Morihei Ueshiba - Asahi Shinbun Video (1935)

AI enhanced, enriched with commentary and explanations, this is the ultimate version of the Asai Shinbun footage, the best video we have of Ueshiba’s aiki. Of all the surviving documents from the prewar era, perhaps the most important is the 1935 film on Morihei shot at the Asahi News company in Osaka. This film was shot with sound in 16mm format and runs just over 14 minutes. Morihei demonstrates numerous techniques of suwariwaza, hanza handachi (hanmi handachi), tachiwaza, multiple attacks, sword and juken. His partners are Shigemi Yonekawa and Tsutomu Yukawa. There are brief appearances by Takuma Hisa and Rinjiro Shirata. Most of the techniques retained in this film are advanced and are performed in a fluid style that builds up to a spectacular final multiple attack! One is struck by the modernity of many techniques and the “ki no nagare“ like style of execution. The visual and aural impact of this film is outstanding and provides a window into time on Morihei’s wonderful techniques of that era. The influence of Daito-ryu techniques in this film is much less obvious than the techniques contained in Budo Renshu and the Noma Dojo photos, the latter series taken very close in time to Asahi’s film. For quality Budo books visit: The background related to the discovery of this rare film This is how Stanley Pranin describes his re-discovery of the Asahi Shinbun film. “I had known about the existence of Morihei’s 1935 film for several years. Some of the elders had actually seen the old Asahi News documentary and spoke of it in terms that fueled the imagination. Why was this precious document being kept hidden? “Since the film had stopped being shown and was out of circulation, my only hope was to find an outside source. It was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, I accepted the challenge with myself to find it. One day, a Japanese friend discovered something that looked promising. It was a certain prewar film languishing among thousands of others in an archive in Tokyo. It seemed to contain some old Jujutsu footage and was titled simply ’Budo’. There was not much to speculate on, but it was an interesting find nonetheless. “In 1979 a private screening was arranged for me. I sat in the viewing room while the cameraman threaded the film into the 16mm projector. After that, the lights dimmed and the projector began to spin, making a loud noise. The titles darted onto the screen accompanied by a rather grandiose musical theme, and I sat in my seat holding my breath. “At that point, a short, muscular man with a bald head quickly approached the tatami and bowed to his students. I felt tears come to my eyes, for at that moment I realized that I was looking at Morihei at the age of 51! I felt as if I had stepped into a time machine and was watching the Founder’s extraordinary technique in a trance-like state. “Within a few weeks, the precious film had been snatched from the jaws of oblivion and made available to Aikido practitioners around the world. It was a moment of deep satisfaction for me on a personal level.“ The Asahi Shinbun film is the result of Takuma Hisa’s efforts. Takuma Hisa was a prominent Japanese martial artist, early student in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu of both Sokaku Takeda and aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba. Hisa recalls seeing the film 44 years later: “(…) to tell the truth I completely forgot that I had even taken the film, let alone where I had put it. But recently [1979], an American named Stanley Pranin, who is researching various things about Ueshiba’s aikido, discovered this film and brought it to show me. I was quite surprised at the opening credits where all of a sudden my name appeared, “Asahi News Film, directed by Takuma Hisa.” “Before long I was amazed to see myself as a young man! I watched this together with Yonekawa, one of the top students from the Ueshiba Dojo. We two old men sat there watching and couldn’t stop chuckling and teasing each other about how young we both were in the film. It was like riding in a time machine!” Subscribe to The Ran Network’s channel: Tokimune Takeda’s on the Asai Shinbun footage According to Ellis Amdur, Stanley Pranin showed Budo to Takeda Tokimune as well. After watching the film, Tokimune sensei’s comment was “Wow! He was doing Daitō-ryū after all!“ Consider the implications of this: the oldest Daitō-ryū film we have, so recognized by Takeda Sokaku’s son, is this film shot by Takuma Hisa for Morihei Ueshiba. In 1936, Sokaku Takeda appeared in Osaka, and took over instruction of the Asahi Shinbun group from Morihei Ueshiba. Takeda taught at the Asahi dojo through ca. 1940.