Stories from Iwama

The Iwama Dojo, in Ibaraki Province north of Tokyo was O-Sensei's dojo, where he lived and taught for many years after the war, and where he accepted Morihiro Saito as a student in 1946. Saito Sensei's passing has occasioned some changes in the Saito family's relation to the dojo, where Saito Sensei himself had taught for nearly 35 years after the Founder's death.

Now the dojo is under the administration of Hombu Dojo, and Hitohiro Saito, Morihiro's son, does not teach there, but in his own dojo nearby. Here is a picture of the Iwama Dojo showing O-Sensei's house attached on the left.

Though I've never been to Iwama to train, I always listen when my teachers, who spent many years there during the 1970s, tell stories about Saito Sensei, the senior students like Shigemi Inagaki, and their own experiences of being Uchi Deshi in Iwama. Many oldtimers are a little sad at the way things have worked out between Hombu Dojo and the Saito family, and when we're lucky enough to get them together we always hear funny or interesting stories about the old days. Thanks to Pat Yarrow, many stories and photos of these and later times at Iwama under Saito Sensei are on the web at http://www.saitosensei.com/. More infomation and photos about Iwama dojo can be found here.

From time to time I'll post stories as I hear them from those who were there. A couple of these stories involve a very unique American aikidoka, David Alexander Sensei 6th Dan, who ended up training with Saito Sensei for many years.

One of these stories is about how Alexander Sensei first decided that he wanted to train at Iwama. As the story goes, he had arrived at the Iwama dojo in 1972 after several months at Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, and he dressed and came out on the mat to take a class. He partnered up with Shigemi Inagaki, a fierce senior student who had developed a reputation as a scary guy to train with. They were practicing Shiho-Nage, and right away Inagaki threw the American youngster so hard to the mat that he was knocked unconscious for a few seconds. When Alexander Sensei came to he got up and declared, "This is where I want to train!" To anyone who has ever taken a class from Alexander Sensei this story will make perfect sense.

As another story goes, one day at Iwama Dojo while Saito Sensei was instructing on a technique a visiting student did the unthinkable. He got up and began correcting Saito Sensei. Everyone was dumbstruck except for Alexander Sensei, who immediately arose, went to the guy and forcefully told him, "shut up and sit down, now!" The student did so, and others who were there credit Alexander Sensei with having saved someone's life that day.

One of my teachers, Dennis Tatoian Sensei, manages to capture in one sentence what it must have been like at Iwama Dojo studying with Saito Sensei: "Never forget that Aikido is a martial art."