SOLO WEAPON TRAINING - Morihiro Saito Sensei - TAKEMUSU AIKIDO - Iwama, Japan

Saito Sensei solo weapon training in the outdoors near the Iwama Dojo . “By the late 1950s, the years of intensive training under the direct tutelage of the founder had transformed Saito into a powerful man and one of the top instructors in the Aikikai system. He taught regularly at the Iwama Dojo in Ueshiba’s absence and was asked to substitute for Koichi Tohei at the latter’s dojo in Utsunomiya when Tohei traveled to Hawaii to teach aikido. Around 1960, Saito also began to instruct on a weekly basis at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo and was the only teacher besides the founder himself permitted to teach aikido weapons there. His classes were among the most popular at the headquarters school and for many years Tokyo students gathered on Sunday mornings to practice free-hand and weapons techniques with Saito. After the founder’s death on April 26, 1969, Saito became chief instructor of the Iwama Dojo and also the guardian of the nearby Aiki Shrine. He had served the founder devotedly