Tohei Sensei

A Profile of Master Koichi Tohei’s Life Achievements

Tohei Sensei

1920 January 20th was born in Shiyata, Tokyo.
1923 Moved with family to hometown in in Tochigi. Had very poor health as a child but with help of his father he started to practice Judo.
1934 At the age of fourteen he received a black belt in Judo.
1937 When he was sixteen Tohei Sensei enroled in Keio Preparatory School for Keio Gijuku University. He joined the Judo club but sustained a bad injury to his chest after being thrown too hard by a large senior student. This injury developed into pleurisy and the consequence was that he was absent from school for one year. However during his time resting he began to study Zen, misogi, and waterfall training to develop his strength mentally and physically. His Zen teacher was Josei Ohta, the chief director of Daitokuji in Kyoto. He studied misogi from Tesshu Yamamoto’s top student, Tetsuju Ogura and his follower Tesso Hino.
1939 Enrolled in the study of Aikido with Master Morihei Ueshiba.
1944 He was sent to China in World War II. There were eighty men under his command. This wartime experience helped him to realize the difference between martial arts as a sport and real life and death fighting. Through this he realized the principle of calming the mind at the One Point, in a situation where the slightest hint of letting one’s mind wander, could result in death. Also, by his experience of getting sick on the battlefield and having no access to medicine or doctors, he developed Kiatsu therapy. After he came back from the war Tohei Sensei began to train again in Zen, misogi, and Aikido. He also studied Mind & Body Unification with a teacher called Tempuu Nakamura in Gokokuji, Otowa, Tokyo.
1953 Tohei Sensei travelled to the USA as the first Japanese to teach Aikido and Ki principles. From 1953 to 1982 Master Tohei went to the USA, Europe, and the South Pacific a total of twenty-eight times to give lectures.
1969 Master Morihei Ueshiba awarded Tohei Sensei the tenth degree of black belt in Aikido. This is the highest rank available.
1971 On September 16th Tohei Sensei established the Ki Society International with just six members. This was based on the four basic principles which he formulated for mind & body unification.
1972 On January 15th a temporary office for the Ki Society was established in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. On June 7th, Tohei Sensei officially appointed instructors and established a formal ranking and promotion system. June 18th, the first formal public Ki lecture given by Tohei Sensei as the founder and president of the Ki Society was held. On July 16th the First International Friendship Lecture was given in Hawaii. November 3rd on the first anniversary of the Ki Society, Tohei Sensei established a new office in Haramachi, Shijuku, Tokyo.
1973 On January 1st Year-end Breathing training was held and the first issue of Mind & Body Unification newsletter was published. January 3rd the first public participation of cold river training sponsored by the Ki Society was held. January 29th, first week long Mid-Winter Intensive Ki Breathing Training was held. On May 21st the first Ki lecture was delivered to a group of nine universities. August 20th, opened first Aikido training camp.
1974 On March 29th, Tohei Sensei went to the USA to assist recruit members for the Ki Society. May 1st he established the Principles of Aikido with Mind & Body Coordination and he held a founding party in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
1975 On May 1st he established an uchi-deshi, or residential student system, to train professional Aikido instructors. He created a dormitory for training the students in all aspects of daily life.
1976 On January 2nd, he established the Osaka Head Quarters and dojo. May 1st, created uchi-deshi system and a dormitory in Osaka, Japan. October 3rd, the fifth year anniversary party was held at the Palace Hotel in Tokyo.
1977 On March 3rd created a system of thirty sets of related Aikido techniques performed in sequence to help teach the applications of the basic techniques and to prevent the distortion of the way they are taught in the future. (In Japanese these are Taigi) October 19th the Ministry of Health awarded a government accreditation for the Ki Society, for spreading Ki principles to preserve and protect health.This is a very coveted and rarely presented award it reflected the hard background work to establish credibility. On November 20th held a party to celebrate accreditation, held at the Place Hotel.
1979 On March 3rd first All-Japan Taigi Contest was held at the National Olympic Youth Center. Traditionally there are no competition between partners, but rather between pairs of partners, this is to see which ones best demonstrate the qualities of mind and body coordination, rhythm, and timing. The most outstanding performances are recognized by Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. The Gold medal winners receive a promotion of one level of black belt. On June 11th Tohei Sensei went to Europe to teach Ki principles and Aikido, he also established a European branch of the Ki Society. He went to Belgium, Italy, France and England.
1980 On February 24th first Public Ki Lecture & Demonstration, was held at the Shinjuku Cultural Center. On April 10th established a two-year school to train Kiatsu therapists to help stem the increase of sick and weak people in modern society.
1981 On January 20th established the Ki no Genri Jissenkai, or organization to spread Ki principles and practice, to help those practicing Ki training in their homes, especially Ki breathing, Ki meditation, and Kiatsu. On June 1st established a system for training Jissenkai instructors.
1982 On March 21 the first graduating class from the Kiatsu Therapist School. On August 7th first pos-graduate training for Kiatsu.
1983 On April 10th established a two-year school to train Aikido instructors, with an intensive and comprehensive format, to increase the number of qualified instructors throughout the world.
1984 On March 8th first public Aikido demonstration, held at the Asahi Seimei Hall. March 17th first graduating class from the Aikido Instructors School.
1986 On January 6th began formal preparations to build the World Headquarters in Tochigi Prefecture, to be completed four years hence. April 10th a second Kiatsu school was established in Osaka, Japan.
1987 On October 8th university student clubs gave first public demonstration at the Japan Youth Building. On November 10th party was held to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ki Society.
1988 On July 6th first Ki lecture given by chief instructor Koretoshi Maruyama, at the Asahi Life Insurance Building.
1989 On February 5th first Jissenkai Public lecture was held at the Japan Youth Building.
1990 On October 28th opening ceremony to celebrate the completion of the New Ki Society World Headquarters Campus on the twentieth anniversary of the Ki Society. This massive training center is called Ki no Sato, or Homeland of Ki, based on the fact that it is located on the property where Tohei Sensei spent his youth. The entire campus covers 30,000 square meters of land.

I would like to thank William Reed Sensei for the information above, this was taken from his book “A Road That Anyone Can Walk.”