Master- Morihiro
Saito
Saito
Sensei 9th dan, was born on 31 March 1928,
was renowned as a superior
exponent and teacher of Aikido who dedicated his life to passing on the
Aikido taught to him by the founder, and in particular, the study of
its traditional weapon technique.
Saito Sensei was unique amongst
Aikido teachers to have spent 23 years in direct association with
O’Sensei which allowed him to gain a thorough understanding of the
interrelationship between taijutsu (body-art), ken (sword) and jo
(staff) practice.
Because of the excellence of his
teaching, his expansive knowledge of Aikido techniques and his unique
position as the only student to have spent such a long period training
with O’Sensei, particularly during the time when O’Sensei was
completing the formation of Aikido, people from around the world
travelled to the Iwama Dojo to learn directly from Saito Sensei. He
reciprocated, travelling regularly to many countries to give seminars.
Saito Sensei possessed an
encyclopaediac knowledge of Aikido forms and published many technical
books of Aikido techniques. On his many trips abroad he generously
allowed his techniques to be videotaped for further study, which still
today provides a unique resource to the many students around the world.
The practice at Iwama Dojo came
to be known by many students as “Iwama Style”. But Saito Sensei always
insisted that he was only teaching the Aikido forms which he had learnt
from O’Sensei. His view was proved to be correct with the discovery and
publication of O’Sensei’s 1938 manual, “Budo”.
A kind and gracious teacher,
Saito Sensei passed away on 13 May 2002 aged 74. Today his many
students are carrying on his legacy by continuing the practice of
O’Sensei’s Aikido. All senior instructors of the Takemusu Aiki
Association Inc in Australia have spent time studying in Iwama and are
long term students of Saito Sensei.
Publication of technical manuals
and foreign travels
Stanley Pranin, a student of
Saito Sensei, and publisher of the Aiki Journal and a number of Saito
Sensei’s technical books, wrote of his importance to the development of
modern Aikido practice, as follows:
“By the late 1950s, Saito Sensei
had become a powerhouse and one of the top shihan in the Aikikai
system, teaching regularly at the Iwama Dojo in Ueshiba’s absence. He
also began instructing on a weekly basis at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in
Tokyo starting in 1961 and was the only teacher besides the founder
himself to be permitted to teach aiki weapons there. His classes were
very popular and many Tokyo students would gather on Sunday mornings to
practice taijutsu and the aiki ken and jo with him. When the founder
passed away in April 1969, Saito became dojo-cho of the Iwama Dojo and
was also entrusted to take care of the Aiki Shrine Morihei Ueshiba had
built nearby.
It was the publication in 1973
of the first of what was to become a five-volume series of
Japanese-English technical books that established Saito Sensei’s
reputation as the foremost technician among aikido shihan. These
volumes contain hundreds of aiki techniques, including taijutsu, aiki
ken and jo, and kaeshiwaza. These technical manuals introduced a
classification system and nomenclature for aikido techniques that has
since achieved wide acceptance. In addition, instructional films were
offered to supplement the books and were enthusiastically received.
In 1974 Saito Sensei made his
first instructional trip abroad to the United States. I was present at
his Northern California seminars and remember vividly the amazement of
the participants at his encyclopaedic knowledge of aikido techniques.
This, coupled with his clear teaching method, replete with numerous
gestures, made the services of an interpreter almost unnecessary. Saito
Sensei traveled abroad more than 50 times in the intervening years and
had far more invitations than his time and energies [would]
permit.
Iwama: Mecca for foreign
practitioners
The popularity of his books and
his extensive foreign travels resulted in the Iwama Dojo becoming a
Mecca for foreign aikido students wishing to train intensively and gain
experience in the use of the aiki ken and jo. Over the years, literally
hundreds of aikidoka have journeyed from abroad, and often the foreign
practitioners outnumber their Japanese counterparts at the Iwama Dojo.
Perhaps the secret of Morihiro Saito Sensei’s success among foreign
enthusiasts is his unique approach to the art, a mixture of tradition
and innovation. On the one hand, he is totally committed to preserving
intact the legacy of techniques bequeathed by the founder. That is to
say, Saito Sensei views himself as providing a sense of continuity that
enables present-day practitioners to understand the origins of aikido.
At the same time, he displayed considerable creativity in ordering and
classifying the wealth of technical knowledge passed on by Morihei
Ueshiba so as to reveal its internal logic and facilitate its
transmission to future generations. The clarity of his instructional
methods was well received abroad.”
Saito Sensei’s legacy
Those of us who were his
students and had the pleasure of studying with him in Iwama cannot
forget Saito Sensei’s technical prowess, good humour, kindness and his
devotion to the memory of O’Sensei and his desire to preserve
O’Sensei’s Aikido for following generations.
Chiba Sensei 8th dan, Chairman
of the Teaching Committee of the USAF Western Region, who was an
uchi-deshi in Iwama in the 1950′s wrote in an elegy to Saito Sensei
that:
“As the generations continue to
shift, this particular history of Saito Sensei’s life tends to be
forgotten or ignored behind the official Aikido history as interpreted
by the official authority. This very private part of Aikido history –
his virtue, along with his family’s sacrifices – deserves to be
acknowledged with respect and gratitude and should be remembered for
generations to come. Writing a note such as this I feel is a part of my
responsibility as someone who witnessed this part of history with my
own eyes.”
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