Aikido
The founder of Aikido is Morihei Ueshiba, he was
born in 1883 and passed away in 1969. Ueshiba is often referred to as O-Sensei,
meaning, Great Teacher. In his youth he watched his father take some bad beatings
and decided he would learn the martial arts so this would never happen again.
He studied several styles and became quite good at them. He knew there was more
to the arts than strength and beating people up, so he immersed himself in
religious and philosophical studies.
Once he was approached by an arm soldier and with
the rifle pointing at him, he started to really reach enlightment. He states he
could feel the soldiers finger on the trigger, the trigger being pulled, and
the flash of gunpowder; he disarmed the soldier with ease. Then a naval officer
came to study kendo with Ueshiba, an argument rose and the officer attacked
Ueshiba with his wooden sword, once again he could see the moves before they
happened, after many attempts the naval officer slumped over with exhaustion
and shame. Ueshiba went in his garden and at this moment he reached
enlightment. In the book Akido by, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, these events
are explained in more detail.
Ueshiba later wrote: "Budo (the martial way) is
not felling the opponent by our force; not is it a tool to lead the world into
destruction with arms. True budo is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep
the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect, and cultivate all things in
nature."
I have had the pleasure of watching a lot of footage
of Ueshiba, in his younger days and in old age, his skills are nothing short of
remarkable and give me a personal drive to reach such a great level, not only
as a martial artist, but as a human being as well.
Some
Aikido links:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~aikido/aikihist.html
http://www.aikido-international.org/
http://www.usaikifed.com/