Shodo Morita

[aiki10940]

I am looking for some information on Shodo Morita who is the founder of Nihon Goshin Aikido.

What we know is that he trained under several differnt arts. He trained under Yoshiro Kitaro in Daito ryu Aikijitsu. We do not know this time period we assume early 1930's
He then formed his own system in 1940's in the city of Chitos, Hokkaido.
He trained Shihan Bowe in the art in the late fifties.
Shinan Bowe recieves his teaching certificate in 1963.
After the death of Shoda Morita his step son took over the system, Tominasuke Nara.
Tominasuke Nara closed the Japan system down in the late 60's and promoted Mr. Bowe to shihan.
Some people in our system did talk to Tominasuke Nara's daughter in the 1980's. She did not know much other than Mr. Nara passed away in 1972 and they believe the system was called Goshin Aikijitsu.

To the best of our knowlege Shihan Bowe was the only American to every train in the art form. I believe that there was not any other dojo's other than the Japan headquarters and Shinhan Bowe's because of Mr. Nara makin Mr. Bowe Shihan.

I would like any information I can find. I would like to establish when the system was formed and if it was every registered with an organization like the NIHON BUTOKYUKAI, KYOTO. Is there an address for this organization or did it closed down after the war? If it did close is there any other organization that I could contact.

With this information I would then like to confirm the Daito ryu Aikijitsu training period.

I have searched the web and all I find is our information or copies of the Aikido FAQ that shows the linage of Aikido and shows us as a derivative of Daito ryu. This information probably came from interviews that Shihan Bowe had done with Black Belt magazine.

We have pictures that show several students at the Japan dojo when Shihan Bowe was trainig there. It would be great if we could find any of these people and if they have a dojo that they are teaching the art

Any ideas would be appreaciated. The aikido community is of no help.

[MarkF]

Hi, Ray,
You probably don't get a lot of help from the aikido community because, at best, this system was an eclectic one with no real connection to aikido, nor DR aikijujutsu.

The Butokukai of Kyoto was founded in 1895, was closed during the war, and reopened so to fold after the war. Most didn't know if they were members anymore. The Butokukai was a judo and kendo school, or at least had a school of kendo and judo.

Later, a commercial school called the Dai Nippon Butokukai opened, later to open a branch organization in the US. It claims a history of 1100 years, but I doubt it. There just isn't any documented history to infer its existence earlier than 1895.

It folded in 1946 and mergered with the Kodokan Judo Institute, with the Japanese Judo Federation in 1949. The link below, Kronos, is a good encyclopedic journal.

From: http://ejmas.com/kronos/NewHist1900-1939.htm

The Japanese Ministry of Education encourages Japanese public school jujutsu instructors to adopt the safer techniques and tournament rules of Kodokan judo. Many commercial and private instructors refused to make these changes, as they saw no benefit in it. (The most famous holdout was Takeda Sokaku, who created Daito-ryu aiki jutsu around 1896, and whose student Ueshiba Morehei later established aikido.) And even public school instructors often resented Jigoro Kano’s leadership. (Many Japanese thought that Kano was too international in outlook.) To receive government subsidies without having to kowtow to Kano, politically conservative judo teachers organized an association that received its promotions directly from the Butokukai in Kyoto. Butokukai technical standards were approximately the same as those of the Kodokan, and the two groups merged with the closure of the Butokukai in 1946 and the establishment of the Japanese Judo Federation in 1949.
****

Aikido took a much different route, as did Daitoryu aikijujutsu under Sokaku Takeda, later under his son, Tokimune Takeda.

BTW: Welcome to E-budo.

Mark

[Yamantaka]

Originally posted by aiki10940
Originally posted by aiki10940 [/i]
What we know is that he trained under several differnt arts. He trained under Yoshiro Kitaro in Daito ryu Aikijitsu. We do not know this time period we assume early 1930's

YAMANTAKA : The correct name is Yoshida Kotaro, who also taught some famous people like Richard Kim and Masutatsu Oyama, of Kyokushinkai fame. I'm not sure about the time he taught Morita Sensei. Perhaps it was later.

[i] I would like any information I can find. I would like to establish when the system was formed and if it was every registered with an organization like the NIHON BUTOKYUKAI, KYOTO. Is there an address for this organization or did it closed down after the war? If it did close is there any other organization that I could contact. [/B]

YAMANTAKA : I don't think Morita's art ever joined the Butokukai, since it was created in the 40's and the Butokukai was closed by the SCAP forces around 1944. Later, the Butokukai reopened but it never became strong as before. There's some information here:
http://www.aoinagi.org/first_time/ab...ary_virtue.htm
Unfortunately, I don't know if Morita's art still exists in Japan nor of any organization there that might help you. Your only hope would be to recognize someone of Morita's students from the photo you have and try to contact them in Japan.
Sorry for being able to help so little
Best of luck in your search
Ubaldo