Empty Hand by Kenei Mabuni

Author:Kenei Mabuni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palisander Verlag
Published: 2012-12-13T05:00:00+00:00

The “Superhuman Techniques” of Ueshiba Morihe

After his death Ueshiba Morihei (1883-1969), the founder of aikidō, was called “god of budō”. There is probably no other personality in the world of budō about whom more mysterious stories are told. Among the many heroic stories is the one about his fight against the famous sumō fighter Tenryū Saburō (1903-1989), who after resignation from Japanese sumō had gone to Manchuria to found his own style of sumō. It is said that even by applying all his energies he was not able to move Ueshiba Morihei even a little bit.

At another occasion master Ueshiba fought at the same time against several kendō masters who could not hit him with their bamboo swords even once.

Master Ueshiba was a close friend of master Konishi Yasuhiro from Tōkyō, who also helped me very much. Once, master Ueshiba met the outstanding boxer Tsuneo Piston109, Horiguchi (1914-1950) in master Konishi’s dōjō. He was said to have blocked a deadly punch by the boxer in with his little finger only and then brought him down to the ground.

Master Motobu Chōki (1871-1944), too, who was well known in real fight circles as “Motobu the monkey” (Motobu Sāru), had an encounter with the same boxer. He could block endless series of Horiguchi’s punches. Like master Ueshiba he was already a relatively old man. Their strength could not have been mere physical power.

Master Ueshiba’s explanation of aikidō was very religious and mystical. It is widely known that he was under the influence of the religious teachings of Deguchi Onisaburō.110 For him aikidō meant to a high degree to practice a kind of Shintō. His son Kisshōmaru, the later head of the house of Ueshiba, wrote a biography on the founder of aikidō titled Aikidō Kaiso Ueshiba Morihei Den. In this book he describes an episode from 1924 when Ueshiba accompanied the religious leader Deguchi on one of his journeys to Mongolia. At that time he truly walked on the line of death and experienced enlightenment.

Once, when the squad was marching through the mountains, they suddenly came under heavy fire from the mountain shadows to the left and right. The attack was focused on the sedan chair in which the religious leader Deguchi was carried. One bullet had already grazed it. But master Ueshiba went in front of the sedan in order to protect his religious teacher. Later he told: “I could not go away even one step. So, I had to evade the bullets by moving my head and my body aside. I stared at the bullets coming from the left and from the right side. I sensed them intuitively but very clearly. A moment earlier than the bullet came I saw a white light flying up to me. And just when I had turned my body aside the bullet whistled by. I already often had experienced similar things, but in that very moment the essence of budō was revealed to me in a quite natural way. I understood that I can sense

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