Nakakura Kiyoshi was a Japanese kendo and iaido master, achieving 9th dan in both. He was instrumental in shaping post-War kendo and a very influential teacher. He was the Khabib Nurmagomedov of Kendo, an undefeated grand master.
A swordsman without peer in his generation such as Nakakura deserves more than just a little mention. But here’s the real reason why I wanted to write about him; Nakakura Kiyoshi was the adopted son of the founder of Aikido, Ueshiba Morihei. He was the original chosen one, married into the Ueshiba family to succeed O’Sensei.
Second Doshu, Ueshiba Kisshomaru, was, from all accounts, a wonderful man. It’s thanks to him that we have aikido today as we know it. He assumed the title of Doshu in 1969 upon the death of his father. Kisshomaru was the first person in aikido to be widely referred to as Doshu but it’s a very little known fact that he was not his father’s original choice to succeed him. That honour belonged to Nakakura Kiyoshi.
Nakakura was sent to Hombu dojo and was impressed with O’Sensei’s martial arts skills, particularly after his adopted father was able to fend off a simultaneous attack from both Nakakura and the fencing expert Haga Junichi.
In Japan, men have been taking their wives' last names for a long time. This may seem surprising considering that Japanese society is very male dominant, but it's done for practical, usually business, purposes. If the woman's family has a well known family business, and the man marrying the woman is going to enter, and eventually take over that business, he is legally adopted by the woman's family and thus takes her surname along with it. This is called becoming a yo-shi. The word and concept is the same as for a child being adopted.
The underground legend tells the story like this: Simply, Nakakura was such a gifted swordsman that O’Sensei handpicked him to be his successor. He married O’Sensei's daughter Matsuko and was legally adopted into the Ueshiba family, taking the name Ueshiba Morihiro.
Morihiro was teaching kendo and sword work in the Aikikai Hombu dojo, as well as practicing and teaching Aikido. You could say, people used to cross train in Aikido.
The end of the underground legend has it that Nakakura disagreed with O’Sensei’s Oomoto-kyo religious beliefs and left the family after a few years, giving up the Ueshiba name and the cash cow it would become.
In a 1987 interview which I found on Aikido Journal, Nakakura tells the story a bit differently. Was he being politically correct, or is his version the truth?
Kiyoshi: “Ueshiba Sensei used to say that Aikido is closer to Kendo than it is to Judo. Therefore, he expressed his desire to receive an adopted son from the Kendo side. Ueshiba Sensei asked if Nakayama (Kiyoshi’s teacher) Sensei knew any appropriate person. There were lots of people from Kagoshima Prefecture in Ueshiba’s dojo. For example, there was Count Gombei Yamamoto. He was the one who called Mr. Ueshiba from Kishu, you know. There was also his son, Kiyoshi Yamamoto who was a lieutenant and his nephew, Eisuke Yamamoto, also an admiral who was a Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. Then there was Isamu Takeshita who had a keen interest in Aikido and was practicing the art very seriously. He also was an admiral and was from Kagoshima Prefecture. Given this situation, Nakayama Sensei chose me since I was also from Kagoshima Prefecture. Then Nakayama Sensei stood as my guarantor in place of my parents.
I was practicing both Kendo and Aikido. Although I was practicing Aikido, I found Mr. Ueshiba to be superhuman and felt that I would never be able to master the techniques he was doing and so would not be able to succeed him. I felt that I should not cling to the position as his successor. Then I went to see Nakayama Sensei and told him that I did not think I would be able to succeed him and would like to leave the Ueshiba family. Nakayama Sensei said that he understood but told me to wait since he himself would go and talk to Mr. Ueshiba. It was just before I left the Kobukan. I departed in 1937.”
He tells the story differently, but later on in the same interview he says this:
“The Omoto religion did have a positive influence on Mr. Ueshiba as well as on Aikido. However, there were some negative aspects too. I think it is because Mr. Ueshiba was an Omoto believer that he created such divine techniques and also came to hold such a faith. So these are pluses. However, from our standpoint, a religion responsible for an incident of lese majeste is questionable. Actually, though, I don’t know now whether the activities of the religion were really disrespectful to the Emperor or not.”
Interesting! By the way, I googled lèse-majesté and it’s a French term meaning "to do wrong to majesty".
Nakakura goes on further:
“In the Omoto incident of 1935, Onisaburo Deguchi Sensei as well as his wife, the second successor of the religion, were arrested. Also, the Osaka police department was ordered to arrest Ueshiba by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At that time he was instructing police officers including a Mr. Kenji Tomita who was then the chief of the Sonezaki Police Department and who later became the head of the Criminal Law Bureau. Mr. Tomita knew that Mr. Ueshiba was not the sort of person who would involve himself in a lese majesteaffair. Mr. Tomita insisted that if they were going to arrest Mr. Ueshiba, they would have to arrest him first. It was because of his efforts that Mr. Ueshiba was not detained.
In the Ueshiba Dojo there were shrines dedicated to Omoto deities and many framed calligraphic works by Reverend Onisaburo Deguchi hung on the wall. They were things which Mr. Ueshiba valued highly. However, I tore all of them down and burned them (after the incident). The live-in students were surprised and asked me if it was all right for me to do so. However, it had nothing to do with being right or wrong. To hang up or display such things was a lese majeste affair, you see. If Mr. Ueshiba’s wife was present then, I don’t think I could have done such a thing. I could only do it because nobody was there.”
The Omoto incident of 1935, occurred on the 8th of December that year. The Japanese military government suppressed the Omoto religion and destroyed most of its property. Deguchi Onisaburo and his wife, Sumi, and several other Omoto leaders, were arrested and convicted of disturbing the peace and lese majeste. The Budo Senyokai (Society for the Promotion of Martial Arts), an organization established in August of 1932 under the Omoto religion for the promotion of martial arts activities, was disbanded and O’Sensei was compelled to break off his association with the religious sect.
The Budo Senyokai is interesting too. It seems to have been a propaganda and sales machine for O’Sensei, who was its first director. Several issues of a newsletter entitled Budo were published and included articles signed by O’Sensei but were actually written by Ashihara Bansho (Aiki News #41).
All very interesting history. Where would Aikido be now if Nakakura Kiyoshi had remained as second Doshu? We’ll never know, but what we do know is the fact that a clever salaryman took over the empire and turned Aikido into an art practiced by hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, worldwide today.
RIP to both men.