position. As the son of the Founder, Doshu was charged with the day-to-day administrative duties necessary to run the organization. Suenaka describes his relationship with Doshu as “. . . business-like. Knowing that Tohei Sensei and I were very close, and I was one of his deshi, Doshu didn’t ignore me, but he left me to Tohei Sensei’s guidance.” Still, there were many times during the years Suenaka studied at the Hombu during which he accompanied Doshu to the Aiki Jinja in Iwama to meditate and say prayers. Whenever he traveled to the Hombu, Suenaka would formally request permission to spend a few moments with Doshu, both out of respect for Doshu’s position and out of curiosity and a sincere desire to get to know him better. “He always had time to talk to me,” Suenaka says. “Of course, I would bring gifts. In Japan, you have to bring gifts . . . they bring gifts, you bring gifts. I brought real good gifts—Napoleon brandy and Henessey cognac—so they were very appreciative! But I wasn’t buying favors, and they understood that. He gave me his time, and I respect him for that. Whenever we got together, [Doshu] was such a warm person. He is reserved, but very humble, self-effacing. He is a very gracious person.”
With Koichi Tohei, Suenaka also found the opportunity to practice misogi (ritual purification) with disciples of Shin-Shin Toitsu Do (“Way of Mind and Body Coordinated”), the spiritual development system founded by Tempu Nakamura and based on elements of yoga and other spiritual disciplines, as well as swordsmanship. Suenaka and others would make pilgrimages into the mountains, kneeling in meditation in the snow, then plunging shirtless into an icy mountain stream, kneeling in the water up to their necks, then running back to kneel in the snow once again and continue meditating. “After a while, the water felt warmer than the air!,” says Suenaka. “But it really focused you, and made you tough.”
Nakamura’s teachings had an even greater influence on Tohei. When he ultimately severed relations with the Hombu in the years following O’Sensei’s death, Tohei Sensei christened his new organization Shin-Shin Toitsu aikido (Aikido with Mind and Body Coordinated), and gradually shifted his teaching emphasis from physical waza to ki development almost exclusively (discussed later).
The arrangement at the Hombu was too good to be true, and so perhaps too good to last. In May of 1961, about three months after his arrival in Japan, Airman Suenaka unexpectedly received transfer orders. He was still considered a surplus airman, remaining in Japan only until the Air Force could find room for him elsewhere, which they did—in Korea. Suenaka was shocked. Regardless of its close geographic proximity, it might as well have been on another planet. But having just tasted what it was like to study with O’Sensei, he wasn’t about to give it up without a fight. Fortunately, he had a cousin who was assigned to the 5th Air Force, the regional command. Suenaka pleaded with him to do whatever he could to allow him to remain in Japan. “He said, ‘The best I can do for you is Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.” The U.S. government was constructing a missile base there to help defend the Japanese mainland, Okinawa and nearby smaller islands against possible attack by the Communist Chinese, and servicemen possessing electrical engineering skills like Suenaka were in high demand. Still, at the time, Okinawa seemed to him no better than Korea. It was even more distant from Tokyo, and the likelihood of being able to spend weeks at a time studying at the Hombu, as he was then, seemed remote at best. On the other hand, Okinawa was obviously more akin culturally to Japan than was Korea, so Suenaka would feel more at home, especially considering that while his Japanese was still rusty, he spoke no Korean. And while travel to the Hombu might be difficult, it wouldn’t be impossible. Okinawa was clearly his best alternative, and he accepted the assignment. Once again, though, it seemed as if divine providence was guiding Suenaka’s life; far from being a disappointment, his stay in Okinawa was to become one of the most significant periods in both his martial development and his personal life.
CHAPTER FIVE
Okinawa And Elsewhere
As it turned out, Suenaka Sensei’s fear that moving to Okinawa would seriously curtail his study at the Hombu was unrealized. The air force was still actively encouraging servicemen and women to pursue the martial arts, as part of fitness and survival training for air crews and related personnel. When Suenaka arrived at Kadena in May of 1961, he found more sympathy than resistance from his command when it came to furthering his martial education. Again, because of the nature of his duties, Suenaka was able to take what is known as “permissive TDY” (temporary duty), meaning he was given permission by his CO to take occasional personal leave; granted, not as frequently as when he was stationed in Tokyo, but still, he managed to visit and study with O’Sensei four or five times a year, for several weeks at a time, serving as an uchi deshi and, later, a personal deshi to Tohei Sensei. Suenaka recalls one of his more humorous experiences with O’Sensei from this time, involving Tendokan aikido founder Kenji Shimizu:
“It was in the spring of 1964. It was the Aiki-Matsuri, the Aiki Festival, which was held every year in Iwama, at the aiki shrine. People came from all over the world to pay homage to the Aiki-Jinja and O’Sensei. There were about two or three hundred people there—Robert Frager, Robert Nadeau, Terry Dobson, several instructors from the U.S., although I can’t remember anyone from Hawaii being there. But anyway, Kenji Shimizu and I went there early in the morning, around eight o’clock, to wait for O’Sensei. I think he arrived at about noon, by car, and all the uchi deshi were waiting around for him.
Tendokan aikido founder Kenji Shimizu and Suenaka Sensei at Iwama; April, 1964.
Shimizu Sensei and Suenaka Sensei at Shimizu’s dojo in Setagaya, Japan; Winter, 1993
“The car pulled up right in front of the dojo, and as it happened Shimizu and I were standing right there. So when the car door opened and O’Sensei stepped out, we reached forward and each of us took one of his hands in ours, to help him, and walked him up the stairs to the dojo. By that time most everyone besides the deshi were waiting for O’Sensei inside the dojo, and it was a small dojo, too, even smaller than it is today, so the place was packed, the walls were lined with people. So Shimizu and I helped O’Sensei to the middle of the mat, and when we got there we continued to hold his hands. I don’t know why; maybe we were nervous or something. But O’Sensei looked around at all the people there, and then he slowly looked over at me, then at Shimizu, and he had to be thinking, ‘What are these two idiots doing still holding my hands?’ And then suddenly, wham! He executed a double sayu-nage, his arms came up and back and Shimizu and I flew backwards. I mean, our feet came up off the mat and we somersaulted and slammed into the tatami. It hit us like a freight train! And there was O’Sensei looking down at us, and he said, “Why were you holding my hands? What, do you think I’m a useless old man, I can’t stand up on my own?” He wasn’t really angry with us, but he wasn’t really joking, either. He was scolding us, ‘What’s the matter with you two?,’ that sort of attitude. Of course, Shimizu and I were bowing: ‘Hai O’Sensei! Gomen nasai!’ (‘Yes, O’Sensei, I’m sorry!’). We hopped right back up and took our places by his side again, but we didn’t hold his hands! And then he told us, ‘Now, go sit down.’ It was pretty funny.”
Immediately upon his arrival at Kadena, Suenaka began teaching aikido in the base gymnasium, gradually accumulating students from base personnel. He did this with O’Sensei’s blessing, secured prior to his departure from Japan, as the Founder was eager to introduce aikido to Okinawa. Twice before, aikidoka had traveled to the birthplace of Japanese karate to promote the art there, only to quickly be sent packing by the local karateka; literally, challenged on the mat and defeated in single combat. Each time, the instigator of these long trips home to the Hombu was Fusei Kise.
Born in 1935, Fusei Kise first began studying martial arts at age twelve, augmenting his primary training in later years
