Tohei, Koichi

Koichi Tohei was born in 1920 in the Tokyo area of ​​Shinaya ( 下 谷 区 ) , now Taito . Since childhood, he was painful and weak, so his father began to teach him judo . He worked hard and his body developed, however, shortly after the start of pre-university education, he became ill with pleurisy - inflammation of the mucous membrane of the lung cavity, which causes pain during breathing. This forced Tohei to skip a year of classes.

Tohei was upset by the idea of ​​losing the newfound strength of the body and his training methods, so he decided to replace judo training with zen meditation and misogi practice. As in judo classes, Tohei zealously engaged in training the mind and soon achieved success, despite health problems. After recovering from pleurisy, from which doctors could not find a trace, Tohei became convinced that the efforts in training his mind and developing the ki helped him recover and recover. This later turned out to be an incentive in the development of Kiyatsu, a system for treating physical diseases by pressing fingers and expanding the ki into the body of a sick person. Tohei describes this as a “refueling pump,” allowing a person to heal themselves.

After recovering from pleurisy, he returned to judo, but Tohei wanted more than just physical training, and did not think that judo was the art that he should do, although he continued to practice judo until he did aikido.

In 1940, when he was 19, Tohei's judo instructor, Shohei Mori, recommended Tohei to meet with the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. According to Tohei, when he first met with an aikido instructor and practiced some techniques in the Ueshiba dojo, he had doubts about aikido and its meaning for himself. However, everything changed when Tohei came to the dojo and began practicing his techniques with instructors, he was not completely convinced until Ueshiba asked Tohei to go out on the mat and try to grab him. Tohei's attempts were unsuccessful, and after this personal demonstration by Ueshiba, Tohei asked to be accepted immediately. And he will also continue to train his mind, like his body, in meditation, misogi and aikido.

Tohei trained with Ueshiba for six months before being sent as a representative to teach at Sumei Okawa School and the Police Academy. This was before Tohei received any dan or kyu. Ueshiba will assign Tohei the fifth dan after Tohei began his military service.

Like many other Japanese youths in those years, Tohei was drafted into the Imperial Army in October 1942. He saw the fighting in China and stayed there until the end of the war until his repatriation in 1946. According to Chinese sources, Tohei's penchant for treating captured Chinese soldiers forced the Chinese authorities to avoid his unit during the attack. Tohei is said to have left China with more soldiers than when he started.

In 1953, Tohei was sent to Hawaii to represent Aikido there. Since then, Hawaii has become the center of the spread of aikido in the United States, and later - Tohei's special style. In 1969, Ueshiba asked Tohei to accept the tenth dan, and Tohei accepted it after refusing the previous similar offer. The highest rank in aikido was eighth, but the number of ranks was expanded by Ueshiba for practical purposes and for political reasons.

The death of Morihei Ueshiba in 1969 added fuel to the fire of events, which led to a split between the main organization of aikido Aikikai and Koichi Tohei. Morihei's son Kisshomaru Ueshiba inherits the title of Doshu. At the time of the death of Morihei Ueshiba, Koichi Tohei was the chief instructor of the Hombu Dojo, headquarters of Aikikai, whose rank he would retain until his official separation from Aikikai in 1974.

One of the main causes of the conflict was Koichi Tohei's emphasis on the principle of ki in aikido. Tohei wanted to concentrate Aikido on this principle, using mutual improvement exercises and Ki tests in daily Aikido practice. He had already begun teaching his ideas during his own training at the Hombu Dojo, unlike other instructors. There were those who agreed with Tohei's approach, but Tohei did not welcome Kisshomaru and most of the senior instructors. They urged him not to teach his principles and techniques at the Hombu Dojo. Tohei replied that he had the right to teach this outside the Hombu Dojo, which he did. However, tensions remained among senior instructors who still did not approve of Tohei's focus on Ki. The growing tension, coupled with Tohei’s general dissatisfaction, ended in 1971, when he created Ki-no Kenkyukai to promote the development and education of Ki inside Aikido, but not under the auspices of Aikikai. Years of conflict finally strengthened Tohei’s decision to break away from Aikikai and teach his own style of ki aikido. So, by May 1, 1974, he officially left the Aikikai organization to concentrate on his new Ki-Aikido and Ki-community. On May 15, 1974, he sent a letter in English and Japanese to most dojos in Japan and abroad, explaining the reasons for his separation and his plans for Ki-aikido and the Ki-community. This division has come as a shock to many aikidki around the world. Tohei was respected by most instructors and students. He was seen as the main sensei of Aikido after Ueshiba's death. This, in turn, led to the severance of several dojos from Aikikai and the transition to Tohei with his new style. Tohei's new task was to coordinate all the dojos that joined him and to involve them in the Shin Sin Toitsu Aikido organization - "Aikido with a united mind and body." This branch of aikido is still active today.

Famous students of Koichi Tohei

• Koretoshi Maruyama , a former instructor and president of the Ki community, founded the independent Aikido Yushinkai style of aikido
• Shizuo Imaizumi (今 泉鎮 雄), the seventh dan of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, founded the independent Shin Budo Kai aikido style
• Calvin Tabata , eighth dan of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, founder of the Northwest Key Federation. He has the title of Okuden in Ki, is a full-fledged teacher in the Ki community, the chief instructor of the Kiyatsu Own School. He began his training in Hawaii and throughout his life he was a direct student of the founder of the Ki community Sensei Koichi Tohei. Sensei Tabata has been teaching in the Southwest since 1970. He created the Oregon Key Community in 1974 and the Kiyatsu Own School in 1993.
• Koichi Kashiwa , eighth dan of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, chief instructor of Key Aikido in the USA
• Ken Williams , founder of the UK Aikido Federation .
• Kenjiro Yoshigasaki , the eighth dan of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, the initiator of the spread of Ki Aikido in Europe, founded the independent International Ki no Kenkyukai Association
• Fumio Toyoda , sixth dan, founder of the Aikido Association of America and the International Aikido Association
• Roy Yu Seunaka founder of Wadokai Aikido. (inaccessible link)
• Suji Maruyama is the founder of Kokikai Aikido.
• Stephen Seagal , seventh dan, American actor, producer, writer, director and blues singer-songwriter.
• David Shaner , Ph.D., eighth dan, chief instructor of the Eastern Federation of Ki and professor at the Department of Philosophy at Furman University , where he specializes in Japanese and scientific philosophy. Chaner is also the author of the laws of CONNECT, LLC and the author of the recently released book "The Seven Arts of Change: Leading Business Transformations That Are Enough."
• Kenji and Miei Ota starred in a series of K -aikido instructional videos from Panther Sales Studios. Kenji Ota is the champion in ballroom dancing, the founder and chief instructor of the dojo Kyo Aikido and Judo in Goleta (California, USA). ^[one]
• Roderick T. Kobayashi was a student over 20 years old with Master Tohei and was promoted to Rokudan (6th Dan) Aikikai in 1973. Rod then taught Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido around the world until he formed his own version of Aikido in 1981, which he called Seydokan Aikido .

• Koichi Tohei: Ki in Everyday Life - 4889960716 Oxford University Press, USA
• Koichi Tohei: Ki Book - 0870403796 Japan Publications, Japan
• Koichi Tohei: Aikido in Everyday Life - 0870402218 Japan Publications, Japan
• Koichi Tohei: Kiyatsu - 0870405365 Japan Publications, Japan
• Koichi Tohei: The Way of Unification with Ki - Ki No Kenkyukai, Japan - Private Edition
• Koichi Tohei: Talking about Ki - Ki No Kenkyukai, Japan - Private Edition
• Koichi Tohei: This is Aikido - Japan Publications, Japan - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: What is Aikido? - Rikugei Publishing House, Japan - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: Aikido: The Art of Self-Defense '- Rikugei Publishing House, Japan - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: How to combine Ki - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: Reflections on Ki - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: Ki Hygiene - Published
• Koichi Tohei: How to develop Ki - went to print
• Koichi Tohei: Ki-breathing methods - out of print
• Koichi Tohei: Tempu Nakamura and Morihei Ueshiba - only in Japanese
• Koichi Tohei: Ki Extension - Japanese Only
• Koichi Tohei: Ki Power - Japanese Only
• Koichi Tohei: Aikido in the Daily Life of the Rikugei Publishing House, Tokyo, 1966

Koichi Tohei died at 9:14 am, Japanese time (GMT +9) on May 19, 2011, after two weeks since he went to the hospital because of chest discomfort, which turned out to be pneumonia. Wataru Hatakeyama, from the headquarters of the Ki Society, said that "he went to the intensive care unit twice and returned to the ward each time with his strength, Ki, however, his heart was weakening slightly this morning, and he died."

• Koichi Tohei, the official website of the headquarters of the Ki-community
• Koichi Tohei Biography
• Koichi Tohei Books