Morihei Ueshiba was born on December 14th, 1883, in the village of Nishinotani (now Tanabe) located within the Wakayama Prefecture. He is often referred to as “The Founder”, or “O-Sensei” (Great Teacher).
O-Sensei studied a number of martial arts, during his early adulthood. He served in the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War, and after being discharged in 1907, he met Sokaku Takeda, the founder of Daito-Ryu Aiki-Jujutsu.
Ueshiba Sensei practiced Daito-Ryu for almost 20 years, earning a “kaishaku sodensho”, the highest rank awarded in Daito-Ryu, at the time.
In the latter half of the 1920s, O-Sensei moved to Tokyo and began construction of a formal dojo located in the Ushigome district. In 1931, the “Kobukan” was completed on the site of the present day Aikido World Headquarters. O-Sensei was Chief Instructor of the Kobukan until 1942, when he left the Kobukan to his son Kisshomaru Ueshiba, and moved to the village of Iwama located in the Ibaraki Prefecture.
After relocating to Iwama, Ueshiba Sensei constructed both a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. It was during his years in Iwama that Ueshiba Sensei created the art that we know today as Aikido.
