Kisshomaru Ueshiba - Aikido Career

Aikido Career

In 1942, while he was still studying at Waseda University, Morihei Ueshiba (who was retiring to Iwama) appointed him the head of the Kobukan Dojo in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He saved the dojo from fire bombing several times during the World War II. Ueshiba graduated with a degree in economics in 1946.

Speaking about the period just after World War II, Moriteru Ueshiba said, "there was not yet much activity at the Hombu Dojo. For a time my father was actually in Iwama instead ... starting around 1949, he worked for about seven years at a company called Osaka Shoji. He had no other choice. Even if you have a dojo, you can't make a living if nobody is coming to train, which was largely the case after the war. So, he took a job as an ordinary company employee during the day and taught only in the mornings and evenings."

Beginning in 1948, Ueshiba oversaw the development of the Aikikai Honbu organization (and eventually the tearing down of the Kobukan Dojo in 1967 to construct the Aikikai headquarters).

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