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Receiving
the Tenth Dan
Tohei Sensei:
I was the first one to be officially promoted to tenth dan. Originally
eighth dan was the highest rank, but Gozo Shioda of the Yoshinkan started
promoting a lot of people. Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Mr. Osawa decided it
would help to more firmly establish the Hombu Dojo if we created a ninth
dan, which they offered to me. I told them that I thought it unnecessary to
create any rankings higher than what we already had, but they insisted that
it would help strengthen the Hombu Dojo, so I eventually agreed. We
celebrated the new rank in the Ginza
entertainment district.
Both Gozo Shioda and
Kenji Tomiki were there.
While I was away in
the United States,
however, five other people were also promoted to ninth dan, and they tried
to keep the fact a secret from me. I figured there was nothing to be done
about it—such things were bound to happen with a teacher like that—and I
decided not to worry about it.
When I arrived back in
Tokyo I was
surprised to find Ueshiba Sensei waiting to greet me at the airport—the one
and only time he ever did anything like that. When we arrived home he got
me to have a few drinks and after a while I was smiling and starting to get
jolly. He seemed pleased with that and even got up to do a kind of
traditional dancing that amused him. All of this, of course, was because he
thought I might be upset that he had promoted five other people to ninth
dan after telling me I would be the only one. It put him in good spirits
again when he saw that I wasn’t really upset about it.
Two or three days
later he started asking me to accept tenth dan. I said, "Sensei,
please don’t ask me to do that. If you make me a tenth dan I’ll never hear
the end of it!" He agreed to my request and so I remained a ninth dan
for the time being. About three years later, however, right before the
cancer took him, he asked me again. He said to me, "Koichi-San, please
accept the tenth dan." I felt obliged to agree because it would have
been disrespectful to refuse any longer and make him beg me to accept it.
It didn’t take long
before there were people saying that I wasn’t the only one to have received
tenth dan. To avoid the trouble I offered to return the rank, but Mr. Osawa
intervened and had the number "1" entered on my certificate to
verify that it, and not the others, was official. There was also a big
party at the Akasaka Prince Hotel to celebrate the promotion.
Until I separated from
the Aikikai no one else assumed the rank of tenth dan, but as soon as I
left everyone started claiming it.
A.J: You said that when you started
basing your teaching on the principles of ki O-Sensei was jealous and told
everyone not to listen to you. On the other hand, he promoted you to tenth
dan. What were his intentions in doing so? Was he recognizing you or not?
Tohei Sensei:
I think he recognized and accepted me. He was well aware that there was no
one to equal me then, and he probably felt that if he didn’t promote me he
wouldn’t be able to promote the others. But because he had that child-like
quality, he couldn’t wait and went ahead and did it anyway.
A.J: How did Kisshomaru (present
Aikido Doshu) view the issue?
Tohei Sensei:
Kisshomaru originally intended to maintain a certain distance from aikido.
He said, "My father and people like Mr. Tohei have come into this
world to do aikido. Although I have been born into this family and its
attendant roles, I would much prefer a house on a hill from which I can to
go to work in the morning and return in the evening." He had hoped to
take a more administrative role as a general director of the organization,
rather than be a center of the teachings. When Ueshiba Sensei passed away,
Mr. Nao Sonoda came up with a proposal to make Kisshomaru the general
director and me the Second Doshu. However, Ueshiba Sensei had asked me to
do what I could for Kisshomaru, so I made every effort to see that he
assumed a role that put him as the center of both the teachings and the
administration, which is how it eventually worked out.
I was privileged to be
at Sensei’s side during his last hours. He said to me, "Koichi-San, is
that you? I want to ask you to please do what you can for my son." I
replied that as long as I had anything to do with it he had nothing to
worry about. "That’s good... I ask it of you," he said and closed
his eyes. Shortly thereafter he drew his last breath.
Mr. Sonoda suggested
many times that I should become Doshu (Instructor-in-Charge), but I was
determined to keep my promise. To allow Kisshomaru to assume a stable role
I pushed the idea that he should be both Doshu and managing director. He
expressed his gratitude for my efforts then, but about a year later, his
attitude changed. It was right about that time that he went to the United
States and started taking my picture off the dojo walls there...
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