutsu scrolls, he did possess a mysterious scroll titled Aikijujutsu Mokuroku, the origin of which remains unknown. In this article, we will investigate this unusual Aikijujutsu scroll, examine its content, and explore what it reveals about the technical development of Daito-ryu and Aikido. Finally, we will speculate on the possible origin of this scroll.

Aikijujutsu Mokuroku Scroll

Ueshiba Morihei's Daito-ryu documents were first published in the chapter of Nihon Budo Zenshu (日本武道全集, Complete Works of Japanese Budo) that pertained to Aikijutsu in 1966, while Morihei was still alive (今村, 1966; 植芝, 1982; 守破離, 1981; 大宮, 1984). Later, in 1982, an updated version of the chapter was published in Nihon Budo Taikei (日本武道体系, The System of Japanese Budo) under the name of Ueshiba Kisshomaru, including pictures of Morihei’s hiden okugi and shinkage-ryu scrolls, which he received from Sokaku in 1916 and 1922, respectively. In earlier essays, we conducted a thorough study of these documents, specifically Morihei’s second Daito-ryu scroll, hiden okugi, and his certificate from 1922, which marks the birth of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu.

The last and most intriguing document in this collection is Ueshiba’s Aikijujutsu mokuroku. Unfortunately, there are no known pictures of the actual document and only a transcribed excerpt was published, spanning three consecutive pages.

Excerpt of the Aikijujutsu Catalog (合気柔術目録) from Nihon Budo Zenshu (日本武道全集) Vol 5. published in 1966. Translation is added in red and black for easier understanding of the content.

The scroll is titled Aikijujutsu Mokuroku (合気柔術目録) or "The Catalog of Aikijujutsu" techniques. The term "Aiki" only appears in the title and is not used in the technical explanations. The scroll shares many similarities to other Daito-ryu scrolls, such as the technical notes being arranged in two horizontal lines. Usually, two notes (items of the same number) describe one technique. The upper one describes the attack and the lower one the response. Some items (the first six and last two) denote offensive techniques, where tori initiates, written in single items. The scroll ends with the note “All of the above are Zatori Jujutsu 60 items” (以上座取柔術六十條) meaning that all techniques listed in the scroll are executed in a sitting position. The phrase “zatori jujutsu” also appears in the first Daito-ryu scroll, hiden mokuroku (Dobroka), ending the first section describing seated techniques in 22 items. Seated techniques are called zatori (座取) in Daito-ryu, however, in Aikido zagi (座技) or suwari-waza (座り技) became commonly used.

In the excerpt material published, only the technical notes are provided with no accompanying transition text, lineage, or any information about the date, location, and awardee.

Technical Content

Unlike other Daito-ryu scrolls, the techniques are systematically grouped according to attacks such as shomen-uchi, yokomen-uchi, kata-dori, ryokata-dori, sode-dori, muna-dori, kubishime, katate-dori and ryote-dori as noted in the illustration above. Most of the explanations end with one of these three phrases:

1. Squeeze the opponent’s wrist with two hands (敵の手首を両手にて絞込む事)
2. Hold the (opponent’s) hand with two hands to his side (敵手に両手を添て小脇に押込む事)
3. Turn the back of the (opponent’s) hand, bend it, and take (him) down (手甲を返し、折り倒す事)

These techniques can be identified as nikajo (nikyo), sankajo (sankyo), and kotegaeshi, respectively. For added clarity, in this article, we will use "nikajo" and "sankajo" to refer to the prewar techniques, while "nikyo" and "sankyo" will be used to describe their modern execution.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating Suwari-waza Nikyo, Sankyo, and Kotegaeshi. Screenshots from the 1935 film “Budo” recorded at the Asahi Newspaper Dojo, in Osaka, 1935 (uke: Yukawa Tsutomu).

The following table summarizes the attacks and techniques described in the scroll. There might be other interpretations, so please study the scroll for yourself.

Editor's note: As we showed previously, there was no standardized terminology for either Daito-ryu or Aikido before Takeda Tokimune and Ueshiba Kisshomaru formailized their respective systems, and there is therefore no particular reason for using one over the other, as they can both be considered as "modern" inventions. We have therefore opted to use a terminology that made use of terms used in the old scrolls, when available, or either of the new systems, depending on what we thought might be the easiest for the maximum number of people to understand.

Looking through the table of contents, what stands out is that the most fundamental technique, ikkajo, is not mentioned. Ikkajo is performed from shomen-uchi, munadori, and kata-dori attacks in the hiden mokuroku scroll. This scroll, however, seems to be a collection of more advanced jujutsu (joint locking) techniques such as nikkajo, sankajo and kote-gaeshi with some pinning variations compiled systematically for various attacks.

Nikajo (Nikyo)

Our earlier articles showed that although nikajo (nikyo in Aikido) techniques were taught during Sokaku's second introductory seminar (Dobroka) and thus considered to be part of basics, they are not actually described in either the first and second scroll (hiden mokuroku and hiden okugi, respectively). In contrast, this scroll, contains 13 nikajo techniques for all basic attacks, hence complementing quite nicely the content of other scrolls.
The scroll begins with shomen-uchi techniques, where it is tori that initiates the technique. It seems that Ueshiba Morihei favored this way of performing shomen-uchi training not only in his earlier but also in his later years. Item 1 reads as follows:

第一条 面を打ち、敵の手首を両手にて絞り込む事。
Item 1 Strike the head and squeeze the opponent’s hand with both of your hands.

Tori initiates with a strike to uke’s head. As uke blocks to protect his head, tori grabs uke’s wrist and squeezes it with two hands applying a nikajo wrist lock. We can see Morihei executing this technique in prewar footage, “Budo”, recorded at the Asahai Newspaper Dojo, Osaka, in 1935.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating Shomen-uchi Nikajo from sitting at the Asahi Newspaper dojo. Screenshots from the 1935 film titled “Budo”.

Tori immediately takes control of uke's wrist and the technique ends with the nikajo squeeze.

The pinning variation is described in item 4. After squeezing uke's wrist, tori turns his body and pins down uke while putting uke’s hand on the shoulder as it is demonstrated in the 1935 film.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating a pinning from Nikajo wrist lock. Screenshots from the 1935 film titled “Budo”.

It seems that in the prewar era, the nikajo lock for shomen-uchi was applied in the air halfway between the tori and uke. A similar execution of this technique appears in the Soden photo collection, Vol. 1. Ueshiba Morihei taught at the Asahi Newspaper dojo from 1934 to 1936 and the first five-volumes of Soden summarize the techniques Ueshiba taught there at that time (Erard, 2019).

Yoshimura Yoshiteru demonstrating Shomen-uchi Nikajo from sitting at the Asahi Newspaper dojo c. 1934. Pictures from Soden Vol 1.

Here again, we can see that the uke’s wrist is squeezed in the air. However, in this case, uke attacks first and tori responds by blocking the uke’s elbow and wrist. The scroll mentions two techniques in items 7 and 8, when the uke strikes first. These techniques are not written explicitly, however, the above nikajo technique could be one of them. Similar execution of nikajo can be observed in Daito-ryu schools that use Takeda Tokimune’s modern Aiki-budo curriculum.

Kotezume from the Nikajo series from the modern aiki-budo hiden mokuroku created by Takeda Tokimune. Tori responds to uke’s shomen attack, squeezes uke’s wrist with both hands in the air, and pins him to the ground.

This suggests that Ueshiba Morihei was taught in this way by Takeda Sokaku, however, he later modified the technique in a way where tori locks the back of uke’s hand on his chest. The earliest record of Morihei executing shomen-uchi nikajo this way is from the 1938 “Budo” technical manual thus the change could have happened in the 1930's (Ueshiba, 1938).

Left: Shioda Gozo, a prewar student of the Founder, demonstrating Nikajo wrist lock in the air. Right: Ueshiba Morihei’s Shomen-uchi Nikajo from the Budo technical manual from 1938. Here, the Founder locks the back of uke's hand to his chest. Note that Morihei’s stepping on the uke’s foot with his right foot.

Locking uke's wrist to the chest provides better control and leverage for the tori and this way became standard in Aikikai Aikido. Yoshinkan Aikido, on the other hand, continues using the above-mentioned old form of shomen-uchi nikajo, which maintains a larger distance between tori and uke.

Item 9 to 11 describe nikajo with two pinning variations from kata-dori (shoulder grab) that can be found in both the Soden and Noma Dojo photo collections.

Kata-dori Nikajo (on the left) and pinning the uke facing downwards (on the right). Pictures from Soden Vol. 1.

As it is described in item 9, tori executes an atemi to uke’s face and squeezes uke’s hand with both hands applying a nikajo lock. Note that uke’s hand stays attached to tori’s shoulder. In item 10, in addition, tori turns his body and pins down uke. Furthermore, item 11, describes a pinning variation when tori places both of the uke’s hands on the uke’s back.

Shirata Rinjiro, a pre-war student of the Founder, demonstrating a pinning variation by placing both of his opponent’s arms on the back. (Stevens, 1984)

This variation was probably an arresting technique for subduing and binding a suspect.

There are nikajo techniques from ryokata-dori (Item 14), sode-dori (Item 17), and muna-dori (Item 20) attacks. In these cases, similarly to kata-dori, nikajo is applied immediately at the point of contact using the shoulder, elbow, and chest respectively (and not in the air as it was for shomen-uchi). For these techniques, an additional pin-down of the opponent is not mentioned.

Nikajo from ryokata-dori, sode-dori, and muna-dori attacks using the shoulder, elbow, and chest, demonstration by Yoshimura Yoshiteru, Shioda Gozo, and Ueshiba Morihei, from left to right.

There are two variations of nikajo described from katate-dori attack. In Item 24, tori grabs uke’s wrist with both hands and squeezes down. Similarly to shomen-uchi the nikajo lock is applied in the air and the technique is followed by a pin holding down the opponent.

Illustrations from Sunadomari Kanemoto’s Aikido Densho. Sunadomari studied with the founder from 1928 onwards.

In Item 25, tori grabs the back of uke’s hand with his right hand and uses his left tegatana (手刀, sword hand) to cut down uke’s wrist. Item 26, is an application of this technique from ryote-dori when tori raises both of his “sword hands” from outside and cuts down uke’s wrists.

Yoshimura Yoshiteru demonstrating nikajo from katate-dori and ryote-dori attacks using his “sword hand”. Pictures from Soden Vol. 1.

The final technique of the scroll seems to be a variation of an offensive technique item 4 from the hiden mokuroku scroll. In hiden mokuroku, tori and uke sit facing each other. Tori strikes uke’s eyes then grabs (the back of) uke’s right hand with the right hand, twists it to the left (like a one-handed ikkyo grab), and executes an atemi to uke’s body with the left hand. In addition, in item 30 of Aikijujutsu Mokuroku, tori, after executing the atemi, grabs uke's wrist with his left hand as well and squeezes it down (nikajo).

As we have seen so far, in Daito-ryu and early Aikido, the nikajo wrist lock is applied immediatelly; for shomen-uchi it is done in the air, and for grabs it sits at the point of contact using the shoulder, chest, hand, etc. In the postwar period, however, Morihei developed his techniques in a way that put more emphasis on taisabaki (体捌き, body movement) resulting in kuzushi (崩し, balance breaking) of the partner. For example, for shomen-uchi nikyo, similarly to the pre-war execution, he blocked ukes right wrist with both of his hands. However, he immediately opened his body to the side and broke his opponent’s posture forward. He then grabbed the back of the hand with the right hand and attached it to the chest to apply the nikyo lock.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating shomen-uchi nikyo in a sitting position. First, he blocks uke’s wrist with both hands, then opens his body to the side and breaks ukes balance forward. Then, he grabs the back of uke’s right hand with his right hand, attaches it to his chest, and applies the nikyo. At the bottom, the same lock from a different angle.

Later, it became standard to execute the initial balance breaking using an ikkyo ura turn when tori first controls uke’s elbow and then the wrist.

Ueshiba Kisshomaru demonstrating shomen-uchi nikyo in seated position. First breakes his partners balance with ikkyo ura turn, applies nikyo, and pinshis partner down. Screenshots from classes held at the Self-Defense Ministry in Tokyo's Akasaka c. 1957.

Nikyo can be executed this not only for shomen-uchi but for all attacks, hence making it easier for beginners to remember the basic curriculum (Ueshiba 2013). The instantaneous application of nikyo is still practiced in Aikido; however, it is not considered a basic technique but rather, a variation.

Sankajo (Sankyo)

As we showed earlier, in the hiden mokuroku scroll, the sankajo (sankyo in Aikido) wrist lock is always performed after going under the uke's arm (uchi-kaiten). This method doesn't require a change of hand position during the technique and was probably the most basic way of doing sankajo in Sokaku's early Daito-ryu curriculum. A sankajo version that include a change of grasp first appears in the second scroll, hiden okugi, thus it was likely considered to be a more advanced level of execution. The following pictures from Soden demonstrate the difference between these executions.

Two variations of kata-dori sankajo from Soden Vol. 3. On the left, passing under uke’s arm and on the right, changing grasp, as they appear on hiden mokuroku and hiden okugi scrolls, respectively.

In these pictures, uke grasps tori’s left shoulder with his right hand. On the left, tori grabs uke’s opposite (left) hand, goes under uke’s arm, and applies the Sankajo lock (hiden mokuroku way). On the right, tori grabs uke’s right hand from above with his right hand, removes uke’s grasp from the shoulder, and switches grasp to apply sankajo with the left hand. (hiden okugi way)

In the Aikijujutsu Mokuroku scroll all sankajo techniques follow the pattern of the later one.

Item 2 describes shomen-uchi sankajo, where tori initiates with a strike to uke's head. As uke blocks, tori grabs uke's hand with two hands, twists it to uke's side, and pins him down.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating shomen-uchi sankajo from sitting similarly as described in the scroll. Screenshots from the 1935 Asahi newspaper film “Budo”.

Shomen-uchi sankyo appears in Soden as well. However, just like for nikajo, uke starts with the shomen-uchi attack and tori applies the technique in response.

Shomen-uchi sankajo with pinning from Soden Vol 2.

This technique is probably one of Item 7 and 8, when uke attacks with Shomen-uchi but the response is not written explicitly.

Item 22 and 23 mention two variations of sankajo from kubishime (two-handed choke) attack. The variation described in Item 23 appears in Soden. Here, tori grabs the back of the uke's upper hand (with the right hand) and then switches to sakajo (with the left hand).

Kubishime sankajo from Soden Vol. 2.

There are sankajo techniques described in items 15, 18, and 28 for ryokata-dori, sode-dori, and ryote-dori attacks with a similar execution, however, we couldn’t find illustrations of these techniques dating from the prewar era.

As we have seen above, in the case of nikajo, in Daito-ryu and pre-war Aikido, the sankyo wrist lock was performed directly. However, in post-war Aikido, the techniques were systematized in a way where tori applies the wrist lock after breaking uke’s balance using the first few mevement sequences of ikkyo (omote or ura), making the distinction between omote and ura forms clear.

Ueshiba Morihei demonstrating shomen-uchi sankyo in seated position. First, breaking his partner’s balance with ikkyo then switching to sankyo. Here, Osensei pins down sankyo similarly as recorded in prewar pictures and footage. Screenshots from a 1955 film recorded at Osaka Aikikai.

Kote-gaeshi

Item 29 describes an offensive application of kote-gaeshi. Here, tori and uke sit facing each other. Tori strikes uke’s face then grabs the back of uke's right hand and twists it down. The same technique is described in item 12 of the hiden mokuroku scroll with different phrasing and the addition of an atemi at the end.

Seated technique from the Soden photo collection Vol. 5. taken c. 1936. Here, Yoshimura Yoshiteru (Kyoju Dairi) demonstrating a one-handed kotegaeshi wrist twist followed by an atemi to the opponent’s face similarly as it is described in the aikijutsu mokuroku and hiden mokuroku scrolls.

Kote-gaeshi described in items 12, 19, and 21 for kata-dori, sode-dori, and muna-dori attacks are the application of the above execution. In these cases, uke grabs tori’s shoulder, sleeve, and chest, respectively with one hand. In response, tori executes an atemi to the face and applies the kote-gaeshi wrist twist on uke’s other hand.

Kotegaeshi “on uke’s other hand” from muna-dori, sode-dori, and kata-dori attacks demonstrated by Kato Shigemitsu (student of Takeda Tokimune), Ueshiba Morihei, and Yoshimura Yoshiteru, respectively.

These variations of kote-gaeshi are still practiced in various Daito-ryu schools thus Ueshiba Morihei must have learned them directly from Sokaku. On the other hand, they disappeared from the post-war Aikido curriculum.
In item 13, in addition to the shoulder grab, uke strikes tori’s head with the opposite hand (kata-dori menuchi). In response, tori blocks the uke’s striking hand and applies kote-gaeshi on it.

Item 27 is kote-gaeshi from ryoto-dori attack. Ryote-dori kote-gaeshi is written in the hiden mokuroku scroll (item 8 of the zatori section) as well. In hiden mokuroku, tori claps his hands before executing the wrist twist. In aikijujutsu mokuroku, however, tori first frees his right hand and strikes uke’s head. Then, tori grabs the back of uke’s right hand and twists it down with both hands.

Illustration of Ryote-dori Kotegaeshi from Hayashima Masao’s Doka Aikijutsu book. Note that the atemi to the head mentioned in the aikijujutsu mokuroku scroll is not illustrated. (Hayashima, 1975)
Kata-dori menuchi and ryote-dori kote-gaeshi are practiced in modern Aikido but usually from standing position and with an addition of circular taisabaki (体捌き, body movement).

How many Items?

The number of items in the scroll is a little confusing. The scroll ends with the note that “All above are Zatori Jujutsu 60 items” (以上座取柔術六十條). The upper line counts up to 30, however, Items 7 and 8 are not written making it 28 items. The lower line from 9 to 28 has 20 items. Altogether 48 items are written explicitly in the scroll.

Wording of the scroll

Just like other Daito-ryu scrolls, all items start with an item number (e.g. 第一条 Item 1) and end with the character (事, matter). Yet there are a few phrases unique to this scroll. It uses the term “tenshin” (転身, body turn) numerous times, however, this word never appears on other Daito-ryu scrolls (Matsuda, 1978; 今村, 1966). In fact, this word is commonly used in modern Aikido terminology, referring to the step when tori enters and turns in front of uke.

Also, Daito-ryu scrolls mention various types of atemi such as thrusting the ribs or the solar plexus, and atemi to the opponent’s face is always described as “strike the eyes” (目隠しを打つ, mekakushi wo utsu). In this scroll, on the other hand, men-uchi (面打, head strike) is used frequently. In addition, in aikijutsu mokuroku, tegatana (手刀, sword hand) is mentioned however, it doesn’t appear in other Daito-ryu scrolls. Based on these differences in the writing style, the scroll was probably not dictated directly by Sokaku but was written by Ueshiba Morihei himself.

Possible Origin of the Scroll

Unfortunately, in the above-mentioned publications, the extract of the aikijujutsu mokuroku scroll is provided without transition text, lineage, or any information about the date, location, and awardee. Here, we would like to explore a few scenarios about its origin.

Since Aiki is included in the title it cannot be older than 1922, when Aiki was officially added to the name of the art. One possibility is that Ueshiba Morihei might have written the scroll at the request of Takeda Sokaku in 1922 to summarize the techniques that Sokaku taught in Ayabe at the Ueshiba Juku. In this scenario, the Daito-ryu lineage and Sokaku’s seal would have been put on the scroll.

If it is a Daito-ryu scroll, one might ask why Daito-ryu is not included in the title. Actually, the publication is not clear on this matter. Both Morihei’s certificate and the scroll are published on the same spread. Here, Daito-ryu is written in large characters on the right as the main title. The title of Morihei’s certificate and the Aikijujutsu mokuroku scroll are written in smaller letters as a kind of subtitles. We are sure, however, that the accurate title of the certificate is Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu hiden okugi no koto. Similarly, based on the arrangement of the text, we can expect that the full title of the scroll is Daito-ryu Aikijutsu Mokuroku.

Pages from Nihon Budo Zenshu (日本武道全集) Vol 5. published in 1966. The Daito-ryu title, the titles of Morihei’s certificate and scroll, and the content of the certificate are plotted in red, black, and blue, respectively.

In the above certificate that Morihei received in 1922, three technical items are listed:

• 118 kajo ura omote (百拾八ヶ条　裏表)
• Aiki no jutsu ura 30 kajo (合氣之術　裏参拾ヶ条)
• Hiden okugi 36 kajo ura omote (秘伝奧儀　参拾六ヶ条裏表)

118 kajo and hiden okugi 36 kajo correspond to the first and second Daito-ryu scrolls, hiden mokuroku and hiden okugi that Morihei received earlier in Hokkaido in 1916. The new technical item mentioned here for the first time is Aiki no jutsu 30 kajo. Interestingly, the item number in Morihei’s Aikijujutsu mokuroku also goes up to 30 suggesting that it could be created to correspond to the aiki no jutsu 30 kajo techniques mentioned in the certificate. It should be noted, however, that the technical content of the scroll is jujutsu (joint locking techniques), and Aiki is not mentioned in the technical notes.

If it was a Daito-ryu scroll, it would be reasonable to question why only Ueshiba Morihei received it. However, there are other Daito-ryu teachers who received unique scrolls from Sokaku. The following table summarizes the scrolls that Sokaku’s main students received.

Hiden mokuroku and hiden okugi are Daito-ryu Jujutsu scrolls, while hiokugi and kaiden no koto are Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu scrolls. In 1939, Hisa Takuma received these four scrolls as the full transmission of the art (Hisa, 1940; Erard, 2012).

Hisa Takuma’s four scrolls from top to bottom: Daito-ryu Jujutsu hiden mokuroku (大東流柔術秘傳目録), Hiden okugi no koto (秘傳奥儀之㕝), Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu hioku no koto (大東流合氣柔術秘奥儀の㕝), and Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu kaiden no koto (大東流合氣柔術皆傳の㕝).

Sagawa Yukiyoshi, who also received these four scrolls, was awarded two Daito-ryu weapon scrolls as well, in particularly on the useage of two swords and the spear (Matsuda, 1978). Horikawa Kodo was awarded four scrolls too; however, his fourth scroll was not kaiden no koto but a unique Aiki scroll mentioning 60 items of Aiki techniques (“大東流"合氣之術"幸道会が伝える「真実」”, 2019). Ueshiba Morihei also received a weapon scroll from Sokaku, however, it was not a Daito-ryu scroll but a Shinkage-ryu kenjutsu scroll (植芝, 1982).

Top left: Sagawa Yukiyoshi’s weapon scrolls titled Daito-ryu Aiki nito hiden no koto (大東流合氣二刀秘傳之㕝, Matters of Daito-ryu Aiki Secret Two Swords) and Daito-ryu Aiki sojutsu no koto (大東流合氣槍術秘傳之㕝, Matters of Daito-ryu Aiki Secret Spear Techniques). Bottom left: a segment of Horikawa Kodo’s Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Okugi (大東流合氣柔術奥儀, Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Inner Secrets) scroll declaring the content (total 60 items) as “inner secret aiki techniques”. The character of Aiki in the technical note is marked in red. On the right, Shinrikyo (進履橋) Shinkage-ryu scroll that Ueshiba Morihei received from Sokaku in 1922.

Since it is not unusual that a student of Sokaku would receive a unique scroll, it is possible that Sokaku awarded the (Daito-ryu) Aikijujutsu Mokuroku scroll only to Morihei in 1922, together with the certificate and Shinkage-ryu scroll.

Another possibility is that Daito-ryu is indeed not included in the title hence it is not a Daito-ryu scroll from Takeda Sokaku. In this scenario, Morihei could have created this scroll somewhere between 1922 and 1928, since we know that shortly after Sokaku left Ayabe, and until the early 1930's (Takeda's last visit to Ueshiba in Tokyo), Morihei stopped calling his art Daito-ryu and referred to it as Aikijujutsu only. For instance, in 1928, he started to use Aioi-ryu aikijujutsu as it can be traced by the scrolls he awarded to his students for at least the following decade (Erard, 2020).

On the left Aikijujutsu hiden mokuroku, on the right Aioi-ryu Aikijujutsu hiden mokuroku that Morihei issuied in 1925 and 1928, respectively. The technical content is identical to the first scroll Daito-ryu Jujutsu hiden mokuroku, only the title is modified.

As these documents show, in the prewar era, and on some occasions even after the war, Morihei awarded the first and second Daito-ryu Jujutsu scrolls to his students with modified titles including the term Aiki. On the other hand, he never awarded the Aikijujutsu mokuroku scroll to any of his students that we know of, even though it originally had Aiki in its title.

Aikijujutsu mokuroku counts as a valuable record of pre-war techniques that Morihei taught in the 1920s. Other documents from this era such as “Budo Renshu” and “Budo” are well known and studied. Aikijujutsu mokuroku, on the other hand, has remained forgotten to this day.

Summary

Ueshiba Morihei possessed a unique scroll titled “Aikijujutsu Mokuroku”, the contents of which were first published in 1966, while Morihei was still alive. The scroll systematically describes seated techniques of nikajo (nikyo), sankajo (sankyo), and kote-gaeshi for different types of attacks arranged systematically.

In Daito-ryu and prewar Aikido, nikajo and sankajo wrist locks were often applied immediately. However, in the postwar period, basic techniques were further developed. Now, tori breaks uke’s balance using an ikkyo omote or ura movement before applying the wristlock, clearly distinguishing between the omote and ura forms. The scroll also describes kote-gaeshi techniques where tori takes hold of uke’s non-attacking hand, a method that has since disappeared from modern Aikido but is still practiced in Daito-ryu circles.

The scroll follows the structure of other Daito-ryu scrolls, however, in the technical notes, there are phrases unseen in other scrolls suggesting that Ueshiba Morihei himself wrote it.
The published extract of the scroll doesn’t provide any information about the circumstances of the awardation. There are two possible scenarios: it could be a Daito-ryu scroll prepared by Morihei under Sokaku’s order and awarded alongside the certificate and Shinkage-ryu scroll in 1922, marking the birth of the art’s new name as Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. Alternatively, suppose it is not a Daito-ryu scroll. In that case, Morihei may have created it between 1922 and 1928, when he omitted the Daito-ryu name and referred to his art solely as Aikijujutsu.

Special thanks to Guillaume Erard for his help with the documentation and advice during the redaction of this article. Thank you to Josh Gold from Aikido Journal for letting us use their database. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to Nomoto Tadashi sensei for the useful discussion and the documents he provided for this research.

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