The Takumakai organization aims at preserving the knowledge that Takuma Hisa acquired from Takeda Sokaku. Similarly, Nakatsu Heizaburo (read his biography here), who like Hisa, trained in the Asahi Journal dojo in Osaka, has transmitted his own technical knowledge obtained from that period in the Shikoku region. Nakatsu joined the journal in 1930, where he trained with Hisa under Ueshiba Morihei and Takeda Sokaku. He was appointed Representative Instructor (教授代理, kyoju dairi) in 1937 by Sokaku. Because Nakatsu’s background was in Judo, he was privately taught by Sokaku specific techniques to defeat an opponent within the confined space of a single tatami. We interviewed Tsugutaka Chiba Shihan from Ikeda, Tokushima prefecture, who is known to be the best student of Nakatsu, and asked him about Nakatsu Shihan and his techniques.

Nakatsu Heizaburo (中津平三郎) was born on June 1, 1894 in Ikeda (池田町) in the Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku Island. He was a direct student of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu master Takeda Sokaku, with whom he studied for three years. Nakatsu Sensei is the teacher at the origin of the lineage of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu of Shikoku, which is represented today by Chiba Tsugutaka Sensei. During a recent visit to Chiba Sensei's house accompanied by Olivier Gaurin, Sensei showed us a number of documents that we had never seen. Let's study those together and look back on Nakatsu Sensei's life and his place in the history of the Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu.

Chiba Tsugutaka Shihan is one of the oldest practitioners of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu living in Japan today. He was a student of Nakatsu Heizaburo (中津 平三郎) and Hisa Takuma (久 琢磨), who both studied under Ueshiba Morihei and Takeda Sokaku at the Asahi Journal in Osaka. Chiba Sensei has also studied in Hokkaido at the Daito-kan from Takeda Tokimune, the son of Takeda Sokaku, and he is therefore one of the few people to have received the teachings of the two major lines of Daito-ryu. Olivier Gaurin and I are fortunate enough to be Chiba Sensei's students and he agreed to talk to us about his history, and to explain what is Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu so that future generations of practitioners can understand what this mysterious art is, and where the techniques they practice come from. We went to Ikeda, on the island of Shikoku, and spent the day with him and Sato Hideaki Sensei, his successor, to ask him questions.

Even though Takeda Sokaku was said to be rather reclusive and even though eh was eventually vastly surpassed by his student Ueshiba Morihei in terms of media exposure, he was featured in a number of newspaper articles, pictures, and possibly some films. Regarding the former, even though these printed publications appeared in different journals, they interestingly often likened Takeda to a Tsukahara Bokuden of our time. Tsukahara Bokuden (塚原卜傳, 1489 – 1571) was a famous swordsman of the early Sengoku period (戦国時代, Warring States period) who founded the Kashima Shinto-ryu (鹿島新當流) school and taught the Shogun. In this series, we propose to translate those publications into English and supplement them with comments as well as an overarching historical analysis.

This article is my examination paper submitted for the promotion to Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu Shodan at the Takumakai (published in May 2013, in the issue n.86 of the Takumakai Newsletter). It addresses the origin of the hakama in martial arts and tries to distinguish facts from fiction as far as its use and meaning are concerned. More importantly, it also tries to establish some threads of reflection for the yudansha who wear it every day and hopefully, bring meaning to why we wear this ancestral cultural symbol.

Hisa Takuma (久 琢磨) was born on November 3rd, 1895 in Sakihama-mura, Aki-gun, Kochi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. He was the only son in a family of five children. His father, Hisa Katsusaburo (久 克三郎), worked as a lumberjack and his wife Ushi (久 丑) took care of the children. He entered the Sakihama Jinjo Elementary School in April 1903, and it was during that time that he began the practice of sumo.

Kobayashi Kiyohiro Sensei is the manager of the Takumakai. He is one of the most senior instructors of that school and he has been learning Aikido in the early days at the Aikikai but also at the Yoshinkan dojo. He is a long time student of Hisa Takuma Sensei and he currently runs a dojo in Osaka. Kobayashi Sensei travels extensively to teach Daito-ryu in Japan and abroad. This interview was conducted by Olivier Gaurin during one of the monthly Daito-ryu Aiki-jujtusu seminars led in Tokyo by Kobayashi Kiyohiro Sensei.