Morihei Ueshiba

Morihei Ueshiba (植芝盛平) was born on 14 December 1883 in Nishitani Village, Nishimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, in what is now Motomachi, Tanabe. His early life combined farming, local civic activity and physical training; he served in the Japanese military during the Russo-Japanese War. From the late 1890s, he undertook sustained study of traditional martial arts, building a physical foundation that would shape his later work.

In 1912, Ueshiba led a group of settlers to Shirataki in Hokkaido. There he met Sokaku Takeda and began intensive study of Daito-ryu jujutsu. In 1922, Takeda granted him a teaching certification—a connection central to aikido's documented technical lineage. That same year, Ueshiba articulated "Aiki" as a martial essence. His development was not a single revelation but a gradual synthesis of martial training, lived experience and deepening practice.

In 1919, Ueshiba encountered Onisaburo Deguchi, a leader of the Omoto religious movement, and settled at its center in Ayabe. He opened the Ueshiba-juku dojo in 1920, combining martial instruction with farming and spiritual practice. In 1924, he joined Deguchi's expedition to Mongolia—an episode well documented in travel and return, though later accounts contain visionary claims that belong to testimony rather than verified history.

Ueshiba relocated to Tokyo in 1927, making the city the center of his teaching. The purpose-built Kobukan Dojo opened in 1931 in present-day Wakamatsu-cho, Shinjuku, and his circle expanded among prominent civilian and military students. In 1942, he adopted "aikido" as the art's official name and transferred headquarters direction to his son Kisshomaru Ueshiba. The Kobukai Foundation received legal recognition in 1940, and the Aikikai Foundation was officially recognized in 1948.

In the early 1940s, Ueshiba established his base at Iwama. He established the Aiki Shrine in 1943 and opened an adjacent dojo in 1945, where he farmed, trained and developed his teaching through this period. He received Japan's Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1960 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, in 1964. Ueshiba died on 26 April 1969, aged 86. Memorial services were held in Tokyo, Iwama and Tanabe, with his remains buried at Kozan-ji Temple in Tanabe. Kisshomaru Ueshiba succeeded him as Doshu. The international spread of aikido that followed was shaped not only by its founder but also by his family, his students and multiple organizations whose interpretations continue to diverge.