Tohei-sensei was born in 1920 and grew up in an upper class Japanese family, north of Tokyo. He was sickly as a child and was introduced to Judo and Zen by his father to try to strengthen his constitution. Later he became involved in misogi and various forms of Japanese Yoga. These events and training shaped much of what was to develop in later life.
In 1939, he met O-sensei and was introduced to the art of Aikido. He expressed some amazement that despite his Judo training he was unable to deal with this much older man and quickly became a serious student of the Art. In 1942, he was called up to the army and spent time in action in China. During this time, he became aware of the importance of a calm mind and the unification of mind and body that were to shape much of his later training, and developed quite a reputation as a "lucky" officer who never lost a single man under his command even during the most fierce fighting.
After the war he returned to his role as uchi-deshi to O-sensei, becoming one of the strongest and most influential figures within the Aikido world. In those days, challenges to the teacher were common and it was Tohei-sensei who usually had to respond to people coming to the dojo to test O-sensei. Quite a few people were "bounced on their heads" including a group of US wrestlers who had previously tried to arrange a challenge at the Kodokan Judo HQ!
In 1953, he was sent by O-sensei to Hawaii, becoming the first teacher to introduce Aikido to the United States. Over the next decade or so, Tohei-sensei came to the US many times and was responsible for training many of the fine teachers in the U.S. today. It was during this period that his Aikido underwent a lot of change, since dealing with HUGE Americans was quite different to the conventional training in Japan. During this period, his practice also started to drift away from some of what was being practiced by other instructors, as can be seen if you compare the book written in the late 50s by Tohei-sensei with that written about the same time by K. Ueshiba-sensei -- both of which were approved by O-sensei.
Tohei-sensei rose to the position of Chief Instructor at the Aikikai Hombu dojo and was the only person awarded 10th Dan by O-sensei and issued with a formal scroll of rank. We have a video tape of an American TV show from 1957, in which Tohei-sensei acts as interpreter for O-sensei during an interview. He was certainly one of the most noticeable figures in the Aikido world, due to his large outgoing personality.
After O-sensei's death, Kisshomaru Ueshiba-sensei became the second Aikido Doshu, and Tohei-sensei continued to be the Chief Instructor. For the next few years things continued as before, but there were tensions building within the senior Aikido-ka.
Tohei-sensei had very clear ideas about the best way of teaching Aikido, ideas that were based largely on the principles of Unification taught by one of his Yoga teachers. He proposed to introduce this system of teaching Ki within the Aikikai but met with much resistance from the more traditional of the senior teachers there. So, in 1971, while still the Chief Instructor of the Aikikai, Tohei-sensei founded the Ki no Kenkyukai, to teach the principles of Ki and Unification of Mind and Body, outside the Aikido framework. This position continued for a few more years until the rift between Tohei-sensei and the rest of the Aikikai became too big and he resigned. He then founded the Shin-shin Toitsu Aikikai, to teach Aikido in accordance with the Ki principles.
This split caused a great divide in the Aikido world since many people were torn between following Tohei-sensei, who was the most senior Aikido teacher, or staying with the Aikikai which was headed by O-sensei's son. This choice caused much bad feeling, some of which still exists today.
Tohei-sensei continued to refine and develop his methods of teaching Ki and Aikido and the Ki no Kenkyukai grew and spread branches throughout the world.
Tohei-sensei is a very special individual. Almost everyone agrees that, excepting O-sensei himself, Tohei-sensei's Aikido was probably the finest to be seen. In addition, he is one of the most gifted teachers the Aikido world has seen, developing most of the teaching methods used in many dojos today.
