Aikido

The onset of the feudal age saw the samurai as peasant-farmers who would fight for their lords as and when needed. But when conflicts between the lords increased in frequency, the need for trained armed groups for protecting boundaries was felt. These armed groups were samurai or bushi.

Their status in society was established only when a military government was created by the Minamoto family in 1192 called the Shogunate. The Shogunate pushed forward the austerity and pursuit of martial arts and its related disciplines for the Samurai. Eventually the studies were codified and called Bushido - the Way of the Samurai.

Over a period of time unarmed combat techniques reformed themselves with different systems and styles. Changing battlefield situations and the technical requirements of feudal warfare led to the setting up of various ryu or schools which were controlled and passed down through large powerful families. One of these systems was Aikijujutsu. Exact origin of Aiki techniques is unknown but it is said that the Aiki system was originated by Prince Teijun, the sixth son of the Emperor Seiwa, and succeeding generations of the Minamoto family then kept up the tradition it seems that the foundations of modern Aikido had already been laid by the time the art reached Yoshimitsu Shinra Saburo the younger brother of Minamoto Yoshike,.

Yoshimitsu was a man of outstanding learning and skill who devised many of his techniques by observing a spider skillfully trap a large insect in its fragile web. His system of Aikijujutsu is called Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. The techniques of Daito Ryu were handed down generations as secret techniques of the Takeda house, and were taught only to family members and retainers. In 1574 When Takeda Kunitsugu moved to Aizu, the techniques came to be known as Aizu-todome or secret techniques.

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