Aikido was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (pictured right), he is primariliy responsible for how we read about the history of Aikido today. Aikido history is important for all practitioners to understand as it gives a basis of its philosophies and theories.
Ueshiba was born 14th December, 1883 in Japan in a town called Tanabe. His parents were farmers and he was one of their five children.
The History of Aikido
When Ueshiba was a young boy, it was a regular occurance that he would witness his father being beaten up by local political activists. Due to this he wanted to make himself stronger as a person in both mind and body and he decided to commit himself to serious levels of physical conditioning and learning Martial Arts so that he could defend his family and himself as he grew elder. As he developed, he received awards in Ju Jutsu, fencing and spear fighting.
Despite his training and immense fighting capabilities, he still felt inadequate about his techniques and performance as a fighter. For this reason he began learning religious readings in the hope of reaching a point where he could find a deeper significance to life. In this combination of religious philosophies and technical Martial Arts theories, he founded a new style of Martial Arts, Aikido. Throught the history of Aikido he changed its name twice. It was first named Aikibudo, and then Aikunomicihi.
Aikido History - Technical
Technically, Aikido has its roots from a range of Ju Jutsu styles (also from which the style of Judo was also taken from). Most significantly, the Ju Jutsu style of Daitoryu-(Aiki), as well as sword and spear fighting arts. Looking at the core elements of Aikido history, its is clear that it takes many techniques from Ju Jutsu such as joint locks and throws. Throughout the history of Aikido, these have been combined with the body movements of sword and spear fighting. Although these are the elements which can be found in Aikido, it must be made very clear that much of the techniques in this style were created using by Ueshiba.
Aikido History - Religious
Looking at the religious aspects of the history of Aikido, Master Ueshiba was devoted to Omotokyo, a Japanese modern religion. Although these is no there is no world wide recognized philosophy of Aikido, there is instead, is actually a collection beliefs which are only more or less shared by Aikidoka (合気道家 - a term used for well known and respected Aikido practitioners). Anumber of examples are given below:
"Aikido is not a way to fight with or defeat enemies; it is a way to reconcile the world and make all human beings one family."
"The essence of aikido is the cultivation of ki [a vital force, internal power, mental/spiritual energy]."
"The secret of aikido is to become one with the universe."
"Aikido is primarily a way to achieve physical and psychological self-mastery."
"The body is the concrete unification of the physical and spiritual created by the universe."
Please read our Aikido philosophy page for more information on this. It is worth reading for a full understanding of the Aikido history.
