1974 Ki Training -- Sensei Koichi Tohei -- Initial Impressions

In the summer of 1974, I was fortunate in attending a six-week training in Ki Development taught by Sensei Koichi Tohei. I had been practicing (and teaching) Isshinryu Karate for 15 years and was looking for something less violent. With this posting, I will begin transcribing my notes taken during that time.
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The first time I saw him (Sensei Tohei), he looked at me with a calm, almost tender gaze. He sat on a bench against one wall of a large room filled with mats and chatting, laughing people. I was a day late.

"Sensei, this is my friend, George Breed."

A smile of acknowledgment revealing gold dental work.

I took my place on the mat with the others and was soon going through the warmup exercises in my first aikido class. We were fortunate in receiving instruction directly from Koichi Tohei, master of Aikido.

Tohei Sensei seems to be many men in one body. In street clothes, he looks like a Japanese businessman on vacation -- grey hush-puppies, blue socks, navy-blue full-cut slacks, and a white open-necked short-sleeved shirt. Though he moves gracefully, few would suspect his agile speed and power.

During the question and answer sessions he holds with us, Master Tohei could be taken for a visiting lecturer in a cultural exchange program. Highly alert but relaxed, he listens carefully to each question. Almost all his answers contain humor -- such as walking around the dais on all fours to illustrate the difference between human and animal movement. His teaching often takes the form of a parable based upon some past experience.

A desperate mother sent her unmanagable son to Tohei for aikido instruction. "I looked at this boy for one week and even I could not find his good points. Finally I said, 'You are very good at being bad. Someday I will find your other good points.' He was so surprised. From that day on, he began to change."

This man who is so relaxed and gentle, who plays the flute and sings (some of us got together with him at night), who shakes hands with a soft welcome rather than with a macho squeeze, can also show overwhelming ferocity, is as fierce as a samurai -- the boldest and most fearless of warriors. His voice becomes powerful and commanding. The shock waves of his kiai, a power-releasing and enemy-inhibiting shout, can be felt many feet away.

A master swordsman, Tohei showed us how to allow an attacker's force to pass harmlessly, then with one easy fluid motion to cut his throat twice and stab him in the kidney. This, by the way, was a little extracurricular knowledge. Aikido is based upon nonviolence.

(More to follow)