Morihei Ueshiba

(~ 1895-1969)
Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba was born at the end of last century in Japan in the ancient samurai way of Wakayama Prefecture. Morihei's father was a professional martial arts instructor. According to legend, Morihei childhood was sickly and painful, stung by ridicule of neighbors and sympathy to relatives. To avoid ridicule, he left home, determined to return only after the correct natural deficiencies to become stronger each and every person can win.
. To carry out its task Ueshiba chose martial arts and began to deal with them with admirable zeal and perseverance
. They say that he has studied many martial arts, including karate-do. In 13 years, Ueshiba started ju-jitsu under the guidance of Todzava Tokasoburo, mentor School Quito. On the advice of his teacher, he paid particular attention strength training, muscle strengthening weight lifting, push-ups and walking on his hands. Not satisfied with the initial knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu, . Ueshiba in search of the strongest masters walked the whole of Japan, . students remaining in those, . who were able to overcome, . acknowledge their secrets and then journeyed only after, . how to win the regular teacher,
. Parallel Ueshiba learned the secrets of Kendo (ken-jutsu) and fencing on the spears (co-jutsu), the famous wizard school Yagyu, Nakai Masakatsu. In the future, when creating aikido, the ability to master the sword and spear enriched complex techniques of this kind of fight.
In the midst of the Russian-Japanese war, Ueshiba, yielding to propaganda, voluntarily enlisted in the army and participated in battles on the plains of Manchuria. Back in 1905. home, he fell ill with encephalitis and spent several months on the brink between life and death. In the end, seasoned body won ailment - Ueshiba recovered. And once again began wandering in search of higher wisdom Kempo.
After 20-odd years after the start of wandering Morihei Ueshiba gained fame greatest specialist in the field of martial arts. During these years he learned as much as others can not learn and a lifetime. He could beat anyone, he also could not win one.
But his heart never gained rest. Ueshiba, . won a countless number of victories and capable of a few seconds to defeat almost any any number of unarmed and armed opponents, . Suddenly clearly realized, . that the purpose, . he once set himself and which was all those years - to become the most powerful and win each and every one - is nothing, . a bluff,
. Someday someone who will be stronger, with the age of victories required to replace the coming destruction, and a younger artist would deprive him of the meaning of life by taking away one thing for which he lived. He understood that victory does not benefit and happiness to him or others. So, PODB relative and even meaningless.
Having lost their previous beliefs and way of thinking, Ueshiba began to look for a new way. He who has seen before only in the martial arts combat and no more, he began to read philosophical treatises, seriously study Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto, knocking at the doors of known sages and the gates of the temples.
. In the end, Ueshiba had found what I was searching
. After painful deliberation and doubt, he discovered the truth: he must go the way of nature and love. And, combining certain elements known to him with a new philosophy of art, Ueshiba created a fundamentally new art. It stands apart in several other martial arts and is considered the most difficult of them. And he gave him the name of Aikido, which can be translated as "the path to harmony of spirit," comparing their child with a magic sword, which works wonders in the hands of a strong, but right
. Creating aikido, Ueshiba years to keep it secret, devoted to the mystery of "magic sword" only a select few
. And publicly announced its existence only in the first 50 years, believing that Aikido will open a new path of a broken and defeated people have lost faith and ideals on the verge of catastrophe. Ueshiba believed in the enormous potential of aikido, moreover, he wrote that it is not for a group of people, not for one nation, but for all mankind.
Then, in the fifties, aikido horrible in the U.S. and Europe. First in Japan published a book "The Way of Nature and Love in Aikido", written by the son of the master Kisomaru then Morihei himself with his son and student of Koichi Tohei first toured the U.S., Europe and Asia. He actively promoted the spread of aikido abroad - at his insistence, Tohei has opened several aykitsentrov in the U.S. and other students - in France, Italy, India, Burma and other countries. Aikido has acquired a considerable reputation both in Japan and abroad, and the Ueshiba for their work, which has been evaluated on merit, became a professor and honorary medal of his country.
Ueshiba Morihei died in 1969