51 Facts About Kazuo Chiba

Kazuo Chiba served for seven years as uchideshi at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo before being dispatched abroad to help develop Aikido internationally.

Kazuo Chiba held an 8th dan in Aikido, issued by Aikikai world headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and was active in Aikido for over 50 years.

Kazuo Chiba was born February 5,1940, near Tokyo, Japan.

For much of his seven-year period as a live-in student Kazuo Chiba Sensei traveled extensively with Morihei Ueshiba as his personal assistant during travels spreading Aikido.

In 1975, Kazuo Chiba returned to Japan to serve as Secretary of the International Department at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo.

Kazuo Chiba told the immigration officers that he was there to teach martial arts and showed them the contract from the British Judo Council.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei spoke limited English when he arrived in the UK.

In early June 1966, one month after arrival, Kazuo Chiba Sensei was told by Mr Logan that they had arranged for him to do a demonstration at the Northumberland Police Headquarters in Newcastle, the intention being that the police may hire him to teach a self-defense program.

Towards the end of the demonstration Kazuo Chiba Sensei was asked to respond to handgun threats, one position was in the surrender pose with his hands in the air and the gun behind his head.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei performed shihonage and the uke landed on his head which began to bleed covering the keikogi and he was carried out by his comrades after becoming unconscious.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei knew that the mission had therefore been unsuccessful and he never heard from the police force subsequently.

The situation for Kazuo Chiba Sensei became steadily more difficult, and a couple of weeks after the demonstration he had a long conversation with Mr Logan with the aid of Mr Kimura.

Apart from the political situation inherited from the Judo world, Kazuo Chiba Sensei was faced with further problems from the AIkido world.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei had been closely associated with Tadashi Abe Sensei and admired him greatly, he had even co-signed the contract with the BJC.

Furthermore, Masamichi Noro, another former uchideshi and direct senior to Kazuo Chiba Sensei, was living and teaching in France and assisting Nakazono Sensei and Ken Williams with the BAC.

When Kazuo Chiba Sensei understood the situation he requested of Mr Logan to meet with Nakazono Sensei and Noro Sensei, which was fortuitous since they had been invited to teach at the annual BJC Summer School in Chigwell.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei refused, believing that it would have been a betrayal of Kenshiro Abbe and that it was a subversion of Hombu Dojo's authority in the Aikikai world.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei felt that the behavior of the British aikidoka was a breach of martial ethics, and his appreciation grew for the enormous difficulties Kenshiro Abbe had faced in the UK, magnified by the end of the Pacific War.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei refused this offer since he wished to follow the terms of the contract as written, regardless Mr Logan booked her a flight to London for sometime in September 1966.

Mr Logan procured him an apartment and he moved out, on the first opportunity he wrote to Mrs Kazuo Chiba telling her that she must not come and should wait for a letter from him.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei was unable to enjoy the event since he knew that in the current situation he could not provide her with a secure and stable living situation.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei found himself in an even more desperate situation, now he had no wage and a wife to support.

Kazuo Chiba was a former Aikidoka, and had led a SPE sponsored group that was loosely associated with the Renown Aikido Society.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei inquired if there would be some availability for him to teach Aikido within their programs, he was asked to return in a few days.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei was deeply touched to be received so open heartedly and with this couple began to appreciate the real English way of life.

The dojo became the center of Kazuo Chiba Sensei teaching activity in the Northeast of England until 1968.

In mid-October 1966 a demonstration sponsored by the local television station was held in the gymnasium of the secondary school where Kazuo Chiba Sensei was conducting classes.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei used the student who had been leading the classes before his arrival as the uke, unfortunately he landed badly and hit his head hard enough to cause a severe concussion and was taken to hospital, successfully treated for intracranial bleeding, losing some sight in one of his eyes.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei took issue with martial arts being used as entertainment at a tea party, but concluded 'Well, this is England, not Japan.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei asked them to reconsider and they had several meetings to discuss the issue, but they maintained their stance and refused to justify their position further than saying the student was a 'bad man'.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei told them he would bring Mr Butler to the classes as his personal teaching assistant and stated that since the classes were open to the public and funded by the taxpayer they were obliged to keep the door open to everyone without personal discrimination.

Unfortunately the hot water reserve was limited so Mrs Kazuo Chiba had to collect hot water from a pan on the stove in the kitchen.

Mid-December 1966, a few days before Christmas, Kazuo Chiba Sensei visited the patron of YMCA hostel to see if there might be a room available for him and his wife.

The other residents were college students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and Kazuo Chiba Sensei spent much time with them to improve his English and was inspired by their hopes to participate in the future development of their various countries.

On 30 December 1966 Kazuo Chiba Sensei taught his last class of the year at the Monkwearmouth College, the bus ride was roughly 20 minutes long but he decided to walk so he could buy some bread and a Guinness for him and his wife's first New Year's Eve in England.

The move represented a certain freedom for Kazuo Chiba Sensei, since it was an escape from the tangled political situation of Aikido in Britain and the power struggle.

In 1972 the dojo relocated once more into a large Church hall in Earl's Court with a better atmosphere for a dojo and remained there until Kazuo Chiba Sensei left for Japan in 1976.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei formed the Aikikai of Great Britain which grew steadily and expanded into several major cities in the UK, namely Birmingham, Leicester, Sunderland, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, and Glasgow.

Kazuo Chiba managed to reestablish his relationship with Tada Sensei, who was teaching in Italy, and joined his annual International Summer Course held at Lake Grada in Northern Italy near Verona.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei moved to San Diego, California in 1981 on an invitation from the United States Aikido Federation and formed the San Diego Aikikai.

In 2008, after 50 years in Aikido, Kazuo Chiba retired from active teaching.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei was dedicated to his master, and felt passionately about the Aikido as Budo which he learnt from O'Sensei as uchideshi.

However, Kazuo Chiba Sensei learnt it as a martial art and rejected vehemently the idea that Aikido should become something else hence he insisted on keeping a live martial element which resulted in stylistic differences from the Aikikai foundation who were moving toward a more generic system.

Therefore, unlike other notable students of O'Sensei, Kazuo Chiba Sensei did not create his own school of Aikido separate from the Aikikai, but rather a style within the community - an important distinction.

Unlike Aikido practiced at Hombu Dojo, Kazuo Chiba Sensei Incorporated weapons work, Zazen, and Iaido into his style.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei learnt the aiki-jo and aiki-ken system of Iwama-Ryu Aikido during his time there with O'Sensei and Saito Sensei, and for many years taught these.

Kazuo Chiba confessed himself to having 'no problem with following the practice of farming and martial discipline' and continued both throughout his life, but he 'could not avoid the increasingly strong internal resistance that, as time went on, built up within [him] toward the Founder's spiritual discipline.

Kazuo Chiba Sense defined Aikido as a martial art in which one has to deal with one's subjectivity in relation to others, and concluded that zen can be viewed as a premise or precondition for the martial discipline.

Kazuo Chiba's intention was to carry out a close inquiry concerning the essence of martial discipline by injecting the element of Zen discipline into the Dojo training where the practitioners are forced to confront their own true faces by being driven into a situation where there is no escape.

Kazuo Chiba Sensei got permission to adapt forms of Muso Shiden Ryu Iaido which he studied whilst in Japan and taught these forms to his Aikido students as the Iai-Batto-Ho system.

In particular since Kazuo Chiba Sensei was in the US, after the dissolution of Birankai Continental Europe and the creation of the national Birankai organisations each country had an internal shihankai composed of the Shihans who lived there, and others were appointed Shihans to oversee the technical development within the organisation.