Third Aikido Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba Inaugurated

by Stanley Pranin

TOKYO - Saturday, September 25, 1999 was surely one of the aikido world's most memorable events. I had the good fortune of being personally invited and I wanted to share with you my impressions of the evening's events while still fresh in my mind. The occasion was the inauguration as Third Doshu of Moriteru Ueshiba, son of former Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba. As most of you know, Moriteru Sensei's father passed away on January 4 of this year after having served in turn as aikido doshu since 1969 following the Founder's demise.

The luxurious Keio Plaza Hotel in bustling Shinjuku, a business district of Tokyo, was the site of the celebration. I showed up about an hour and fifteen minutes before the start of the party hoping to be among the first arrivals. To my surprise several hundred people had already gathered in the foyer below the banquet room. I immediately shifted into "greeting mode!"
At practically every turn I saw old friends and acquaintances I simply had to say hello to. It was both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time because most of the conversations lasted from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, maximum.

About a half hour after my arrival, the early guests were invited into a large waiting room with chairs and tables to relax prior to the commencement of the celebration. I opted to wait outside near the entrance to monitor the arrival of the guests since I wanted to make contact with as many people as possible. I also needed to see several teachers from abroad for whom I had prepared photos taken at the funeral of the Second Doshu in January.

At about 5:00 pm, the now huge crowd of well-wishers were invited to ascend the escalator up to the fourth floor to enter the large banquet hall where the party was to be held. I quickly entered hoping to stake out a suitable spot to stash my camera gear before the proceedings began. This proved to be a challenging undertaking because I literally had to push through the crowd to move about, all the while encountering friend after friend. Imagine walking into a room the size of a football field packed with people standing in close quarters. That was the scene inside!

Before I knew it, the announcement of the beginning of the festivities came and I found myself a city block away from the stage with my camera and tape recorder still in my case! This is a nightmare scenario for a journalist/cameraman and I quickly slipped into "panic mode!" I hastily excused myself from whomever it was I was speaking to and darted off. To get to where I wanted to be, I used the technique I had learned from the old farm ladies in Ibaragi Prefecture for negotiating crowds of charging forward churning my elbows back and forth while shouting in a loud whisper, "Sumimasen! Sumimasen!" After several minutes of dodging and weaving through the downfield opposition I finally ended up about 20 feet from the stage. I whipped out my camera and tape recorder and hastily tried to set up a base camp. The only place I could find for my recorder was on a table
full of food and silverware. As I was depositing my gear with a rattle on and underneath the table, an attractive middle-aged woman whom I didn't recognize whispered encouragingly, "Go at it, Stanley!" and I couldn't surpress a big smile. I started standing on my tiptoes and swaying back and forth as I fired off photo after photo. As I shifted to my left I bumped
into a tall, husky gentleman with a big grin on his face. By sheer coincidence I had positioned myself next to Katsuyuki Kondo Sensei of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, my long-time mentor and friend!

The lead-off speaker was Mr. Miyazaki of the board of directors of the Aikido Foundation, a long-time administrator and backer of the Hombu Dojo. He was followed by former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu who gave a rather long and amusing congratulatory speech peppered with anecdotes of his early training years in aikido. Sadateru Arikawa Sensei later told me the Mr. Kaifu was a member of the speech club of Waseda University and that was why he was such a good speaker. Prime Minister Kaifu was followed by the director of the Nippon Budokan and several political figures who offered their congratulations. The Ambassador of Poland, Jerzy Pomianoswski, also gave an excellent speech in English--I understood every word!--which was ably interpreted by Masaki Tani Sensei of the Aikikai. In his talk, the ambassador outlined the history of aikido in Eastern Europe, a topic of special interest to me as an aikido historian. He drew many laughs as he
hinted that he was spending more time than he should doing aikido in neglect of his official duties.

The new Doshu who had observed the proceedings while seated with his wife on the stage then rose to read a short, prepared speech as hundreds of camera flashes popped creating a veritable light show! This was followed by the "kampai undo" or official toast which proved to be the most amusing moment of the evening. Usually the speaker will offer brief words of praise
and lead everyone in a toast. However, this gentlemen forgot himself and went on for a long time as the room filled with some 2,200 guests stood, glass in hand, in anticipation of taking deep drink in the hot, stuffy banquet hall. This actually worked to my advantage as people started spontaneously shouting, "Kampai! Kampai!" interrupting the speaker as the hall erupted into laughter. Doshu smiled broadly and I used the opportunity to catch a big grin on his face for several shots.

After the presentation of flowers and a gift to the new Doshu and his wife, people began eating and chatting. I circulated about as best I could all the while bumping into literally scores of friends. I was asked by several senseis to take their photos and I have a long list of people to whom I need to send prints. I won't attempt to compile a list of all the dignitaries from the aikido and martial arts world present that day. I would surely leave out many key names. Suffice it to say, that it consisted of a Who's Who in aikido. It was, however, a pleasure to run into my teacher Morihiro Saito Sensei and his large entourage from Iwama, and Gaku Homma Sensei who had hosted us just the week before in Denver, Colorado, a continent away! This kind of thing happens all the time in the aikido world!

I personally felt that this event was not just about celebrating the new Doshu's official assumption of a leadership role. It was about celebrating the global aikido family and a reaffirmation of the roots and continuation of aikido as an international phenomenon. There was a real solidarity that was palpable as people who had formed bonds while training in their youths
had continued to maintain friendships throughout decades and now had begun to enter into their twilight years. I must confess I have been a part of this process as I have been a close-hand observer for 37 years!

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Forgive the brevity of this report. There is much more I could write but now I'm out the door to jet back to Los Angeles. I'll write again next week to report on the big Yoshinkan event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Till then!

If you have enjoyed this report, please forward it to your aikido friends and spread the word. Anyone wishing more to get more information about the publications and activities of Aikido Journal may e-mail ajmag@earthlink.net for more information.

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All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you.
Life itself is the truth, and this will never change.
Everything in heaven and earth breathes.
Breath is the thread that ties creation together.
When the myriad variations in the universal breath can be sensed,
the individual techniques of the Art of Peace are born.

- Morihei Ueshiba
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