Takeda takumi-no-kami Soemon (1758-1853) [Sokaku’s grandfather], a scholar, taught theology and Neo-Confucian (Chu-Hsi) doctrine to the daimyo of the Aizu-han (present-day Fukushima Prefecture); these teachings were known as aiki-in-yo-ho, or “the doctrine of harmony of spirit based on yin-yang.” The Aizu-han was a stronghold of the Chu-Hsi doctrine because Hoshina (Matsudaira) Masayuki (1611-1672), a grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, was a staunch advocate of this bakufu-approved school of Neo-Confucainism when daimyo of the Aizu-han. The Aizu warriors were thus all educated in the Chu-Hsi ethic. Their interpretation of bushido was a strict code embodying Chu-Hsi concepts.
[The Aizu-han] secondary systems of hand-to-hand combat were subsumed under the generic term oshikiuchi. This system was based on the dualisms of the Neo-Confucian philosophy as taught in the aiki-in-yo-ho doctrine. Only samurai with high social and financial status were permitted to study oshikiuchi. Leadership for the propagation of oshikiuchi eventually devolved on Saigo Tanomo [Chikanori] (Hoshina [Chikanori]; 1829-1905), who became a minister of the Aizu-han and the head of Shirakawa castle.
Saigo Tanomo [Chikanori] was at this time [the dissolution of the Aizu-han, 1871] a Shinto priest at the Nikko Toshogu shrine, and it was there that he met Takeda Sokaku Minamoto Masayoshi (1858-1943), a highly skilled swordsman.
Saigo was so favorably impressed with Sokaku that he hired him to be his personal bodyguard; but the aging Saigo’s motives for employing Sokaku may have included his hope that Sokaku would study oshikiuchi. Be that as it may, this turn of events enabled Sokaku to devote his entire energy to the study of martial arts.
In 1877, Saigo Tanomo [Chikanori] sponsored Shida Shiro (b. 1868) and took him to Aizu to teach him oshikiuchi. After three years of arduous training [1879-1880], Shida move to Tokyo to further his education. While studying at the Seijo Gakko, a training school for army personnel, Shida enrolled in the Inoue [Keitaro] Dojo of the Tenjin Shin’yo ryu in 1881. Two years later, he caught the eye of Kano Jigoro, who was also a disciple of the Tenjin Shin’yo ryu. Kano was, as this time, struggling to build a reputation for his Kodokan Shida’s skill in hand-to-hand encounters convinced Kano that it would be a good idea to offer Shida an assistant instructorship at the Kodokan and Shida accepted [Saigo Shiro was 159cm tall, 58 kg in weight, and 20 years old in 1888]. Upon marrying Saigo Tanomo’s daughter in 1884, Shida became an adopted son of the Saigo family and therewith changed his name to Saigo Shiro. Using the technique of yama arashi (mountain storm), which is based on the principles and techniques of oshikiuchi, Saigo decisively defeated all comers and was instrumental in making both Kano and his Kodokan Judo famous.
Saigo Shiro’s precipitous departure made the elder Saigo look for another worthy disciple whom he could entrust with the complete teachings of oshikiuchi. While serving as a priest at the [Ryozen] Shrine, the elder Saigo selected Sokaku for this honor and began teaching him the once exclusive art of the Aizu warriors in 1898. Sokaku’s zest for martial learning, coupled with his skill in classical swordsmanship, led him to rapid mastery of oshikiuchi. In the same year in which he began his study under Saigo, Sokaku was authorized to instruct people selected from the former samurai class in Aizu. Shortly before the elder Saigo died, he encouraged Sokaku to spread the spirit and techniques of oshikiuchi on a wider basis. In compliance with his master’s wish, Sokaku gradually modified the original oshikiuchi teachings. In response to an official request he traveled to Hokkaido in 1908 to instruct police units in hand-to-hand combat.
Sokaku regarded oshikiuchi in its modified form as jujutsu. To lend prestige to his teachings he appended the name Daito ryu (not to be confused with the Daido ryu of the Aizu-han) to them. Daito ryu jujutsu, under Sokaku’s leadership, remained a conservative but effective system of self-defense.
The rationalism of Neo-Confucian doctrine is fundamental to all aiki-do teachings. This fact exemplifies the effect of a Chu-Hsi education on Aizu warriors and the influence of the aiki-in-yo-ho doctrine on their martial disciplines. The Aizu art of oshikiuchi, and consequently of Sokaku’s aiki-jujutsu, are both steeped in dualisms of the Chu-Hsi doctrine. The concept of ki, which is the essence of all aiki-do, is not without an antecedent in the Chu-Hsi dualisms, where it is described as “material force” in connectionn with its complement, ri, or “principle.” Ki is also explained by the Neo-Confucian Kaibara Ekken, who qualified the dualisms of Chu-Hsi and viewed ki as a monism. The doctrine of aiki-ho is found in the teachings of Yagyu Shinkage ryu, wherein the concept of aiki is made analogous to the action of a willow branch as it flings snow that has accumulated on its surface. And in the practical application of aiki technique, ki is stressed in the teachings of Tenjin shin’yo ryu, which were studied by Saigo Shiro and may have influenced the Meiji-era development of oshikiuchi.