Morihiro Saito Sensei (1928-2003) was a top student of O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. After O Sensei's death, Saito Sensei was the caretaker of the Aiki Shrine (Aiki Jinja) in Iwama and in charge of the Iwama Aikido Dojo. It is said that O Sensei refined Aikido at the Iwama dojo after World War II, and Saito Sensei had been a live in student (uchi deshi) since that time.
In 1972, a few years after O Sensei's death, Saito Sensei published a set of 5 books on Aikido, titled Traditional Aikido Vol 1-5. These books speak little of Aikido's philosophy but focuses on the technical aspects through hundreds of photographs. Saito Sensei stayed loyal to O Sensei's teaching and this is his version of what O Sensei taught to be Aikido.
Traditional Aikido volumes are now out of print, you may find some old copies on sale on Amazon or even on Ebay at a ridiculously high price. Last time I checked some was sold for over $200. Anyone interested in Aikido should have access to these books for reference of the Iwama way of Aikido, even if you don't practice the Iwama style.
Recently, some kind soul has created electronic version of these books (.pdf) and put them up online which you can download via a torrent client. Just search any of the major torrent search websites for Aikido and you should find it. I must express my sincere gratitude to whoever has made this effort and saved these books from fading into history.
If you download these books, you will find it is dificult to follow the electronic version on screen. It is because many technics are presented in horizontal layout which spans two pages, and on screen you normally don't see pages side by side. I have printed a couple of these volumes for easy read. If you do print though, you have to print on both sides (duplex) starting with an odd page number, otherwise the whole layout will be messed up and it won't help that you printed it out for easy reading. Something I learned the hard way. It is going to be a lot of ink because of the black Hakamas in all those photos.
Saito Sensei also created accompanying videos of these books, two short films titled Taijutsu 1, 2 (black & white) and another titled Takemusu Aikido (color), as well as short films presenting Jo and ken technics. These are available for sale, but you will also find them on youtube, if you search for Morihiro Saito.
Saito Sensei in the later years has created another set of technical books, titled Takemusu Aikido series (Vol 1-5) which presents the variations of Aikido technics rather than the basics. These books are distributed by Aikido Journal (Aikinews of Japan) and they are still available from AikidoJournal.com or select Martial Arts stores. Unfortunately they are not available through major book stores like Amazon. These books too should be of interest to any Aikidoka.
Saito Sensei's son, Hitohiro Saito is the current caretaker of the Aiki Shrine and in charge of the Iwama dojo.
A great tribute to Saito Sensei I found was written by Gaku Homma Sensei: http://www.nippon-kan.org/senseis_articles/saito_tribute/saito_tribute.html
If you are interested in the Traditional Aikido Books but unable to download them for any reason, let me know.
Posted on November 28, 2007 06:54 by
Haider