Newspaper Articles about Takeda Sokaku Part 2: The Bokuden of our Time in Urawa (1936)

Takeda Sokaku appeared multiple times in Japanese newspapers. There are four articles we know of:

• “Nowadays Bokuden avoiding publicity – the fast techniques of Daito-ryu Aiki that the eye can’t follow” Tokyo Asahi Newspaper August 17, 1930
• “Nowadays Bokuden in Urawa” Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper Saitama edition April 30, 1936
• “Let live or die is up to his arm - Bokuden of the Showa Era: Takeda Sokaku” Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper Yamate edition May 19, 1936
• “Budo training of the bodyguards – Aiki Jutsu practice” Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper Saitama edition June 3, 1936

These newspaper articles are valuable sources for investigating the history of Daito-ryu as well as the techniques and character of Takeda Sokaku.

Interestingly, the name Bokuden frequently appears in the titles and the middle of the articles. Tsukahara Bokuden (塚原 卜伝, 1489 – 1571) was a famous swordsman of the Sengoku period and the founder of Kashima Shinto-ryu sword school. In Sokaku’s time, Bokuden had been viewed as the greatest swordsman of all time. Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵,1584? - 1645) became popular after Yoshikawa Eiji released his newspaper novel “Miyamoto Musashi” which was published daily in Ashahi Newspaper from 1935 to 1939. Being referred to as Bokuden shows Sokaku’s skill, technical mastery, and the impression he had left on the journalist.

Note that as part of the “Bokuden series”, there are two more articles featuring Sagawa Yukiyoshi published on two consecutive days: “The fast techniques of Daito-ryu Aiki transmitted by nowadays Bukuden – interview with senior disciple Sagawa Yukiyoshi” Hokkaido Times February 2 and 3, 1937.

The first and longest article had already been translated and published by Aikido Journal and a revised edition was released by Guillaume Erard.

Recently, I took upon myself to translate the remaining articles. In this article, I’m going to present my translation of the second newspaper article in time order from 1936 with some discussion on history and techniques.

“Nowadays Bokuden in Urawa”

Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper Saitama edition April 30, 1936

Tsukahara Bokuden of the Showa era visiting one of his old students appeared in Urawa and now he is training intensively in the Butokuden (city budo hall) every day. The main character of this story is a former Aizu samurai and Somucho (総務長 general director) of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, master Takeda Sokaku. Born in 1859, he is 78 years old now and is hale and hearty (healthy and strong). He has thirty thousand students including first of all soldiers of the army and navy, judges, and police officers.

The Founder of Daito-ryu is Shinra Saburo. Daito-ryu was transmitted as a secret style of bujutsu (武術 martial art) in the Aizu clan and has been never disclosed (門外不出), yet the master eventually started to teach the art while traveling all over Japan from 1897 (Meiji 30 year). In the first place, the origin of Daito-ryu tells that long ago, Shinra Saburo dissected corps of criminals sentenced to death, examined the muscles of the limbs in detail, and with systematic research figured out the ways of locking joints (逆手). The feudal lord(s) feared that (Daito-ryu) will leak out to other clans and decided to teach it exclusively to samurais and vassals with income above 600 koku (1 koku is around 150 kg of rice) and those who could learn it were not allowed even to talk about it. Even the master (Sokaku) hadn’t taught it to his own son and just started to transmit the katas (型 form) to him recently.

At first glance, he looks like an underweight old man from the countryside who doesn’t weigh more than 45kg, however, when he touches his opponents their bodies go numb and they lose their freedom to move. No matter how strong and big one is, they will be overcome as easily as someone rolls beans. He is a fearsome master who by himself takes and throws fifty or sixty opponents without any difficulty. This old man asked the journalist in his Aizu dialect “Grab my hand tightly”. I tried to grab him with all my strength, but I got thrown effortlessly. Next, he offered both of his hands, so I grabbed them strongly with both of my hands. This time again, my body got lifted easily and thrown to the ground. He asked if I understood then he let me experience many of his techniques and I was amazed. Even high-ranking practitioners become unable to move when this old man grabs their hand and walks them around in the spacious dojo of the Butokuden.

Until 1897, he traveled all around Japan to perfect his skills in Kendo. After that, he was active with Aikijujutsu tours from Hokkaido in the north to Honshu and Kyushu almost all over Japan. For almost twenty years he lives in retirement in front of Shirataki station, Kitami province, Hokkaido, however, he embarked on a trip once again. He came to Urawa with his student Sagawa Yukiyoshi who is Kyoju Dairi (teaching representative) in Sapporo. He was invited by one of his old students, Shibuya Shuzo, executive secretary of the North Adachi District Agricultural Association and a Kishi-cho, Urawa city resident. At the demonstration hall of the Urawa Police Department and the dojo of Butokuden, the master revealed the secret forms to first of Mr. Takahashi, section chief of the Prefecture Police Department, police officers, and those interested in participating.

The article is most likely based on an interview with Sokaku and it summarizes the journalist’s experience that he saw and felt observing Sokaku’s class, divided into four sections.

In the first section, Takeda Sokaku is introduced as a former Aizu samurai and Somucho (総務長 general director) of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu (大東流合気柔術).  In budo circles “Somucho” is quite an unusual title and it appears first in Ueshiba Morihei’s Hiden Okugi no Koto certificate. It seems that Sokaku started to use this title simultaneously as Aiki was added to the name of the art in 1922. Before that, he referred to himself as Hombu-cho (本部長 headquarters director) of Daito-ryu Jujutsu. The Hombucho title is also a non-traditional one that most likely came into use after the Meiji Restoration in Police departments and other military organizations imitating the Western system. From the beginning of his teaching career, Sokaku taught at police stations where it could have been impressive being introduced as “Hombu-cho sensei”. The newspaper article from 1930, depicts Sokaku’s art as Daito-ryu Aikijutsu (大東流合気術), thus this article is the first written publication of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu (大東流合気柔術), the name of the art as we know today.

On the left, Takeda Sokaku’s postcard-size name card probably from the 1910s: Daito-ryu Jujutsu Hombu-cho Takeda Sokaku, Hokkaido Kitami Province, Engaru Village, Shirataki, Former (address) Fukushima prefecture, Aizu. On the right, the excerpt of Ueshiba Morihei’s hiden okugi no koto certificate from Nihon Budo Taikei Vol.6, “Aikijutsu” chapter written by Ueshiba Kisshomaru. The Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Somucho title is marked in red.

The second section tells the standard mythical origin story of Daito-ryu, which we discussed in detail in a previous article. At the end of this section, there is a mention of Sokaku’s son, to whom Sokaku had just started to teach the techniques of Daito-ryu. This is presumably Takeda Tokimune (1916 - 1993), Sokaku’s third son from his second marriage, and who was 19 years old at that time.

The young Takeda Tokimune on the left, and later at his Daitokan Dojo, Abashiri, Hokkaido.

The third section recaps the journalist's impression of Sokaku’s technique and the seminar. Sokaku is described as a small-built old man who can throw and control multiple opponents larger than him with ease. As the article reports when Sokaku touched his opponents, their bodies went numb and they lost their freedom to move. This is most likely to describe a tsukamite (掴み手) or yonkajo (四ヶ条, yonkyo in Aikido) grab when tori pressures the uke's forearm with the knuckle of the index finger. From outside, it looks like the tori just grabs the uke’s wrist but actually, it’s very painful. The text follows as Sokaku “throws fifty or sixty opponents without any difficulty”. This was probably a kakari geiko-like situation when Sokaku threw all the participants one by one.

On the left, Takeda Tokimune controlling two opponents “just by touching them”. Here, Tokimune sensei applies Yonkajo on the outside of his opponents’ wrists which must have been extremely painful since he had callocities on both of his hands due to iron bar training as shown on the right. Note that Sokaku’s Yonkajo was famously painful too, however, it is not known if he did such a training.

Just like in the article from 1930, Sokaku let the journalist experience his techniques. First, Sokaku asked the journalist to grab his hand tightly (katate-dori). As the journalist tells, he tried to grab it with all his strength but he got thrown effortlessly. After that, Sokaku offered both of his hands inviting his opponent for a ryote-dori attack. The journalist tells that this time again, his body got lifted easily and got thrown to the ground. Since he doesn’t mention that his wrist or any other joints were in pain, Sokaku possibly throw him with an Aiki-nage type of throw (Takahashi, 1999).

Inoue Yusuke Menkyo Kaiden Shihan and former headmaster of Kodokai demonstrating Ryote-dori Aiki-age-nage. Uke grabs both wrists tightly (1). Tori lifts uke’s body in the air with Aiki-age (2) and throws uke to the ground (3) and (4).

As we mentioned in a previous article, Aiki techniques are first described in the third scroll, Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Hiokugi no Koto (大東流合気柔術秘奧儀之事). Explicitly, there are techniques in this scroll described against katate and ryote-dori attacks where the explanation starts as “lift the opponent using Aiki” (合気ニテ敵ヲ上ゲ) or “raise the opponent’s right hand using Aiki” (合気ニテ敵ノ右手ヲ上ゲ). This scroll was most likely compiled in the mid-1930s. The article kind of supports that in addition to Jujutsu techniques, Aiki-age and Aiki-nage were part of Sokaku’s teaching curriculum these days.

The section ends by reporting Sokaku grabbing his opponent's hand and walking him around in the dojo. Sagawa Yukiyoshi, who was present as Sokaku’s assistant at the seminar, recalls this event as follows:

武田先生が浦和警察署で講習されたとき、八十才になる先生が六尺一寸の大男を三ヶ条に片手を極めて「さぁ歩け」といいながら道場を一周引き回し、最後に道場の真ん中で投げつけた。そのとき五尺に足りない老師が非常に大きく見えた。
The nearly 80 years old Takeda Sensei during the seminar at the Urawa Police Station locked the hand of an 184 cm tall big man in Sankajo (Sankyo in Aikido) and pulled him around the dojo while telling him “Come on. Walk!”. Finally, he threw him in the middle of the dojo. At that time, the old master, who wasn’t even 150 cm tall, seemed huge.合気道の奥義 吉丸 慶雪 2001.

Yoshimura Yoshiteru demonstrating sankajo in volume 4 of the Soden (c. 1934). The uke is Kawazoe Kuniyoshi.

The fourth section provides more information about Sokaku’s life and how he happened to hold a seminar in Urawa. As the text mentions: “Untill 1897, he traveled all around Japan to perfect his skills in Kendo.” In modern terminology, we distinguish between kendo and old-school kenjutsu, however, it seems that this difference wasn’t emphasized that much in Sokaku’s time yet. In his youth, Sokaku learned Onoha Itto-ryu kenjutsu from Shibuya Toma. Actually, this particular sword style served as the technical basis for modern-day kendo. The article supports that Sokaku spent his twenties traveling all around Japan and engaging in battles and self-training (武者修行) in kenjutsu. Later on, Sokaku continued his career as a jujutsu teacher. As a turning point, 1897 is mentioned twice in the article however it contradicts the Eimeiroku according to this change happened in July 1899. This year in the Japanese calendar is Meiji 32nd year, so it seems it was rounded and even written with the abbreviated character 卅 (instead of 三十) making the text shorter and easier to remember. As it is further mentioned, Sokaku traveled from Hokkaido to Kyushu all over Japan and taught Aikijujutsu, however, it seems to be a little over-exaggeration.

Based on our study of the Eimeiroku booklets, it seems that in the first ten years, after Sokaku started teaching Daito-ryu, he stayed in the Tohoku area, mainly in the neighboring prefectures of Miyagi and Yamagata. Then in 1910, he entered Hokkaido and settled there for the rest of his life. Prior to 1936 when the article was written, he only left Hokkaido on a few occasions. First in 1922, when he spent five months with Ueshiba Morihei in Ayabe, and in 1931 as well as 1934 when he visited Ueshiba Morihei at his Kobukan dojo in Tokyo.

As the article tells, Sokaku came to Urawa at the invitation of his former student Shibuya Shuzo (渋谷周蔵) and taught the members of the Urawa Police Department as well as the general public at the police station and the Butokuden dojo. On this trip, Sokaku was accompanied and assisted by his senior student Sagawa Yukiyoshi (佐川幸義). Sagawa Yukiyoshi became kyoju dairi (教授代理 teaching representative) of Takeda Sokaku on August 24, 1932, and operated a dojo in Sapporo, Hokkaido at that time.

The young Sagawa Yukiyoshi’s on the left, his dairikyoju entry in the middle, and the Sagawa dojo in Hokkaido, on the right.

You can find further discussion on Takeda Sokaku's newspaper articles here, by Marc Trudel for reference. In the next article, we are going to look through the remaining two articles of Takeda Sokaku.

•  Takahashi, Masaru. “大東流合気武術史初考 伝承から大東流の謎に迫る その２.” Aiki News, no. 121, 1999, p. 48.