Hirokazu Kobayashi (aikidoka)

(b. December 14, 1929 - d. August 28, 1998) was a Japanese aikido teacher and student of the founder of aikido Morihei Ueshiba. In 1970, at 41 he was awarded 8th dan rank. [http://www2.117.ne.jp/~aikidou/kobayasi_s1.htm]

Already by the age of 7 years he was studying karate, kendo and judo. At 15 he was stationed as a kamikaze pilot on an aircraft carrier. When it came to his deployment a technical defect prevented his airplane from joining his flight. The remaining members of his flight died. Before he could come to the next "last deployment", the aircraft carrier was torpedoed by a submarine and sank. Kobayashi was one of few survivors. After four days in the water badly injured he was saved. He had held fast during the entire time to wood planks and barrels.

In 1946 his karate teacher gave him a recommendation letter for Morihei Ueshiba. With this letter he went to Tokyo, in order to learn the martial art aikido.

Kobayashi was friendly with Morihiro Saito, with which he shared the role of uke to Ueshiba. During the aikido training if Saito was mostly requested as uke, then Kobayashi followed with the sword. For this reason Kobayashi felt always extremely connected to aikiken. Kobayashi described the long time at Ueshiba's side not only as uke, but also outside of the dojo as company of the impulsive aikido founder, as extremely hard.

In Tokyo Kobayashi stayed altogether about nine years. In 1954 he moved to Osaka. Morihei Ueshiba was nearly each month in Osaka, in order to hold ten-day-long training courses. According to Ueshiba 10 days at a time is the optimum in order to learn and understand aikidoFact|date=November 2007.

From 1957 Kobayashi trained full-time in aikido. If he did not accompany Ueshiba, he taught at universities in Osaka and Kobe. In 1964 he was awarded 7th dan. In this year he was asked by Ueshiba for the first time to teach aikido in Europe. Until 1996 Kobayashi visited Europe each year for several weeks. He gave regular training courses in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

Kobayashi had a cordial relationship with Kenji Tomiki, founder of Tomiki Aikido. On 10th October 1969, Kobayashi invited Tomiki to Osaka, where the latter gave a short course to introduce competitive aikido to students from six local universities. In aikido circles, there was friction regarding competitive aikido because nobody knew Tomiki's theories or the essence of his aikido. Kobayashi met with Tomiki to try to understand his techniques and his intentions. He suggested that Tomiki show his aikido to the students as the best way for everyone to understand.

One of Tomiki's instructors, Tetsuro Nariyama, came to Osaka from Kokushikan University. Nariyama taught in Shodokan but at the same time he was learning from Kobayashi who was teaching in the universities in that area. He accompanied Kobayashi to lessons and had the chance to introduce the students to randori. However, the impetus came from Tomiki and Kobayashi and the trust between them.

In 1982, Kobayashi set up the Autonomous Academy of Aikido Kobayashi Hirokazu (3AKH) with his student Andre Cognard and set up several schools in France to propagate the Kobayashi aikido style.

The Autonomous Academy of Aikido now belongs to Kokusai Aikidō Kenshūkai Kobayashi Hirokazu Ha, a school created in 1998 whose vocation is to diffuse and to develop Aikido of Kobayashi.

Kobayashi died in August 1998 after an illness.

ources

* [http://aikido.shoshin.de/aikido/kobayashi-biographie_1.html Web Biography in German]
* [http://www.aikidojournal.com/encyclopedia?entryID=399 Aikido Journal biography entry]
* "The Heart of the Aikido of Hirokazu Kobayashi Sensei" Bu Iku Knightly Education written by Yasuhiko Kunimoto