Iwama, Ibaraki

Iwama is a small village located at 100 Km North East of Tokyo, near the town of Mito, in the prefecture of Ibaraki. In 1942, Morihei Ueshiba retired in this province and settled in Iwama where he built a UBUYA (the place of birth), which comprised of: the altar of Aiki and an outdoor dojo. Today's dojo was completed in 1945 before the end of WWII. In this peaceful region, far from the tumult of the city and the rage of the war which had affected him morally and physically, Morihei Ueshiba improved his skill and perfected the art of the sabre and the stick called, in Aikido, Aiki-Ken and Aiki-Jo. He believed it was fundamental to handle these arms well to execute the techniques bare handedly. He then defines the concept of Takemusu Aiki, which corresponds to the quick and spontaneous execution of various techniques adapted to an attack. During this prolific period, O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba had a very eager student who was to become one of his closest disciples and later his technical successor at Iwama: Morihiro Saito. Morihiro Saito became the dojo cho (head of dojo) upon his master's death and until his own death in May 13th 2002, fought to preserve faithfully Morihei's Aikido and ways of thinking. Iwama town has some festivities or matsuri, in which all aikido students as well as Aikido teachers such as Hitohiro Saito, participate cheerfully such. The aikido Tai Sai is one of them and happens at the Aiki Jinja every 29th of May.