at the Hombu for weeks at a time, checking in occasionally with Yama-san to make sure everything was okay, and returning about once a month to meet with Capt. Rausch in person to ensure he was satisfied. “Very satisfactory,” Rausch would say. ‘You’re doing a good job!” And so Suenaka would thank his CO, pay Yama-san his 2,000 yen, and return to the Hombu. Paid by Uncle Sam to study aikido under the Founder; it was a pretty sweet deal.
Even with his near constant study at the Hombu, Suenaka from time to time took a few days to travel from dojo to dojo to observe and study other styles, both familiar and foreign. Suenaka visited dojos not only in Tokyo, but in Shizuoka, Nagano, Beppu, Osaka, and other cities. Many of these visits were part of his travels with O’Sensei, Tohei Sensei, and other uchi deshi as part of teaching assignments, both during his time at Tachikawa and during his subsequent years in Okinawa (discussed later), but just as many were undertaken alone. (Note: Many of the events described hereinafter occurred over a period of several years, for reasons which will also be addressed later.)
Suenaka Sensei with judo Meijin (10th dan master) Kazuo Ito at the Kodokan in Tokyo; Winter, 1969
One of the first places Suenaka visited was the Kodokan, established in 1882 by judo founder Jigoro Kano, the Mecca for judoka worldwide as much as the Aikikai Hombu is for aikidoka. It was there that Suenaka met Meijin Kyuzo Mifune, one of the world’s most celebrated judoka, and Meijin Kazuo Ito, under whom Suenaka studied whenever he was at the Kodokan. Suenaka had the great honor and good fortune of occasionally practicing with Mifune Sensei: “He threw me around quite a few times!,” recalls Suenaka. “It was very pleasurable being thrown around by him; it was like being used as an uke by O’Sensei.” Suenaka also studied from time to time under Ito contemporary Sumiyuki Kotani, but it was Ito Sensei with whom he spent most of his time. The judo and jujutsu master, at the time in his early sixties, took the young Hawaiian under his wing, and the two soon developed a relationship much like Suenaka’s relationship with O’Sensei, with Suenaka serving as Ito’s deshi whenever he was at the Kodokan. One might think O’Sensei would have discouraged Suenaka’s study of other arts, but the contrary proved to be true. It was precisely because of Suenaka’s pre-aikido experience in judo, kempo, and jujutsu that the Founder gave his blessing to Suenaka’s extracurricular studies. Indeed, O’Sensei made a point of discussing Suenaka’s outside studies with him whenever he returned to the Hombu: “He would ask me how they were teaching, and what I thought about them. Of course, he was very happy when I told him that nothing compared to aikido!” Ultimately, in his position as president of the Kodokan promotional board, it was Ito Sensei who, in 1970, encouraged Suenaka Sensei to request promotion to sandan (third degree black belt) in judo and jujutsu, and who personally awarded him those ranks; his dual certificate is signed by Ito Sensei and Risei Kano, son of Jigoro Kano.
Less frequent but no less educational were Suenaka’s occasional visits to Masutatsu Oyama’s Kyokushin-kai karate hombu, his first introduction to that rather brutal and unforgiving martial art form. All three of his brothers had studied Kyokushin-kai in Hawaii under Edward “Bobby” Lowe, one of Mas Oyama’s chief pupils, but Suenaka himself had been too busy with his other martial studies to join them. Fit and experienced as he was, Suenaka was forced to limit his study to a maximum of two hours a week, lest he risk injuries that would interfere with his judo and aikido studies. Still, he relished his time there, and the hard lessons learned.
Despite his outside studies, Suenaka’s heart remained true to aikido, and the more time he spent with O’Sensei, the more their relationship grew. The Founder seemed to have a distinct fondness for “Suenaka-kun” (kun is an affectionate term; roughly, “Young Suenaka”), perhaps because of their unique first meetings. Regardless of the reasons, Suenaka found himself spending a lot of time with O’Sensei. He often served as his kaban mochi (personal valet) when O’Sensei traveled; carrying his bags, holding doors open, or assisting the vigorous but nevertheless aged Founder up and down stairs. Often, O’Sensei personally requested that Suenaka accompany him. Other times, Suenaka was chosen by Tendokan founder Kenji Shimizu, a favorite uchi deshi of O’Sensei. Suenaka was also lucky enough to be invited to join O’Sensei from time to time as the Founder visited area temples to meditate, or traveled to the Aiki Jinja (aikido shrine) at his country home in Iwama, for practice and meditation. (Morihiro Saito Sensei, at the time in his early 30s, was the assigned caretaker of the jinja, a duty he maintains today.) Though an enviable honor, traveling with O’Sensei was pretty much a formal affair, as Suenaka recalls:
“[O’Sensei] never really talked too much. He was very private, very busy. The only time we really talked was when he was relaxing, or while we were eating. Usually when he traveled, he never talked too much. You couldn’t really go up to him and engage him in conversation, not from your side. If he asked you to come sit with him and talk, that’s when you talked. Otherwise, in our travels, he would spend his free time resting or sleeping.”
There are stories of O’Sensei, particularly in the early days of aikido, putting his attendants to the test; for example, changing his mind about boarding a train at the last possible moment, sending his valets scrambling to retrieve his bags and arrange new transportation. However, Suenaka never experienced any of this:
“It might be true that in the old days O’Sensei did that, but he wasn’t like that while I was [in Japan]. He never really tested us or tried to fool us like that. He might have done that before, playfully, or maybe just decided to change his mind for whatever reason, but it was all pretty straightforward when we were with him. He was a real serious guy.”
As Suenaka’s relationship with O’Sensei grew, so did his relationship with the man who first introduced him to aikido, Koichi Tohei. Thanks to the Air Force, Suenaka was one of the few original Hawaiian aikidoka who was able to spend an appreciable length of time studying at the Hombu, and so developed a relationship with Tohei perhaps unrivaled by those whose aikido practice began as his did, with Tohei’s first Hawaiian visit in 1953. Just over forty years old at the time of Suenaka’s arrival in Japan, Tohei was entering into his physical and martial prime. Handsome, charismatic, and boasting powerful technique, he was a commanding and popular presence on the mat and off, and had an equally powerful personal effect on young Suenaka. Tohei Sensei recognized Suenaka from his many trips to Hawaii, and upon returning to Japan about a month after Suenaka’s arrival there, Tohei took the younger man under his wing from the very start: “My relationship with Tohei Sensei was, I guess you would say, like a father and son . . . we had a lot of respect for each other, a lot of love for each other . . . . And even today, [I] have a lot of love and respect for him.”
Suenaka Sensei with Koichi Tohei at Iwama; April, 1964.
As their relationship grew, Tohei took Suenaka with him on his frequent travels throughout Japan as his personal deshi, teaching aikido and lecturing and, after the day’s work was done, spending the night on the town. “We did a lot of things together,” Suenaka recalls. “We went out together, partied together, went nightclubbing together, ate together. . . . He had a lot of friends, and was a very popular person all over Japan.” In his position as chief Hombu instructor, Tohei Sensei pretty much set his own schedule, arranging his own demonstrations and lectures, departing and returning to the Hombu as he wished.
Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Suenaka Sensei, at O’Sensei’s Iwama dojo; April 1964. The figure seen in silhouette in the doorway behind them is O’Sensei.
Suenaka Sensei with Kisshomaru Ueshiba at the Aikikai Hombu; December, 1993.
Where his relationship with Tohei
