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Morihei Ueshiba, born on December 14, 1883, was a man of great stature. He is said to have been sent to a Buddhist temple to study the Confucian classics and the Buddhist scriptures at the age of seven.

Yutaka Kurita Shihan reports that although the Founder did not finish Middle School, he was a self-illustrated man of great imagination, sensitivity and intuition, similar to some other great men in history. Imagination, sensitivity and intuition are the products of the use of the right hemisphere of the brain, something Kurita Shihan is developing in his most recent approach of Aiki practice.

The Founder learned traditional wrestling (Jujutsu) and swordsmanship (Kenjutsu) in his twenties and he was reknown for his skills and hard working character. It is also known that it was around his thirties that he met Sokaku Takeda, a Daito-ryu master from whom he learned about “Aiki” techniques.

But the most definitive moment in his life occurred when his father became ill and he decided to return to his hometown Tanabe: on his way home he heard of the leader of the Omoto-kyo religion, Onisaburo Deguchi, who influenced O-Sensei with meditation techniques.

It is well known that after this encounter, he decided to search for a more spiritual life and so he joined Deguchi and helped him farm his land. It is said that by so doing he realized an essential unity between Budo and Agriculture.

Yutaka Kurita Shihan teaches how this commonly unknown aspect is reflected on some parts of Aiki-do techniques the Founder borrowed from harvesting movements. According to him, O-Sensei used this reference to illustrate, e.g.,  the importance of combining the energy of two practice partners during a “grabbing (Tori) technique”. The teaching was clear: we become stronger as far as we join efforts. According to Kurita Shihan, O-Sensei adapted and gave a new impulse to past precepts in order to serve contemporary people.

In 1922 his approach was first named “aiki-bujutsu”, and it became known as Ueshiba-ryu aiki-bujutsu, derived from the techniques he learned from Sokaku Takeda, whose system included an Aiki concept that was then understood as the “union of energy in battle”

But O-Sensei changed such a paradigm as he envisioned it in a completely different way – as union, confluence and harmony leading to the constructive resolution of conflict and even more since it is a path for human improvement and spiritual development. Yutaka Kurita Shihan informs that among the different changes O-Sensei made, one was to shorten the number of techniques found in Daito-ryu in order to differentiate his new non-violence paradigm.

When it became clear to him that his way was one of unity and harmony with the Universe, O-Sensei decided to change its name to Aiki-budo and shifted from a martial art (jutsu, or technique)  to a martial Do (a life style leading to enlightenment). [1] Then his Aiki-budo became better known and attracted numerous people, including Jigoro Kano (Judo’s founder).

In 1941 there was a presentation of his Aiki-budo at the Kobukai (a governmental body uniting all the martial arts under one organization). And then he began the construction of an Aiki Shrine, at Iwama, dedicated to the Great Aiki Spirit (Aiki-No-O-Kami), represented in the calligraphy below:

The Shrine was completed in 1945, just before the end of the war, Budo went into decline, and Judo aroused as a token of international reconciliation, becoming an Olympic sport. Later on authorities granted permission to reestablish the Aikikai, the main dojo was renamed Ueshiba Dojo and was then known as the Aikido World Headquarters (known by the shorter term Hombu Dojo).[2]