{"id":311,"date":"2014-10-17T11:04:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T09:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aikidoromanord.org\/?page_id=311"},"modified":"2014-10-17T11:04:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T09:04:38","slug":"seigo-yamaguchi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pasqualerobustini.com\/en\/aikido\/chi-siamo\/seigo-yamaguchi\/","title":{"rendered":"Seigo Yamaguchi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seigo<\/a>Seigo Yamaguchi<\/a>, often dubbed\u00a0“the\u00a0Aikido genius”, was born on April\u00a013, 1924 in the\u00a0Fukuoka<\/a>\u00a0prefecture,\u00a0Kyushu, Japan. Since his early years, he has been\u00a0an avid reader thanks also to his father, a school director, who constantly provided his son with books so he could improve his knowledge of history, phylosophy and literature. He studied in a traditional school founded by the Yanagawa and Han clans during the Edo period; he later graduated from the Hiroikegakuen university.<\/p>\n

\"seigo-yamaguchi-and-philippe-gouttard-01\"<\/a>

Seigo Yamaguchi with\u00a0Philippe Gouttard<\/p><\/div>\n

During World War II he took part to the Pacific war in a Kamikaze squadroon of the Navy, those who were trained to hit enemy vessels on board of explosive submersibles. For the sake of modern Aikido, the war was over before Seigo was assigned a mission. After the war he returned to his hometown in Fukuoka to follow up his studies. In 1949 he obtained a qualification to work for the government. He decided to continue his studies in Europe, but before leaving he wanted to improve his knowlendge of his own traditional culture by studying macrobiotics with Sakurawaza Nyoichi, known in the west as\u00a0George Oshawa. Thanks to this link, in 1950 he was introduced to Morihei Ueshiba, founder of\u00a0Aikido.\u00a0The following year he became his\u00a0uchi deshi (inside student). From\u00a01958 to\u00a01960 he was sent to teach\u00a0Aikido to the military in\u00a0Bhurma. Upon returning to\u00a0Japan, he regularly held classes at\u00a0Hombu Dojo<\/a> (the world Aikido headquarters in Tokyo). His Monday class was famous for decades. His private dojo was in Ikenoue; it was known for its hard tatami. Later he moved to\u00a0<\/span>Shibuya<\/a>,\u00a0where the tatami was for\u00a0Kendo training:\u00a0wood. The\u00a0Shibuya dojo became the center for his personal\u00a0Aikido research and students were only accepted by invitation. Yamaguchi also held classes for Japanese baseball teams, for universities and private dojos (the\u00a0Zoshukan in\u00a0Tokyo, among the most prominent ones). His classes at Hombu Dojo were among the most followed. Even fellow Hombu Dojo teachers were attending, something that happens very rarely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Slightly less than\u00a0170 cm tall, weighing about\u00a060 kg, he appeared as a giant on the mat and his techniques flowed effortlessly, visibly influenced by the Japanes sword tradition.\u00a0Yamaguchi sensei studied\u00a0Lao Tsu\u00a0and\u00a0Yin – Yang phylosophy. Although very strict during classes, he won’t allow toughness\u00a0when\u00a0training and insisted on freeing oneself from rigidity. He didn’t put too much emphasis on repetitions and he did not explain much of the technique. But he personally practiced a lot with every student. His movements were so rapid that even Hombu Dojo’s top instructors had problems with his throws.<\/p>\n

\"th\"Between\u00a01977 and\u00a01995 he was sent to hold seminars in Europe, mainly in France, Germany and UK. Mannheim University in Germany started a real Aikido course that regularly invited Yamaguchi sensei. Many great masters today are strongly influenced by Yamaguchi. Among them are Seishiro Endo, Yoshinobu Takeda, Masatoshi Yasuno, <\/span>Christian Tissier, <\/span>Philippe Gouttard<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>William Gleason. Seigo\u00a0Yamaguchi’s\u00a0son\u00a0Tetsu is a 7th dan Aikido\u00a0Shihan. It adds to his honorable figure not having founded his own Aikido school. He could have easily done it with his numerous followers, but he didn’t believe in fragmentation and also held the founder Morihei Ueshiba and Aikikai in great respect.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was diagnosed an intestinal ulcer but he refused treatments. He was a stromg believer in the natural order of things. After having been active in Aikido for over 45 years, on January 24, 1996, Yamaguchi sensei passed away during sleep for internal bleeding. He had given\u00a0a demonstration the evening before. More than 1000 people attended the funeral cerimony his family organized. After that, many big demonstrations were organized in memory of Yamaguchi sensei in Kamakura, Katsuta, as well as\u00a0in\u00a0Meiji and Nagoya universities.<\/p>\n

Selected videos<\/a><\/p>\n