Hisa-den Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu

"I became conscious of my responsibility that only I was chosen to be taught the real Daito-ryu. I devoted myself to learning Daito-ryu after that."

-Yutaka Amatsu

"Tokimune said that Asahi workers had already mastered all fundamental techniques from Ueshiba and that Sokaku taught only highly developed techniques. But I cannot agree with him. Hisa taught me, for example, "This is Takeda-ryu Ikkajo", or "this is Takeda-ryu Shihonage." Hisa taught me like this from the beginning."

-Yutaka Amatsu, the top student of Takuma Hisa

Takuma Hisa taught Ueshiba-ryu at the Kansai Aikido Club and the real Daito-ryu, Takeda-ryu, only at the Asahi Shinbun dojo. He kept his promise to Sokaku Takeda. (Uke: Yutaka Amatsu at the Asahi Shinbun dojo)

Takuma Hisa mainly taught Ueshiba-ryu to his students. Only few were taught Takeda-ryu at the Asahi Shinbun dojo.

Takeda-ryu has a lot of painful, dangerous techniques, but Takeda-ryu is the real Daito-ryu.

-Takuma Hisa

The truth is out here.

The techniques part of the Nihon Budokan (and Ministry of Education) video. Nihon Budokan started to make this series of koryu schools in 1978 and Daito-ryu was the first one. NB contacted Takuma Hisa, not Tokimune Takeda, to demonstrate the original waza of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. Hisa wanted only two of his best students (Amatsu & Utsunomiya) from the Asahi Shinbun dojo to perform, but he was persuaded to let also other students to do the techniques. It is interesting that most of the Takumakai's shihans don't perform on this video. There are also some mistakes made in these techniques that were not edited by the NB. (We have no connection to this publisher on Youtube.)

Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu - Soden no Waza Daito Ryu Takumakai, transmisión directa Sokaku Takeda - Morihei Ueshiba - Takuma Hisa. Varias técnicas del catálogo Soden de la escuela.

Takuma Hisa was a former sumo champion and knew the problems of training only prearranged kata. These are his thoughts of the demerits of Kata-budo:

1. It cannot work in the real fight.

2. We cannot know our real ability.

In martial arts it's effectiveness that is important.

-Takuma Hisa

There was a question why Takumakai uses Hiden Mokuroku. This was the answer:

That is a good question. After Takuma Hisa died in 1980 some of his students from the Kansai Aikido Club (which was closed already in 1968) did not know what to do and started to invite people from Tokimune's organization to teach them Aikibudo. At some point they made the decision to use the curriculum made by Tokimune to be used as the basic techniques. So nothing to do with Hisa.

Many of Takuma Hisa's students from the Kansai Aikido Club had already trained Aikido. They wanted to go to Hokkaido to learn Aikibudo from Tokimune Takeda. Hisa wrote introduction letters and this way supported Tokimune like he had promised to Sokaku Takeda. Takuma Hisa taught Ueshiba-ryu at the Kansai Aikido Club.

Takuma Hisa did not like Tokimune's Aikibudo. He thought it was not a real martial art to defeat your enemy, but kata-budo for demonstrations.

Sokaku Takeda asked Takuma Hisa to support his son, Tokimune, by giving him honor. After the Second World War, in the early 1950s, Tokimune founded Daito-ryu Aikibudo and asked Hisa to be a manager of the school. This is why Takuma Hisa never criticized Tokimune's Aikibudo publicly.

There is a lot of speculation on the meaning of aiki. Takuma Hisa did not like mystical explanations.

“Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Aiki changes according to the situation, but what most of my pupils are doing is not fundamentally aiki technique because it does not work in real fighting. When we really fight we clash first. Aiki must stand this first clash of the enemy.

-Takuma Hisa on real aiki

This is very important:

Learning how to do Daito-ryu waza from the Soden books is almost impossible without correct and personal teaching. Especially the later volumes (Takeda-ryu) often include only one photo per waza. The body remembers the waza.

The real deal:

Sokaku Takeda's Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu has three principles:

1. Don't stand in front of your enemy.
2. Crush him down to your feet, don't throw him away.
3. Use your legs to finish him.

Takuma Hisa was a real martial artist:

Takuma Hisa (1895-1979) was a very talented sumo wrestler in his youth. He won the Kinki District Student Championship in 1915.

A reminder:

Learning how to do Daito-ryu waza from the Soden books is almost impossible without correct and personal teaching. Especially the later volumes (Takeda-ryu) often include only one photo per waza. The body remembers the waza.

Yosh*teru Yoshimura (seated second from right) and Masao Tonedate (seated third from right) were given a Shihandai certificate (next to Menkyokaiden) at the same time Takuma Hisa was given the highest certificate in 1939. Tonedate was not given Menkyokaiden even though this is a widespread claim.

The techniques part of the Nihon Budokan (and Ministry of Education) video. Nihon Budokan started to make this series of koryu schools in 1978 and Daito-ryu was the first one. NB contacted Takuma Hisa, not Tokimune Takeda, to demonstrate the original waza of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. Hisa wanted only two of his best students (Amatsu & Utsunomiya) from the Asahi Shinbun dojo to perform, but he was persuaded to let also other students to do the techniques. It is interesting that most of the Takumakai's shihans don't perform on this video. There are also some mistakes made in these techniques that were not edited by the NB. (We have no connection to this publisher on Youtube.)

Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu - Soden no Waza Daito Ryu Takumakai, transmisión directa Sokaku Takeda - Morihei Ueshiba - Takuma Hisa. Varias técnicas del catálogo Soden de la escuela.

Takuma Hisa taught Ueshiba-ryu at the Kansai Aikido Club and the real Daito-ryu, Takeda-ryu, only at the Asahi Shinbun dojo. He kept his promise to Sokaku Takeda. (Uke: Yutaka Amatsu at the Asahi Shinbun dojo)

Sokaku Takeda taught also kihon waza of Takeda-ryu to the Asahi workers. The company had less money for the film in the late 1930s because of the war in China. This is why they didn't take photos of the similar techniques.

Takeda-ryu has a lot of painful, dangerous techniques, but Takeda-ryu is the real Daito-ryu.

-Takuma Hisa

Taninzudori (more than one enemy) is a technique just for enbu. It is a technique to make audience think how wonderful Daito-ryu is.

-Takuma Hisa

Sokaku Takeda's original Daito-ryu has strong roots in premodern sumo. Takuma Hisa, Morihei Ueshiba and Sokaku Takeda were all good sumo wrestlers.

Many of Takuma Hisa's students from the Kansai Aikido Club had already trained Aikido. They wanted to go to Hokkaido to learn Aikibudo from Tokimune Takeda. Hisa wrote introduction letters and this way supported Tokimune like he had promised to Sokaku Takeda. Takuma Hisa taught Ueshiba-ryu at the Kansai Aikido Club.

In martial arts it's effectiveness that is important.

-Takuma Hisa

Sokaku Takeda arrived at the reception of the Asahi newspaper Osaka office on June 21st, 1936. He said: " I am the founder of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. I hear you are learning from Morihei Ueshiba but I have not taught him enough. If you want to learn real Daito-ryu learn from me." Soon after this Ueshiba left Osaka without meeting his old teacher.

Takuma Hisa was awarded 8th dan in Aikido in 1956 by Ueshiba. Hisa-sensei taught sometimes at the Aikikai hombu dojo after this. In the fall of 1974 Hisa went there with two of his top students from the Asahi Newspaper dojo. Apparently all the Aikikai Shihans were present.

I was surprised at Ueshiba's waza because they were all joint-locking techniques which sumo does not have.

-Takuma Hisa

There are no photos of the basic techniques of Takeda-ryu in the Soden books.

Sokaku Takeda asked Takuma Hisa to support his son, Tokimune, by giving him honor. After the Second World War, in the early 1950s, Tokimune founded Daito-ryu Aikibudo and asked Hisa to be a manager of the school. This is why Takuma Hisa never criticized Tokimune's Aikibudo publicly.

The most important technique of Daito-ryu is attacking joints.

-Takuma Hisa

Sokaku Takeda was the real founder of Daito-ryu.

-Takuma Hisa

Morihei Ueshiba doing a spine breaking technique typical to Sokaku Takeda's Daito-ryu at the Noma dojo in 1936.