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Daitō-ryū aiki-jūjutsu (大東流合気柔術), originally called Daito-ryū jujutsu (大東流柔術), is a Japanese martial art that first became widely known in the early 20th century under the headmastership of Sokaku Takeda (武田 惣角 Takeda Sōkaku). Takeda had extensive training in several martial arts (including Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryu and sumo) and referred to the style he taught as Daito-ryū. Although the ryū's traditions claim to extend back centuries in Japanese history there are no known extant records regarding the ryū before Sokaku Takeda. Whether he is regarded as the restorer or founder of the art, the known history of Daito-ryū begins with Sokaku Takeda. Perhaps the most famous student of Sokaku Takeda was Morihei Ueshiba (植芝 盛平 Ueshiba Morihei), founder of aikido. Sokaku Takeda's third son, Tokimune Takeda, became the headmaster of the art following the death of Sokaku Takeda in 1943. Tokimune Takeda taught what he called Daito Ryu Aikibudo, an art that included the sword techniques of the Ono-ha Itto-ryu along with the traditional techniques of Daito-ryū aiki-jujutsu. It was also under Tokimune Takeda's headmastership that modern dan rankings were first created and awarded to students. Tokimune Takeda died in 1993 leaving no official successor, but a few of his high ranking students such as Katsuyuki Kondo and Shigemitsu Kato now head their own Daito-ryū aiki-jujutsu organizations.
Organizations and Important Personages Currently, the aiki-jujutsu organizations that can verify their teaching lineage directly to Sokaku Takeda can be traced back to the teachings of one of four teachers under the first headmaster; Tokimune Takeda (the second headmaster), Yoshiyuki Sagawa (an outstanding early student of Sokaku's), Takuma Hisa (the highest ranking student of Sokaku) and Kodo Horikawa (a talented innovator in the art). The Tokimune Branch There are two main groups which have sought to maintain the teachings of the second verifiable headmaster of Daito-ryu, Tokimune Takeda. The first is represented by Katsuyuki Kondo who began his training under Tsunejiro Hosono, then continued with Kotaro Yoshida for a time before being introduced to Sokaku's son. On the basis of the high level teaching licenses he was granted by Tokimune his followers represent his school as the Daito-ryu "mainline" and he has much support in the martial arts community for this. Kondo has done much to increase the visibility of the art by hosting seminars both in Tokyo and abroad, especially the United States. The other main group of students who represent the teachings of Tokimune are represented by long time students and teachers from Tokimune's original Daitokan headquarters in Hokkaido, Shigemitsu Kato and Gunpachi Arisawa. Their organization is called the Nihon Daito-ryu Aikibudo Daitokai. They maintain a smaller organization in Hokkaido with strong connections to practitioners in Europe, especially Italy. The Hisa Branch The second major group is represented by students of the Takuma Hisa (1896-1980). His students banded together and founded the Takumakai. Interestingly, they have a wealth of materials in the form of film, and still photographs, taken at the Asahi Newspaper dojo, recording the Daito-ryu techniques taught to them, first by Morihei Ueshiba and then later by Takeda Sokaku directly. One of their major training manuals called the Soden features techniques taught to them by both teachers. The Takumakai represents the second largest organization and made a move in the 1980s to impliment the kata for teaching the fundamentals of the art established Tokimune Takeda spearheaded by Shogen Okayabayshi, who was sent by the elderly Hisa to train under the headmaster. This move upset some preservers of Hisa's original teaching method leading to the formation of a new organization called the Daibukan, founded by a long term student of Hisa, Kenkichi Ohgami. Later, in order to implement greater changes to the curriculum Okabayashi himself chose to separate from the Takumakai and formed the Hakuho-ryu. The Horikawa Branch The Kodokai was founded by students of Kodo Horikawa (1894-1980), whose distinctive interpretation of 'aiki' movements can be seen in the movements of his students. The Kodokai is currently headed in Hokkaido by Yusuke Inoue. There are two major teachers who branched off from the Kodokai to establish their own traditions the first was Seigo Okamoto who founded the Daito-ryu Roppokai, whose own interpretation of aiki and minimal movement throws have proved very popular and has a great following abroad, especially in Germany. The other much smaller group was that of Katsumi Yonezawa (1937-1999) who founded his own organization, the Bukuyokan, and awarded a considerable number of licenses to students in America while still a senior teacher at the Kodokai. The Bokuyokan is currently run by his son Hiromitsu Yonezawa from Hokkaido with a small following in the U.S. The Sagawa Branch The last major group consists of students of Yukiyoshi Sagawa Yukiyoshi(1902-1998) who was once considered to be the successor to Sokaku Takeda should Tokimune be unable to survive the war. Sagawa, an extremely conservative teacher, ran only a single dojo and taught a relatively small number of students. He began studying Daito-ryu under Sokaku Takeda in 1914 after earlier learning from his father who was also a student of Sokaku. Kimura Tatsuo, a mathematics professor at Tsukuba University and a senior student of Sagawa, runs a small aikijujutsu study group there. He has also written two books about his training under the Sagawa; Transparent Power and Discovering Aiki. Related Arts There are a number of martial arts in addition to aikido which appear or claim to descend from the art of Daito-ryu or the teachings of Takeda Sokaku. Among them is the Korean martial art of hapkido founded by Choi Yong Sul, who made unverified claims to have trained under Takeda Sokaku, Hakko Ryu founded by Okuyama Yoshiharu who trained under Takeda, Nippon Shorinji Kempo founded by Nakano Michiomi (So Doshin) who is known to have trained under Okuyama. Several other modern schools of aikijutsu such as Yamate-Ryu, Takeda-Ryu and Nami-Ryu also claim a connection to Takeda. The term aiki-jujutsu (variations aikijujutsu and aikijutsu) in a number of cases have been adopted by newly synthesized martial arts and refer to aikido techniques performed in a harder manner. See hard and soft (martial arts). Classification of Techniques | ||||||||
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