Tom wrote:Sagawa Yukiyoshi was a long-time student of Takeda Sokaku, the founder of Daito Ryu aikijujutsu. In terms of skill, Sagawa was probably at least on a par with Ueshiba Morihei. Sagawa maintained a small private dojo, very difficult to gain entry to as a student. He taught primarily because he needed bodies to continue his own shugyo and skill development, not so much because he wanted to teach or because he needed the money.
Sagawa Yukiyoshi is probably the person who spent most time traveling around Japan with Sokaku in the first part of the last century. Originally born in Hokkaido, his father ran a small but successful business there and Sagawa´s father was himself a student of Sokaku. As a matter of fact, the Sagawas were quite wealthy and could afford to "invite" Sokaku for long periods of time. Sokaku taught both Nenokichi and Yukiyoshi.
According to Sagawa Yukiyoshi, he understood the principle of aiki at 17 after extensive practice of the Aiki-age/Age-te exercice.
Sagawa stated that this achievement is the starting point of his martial career. Thanks to his wealth, Sagawa has been in a position to train throughout his entire life without beeing worried about finding a job or having difficulty making ends meet which is, of course, a perfect situation especially for somebody fanatic about Shugyo. After Sokaku´s passing and the end of WW II, Sagawa went underground and taught in a dojo attached to his house in Tokyo and seems to have been both extremely secretive in his teaching and selective in choosing students.
It might be a mere coincidence but Takeda Tokimune, the son and appointed successor of Sokaku, was also running a dojo, called the Daitokan, attached to his house and was also quite selective. He was living in Abashiri, northern Hokkaido in what was, at the time, a rather remote place. It seems that Tokimune tried on two occasions, 1954 and 1974, to pass on the Daito school to Sagawa, without success.
It is worth noting that while Sagawa was still alive, he was not known even in the Budo/Bujutsu community and that he kept a low profile and was not affiliated with Tokimune Takeda´s group or with any other. If Sagawa is known (and discussed) today it is primarily thanks to the efforts of one of his deshi, Kimura Tatsuo who wrote two books, the famous "Transparent power" translated in english and a second one "discovering Aiki, my 20 years with Yukiyoshi Sagawa Sensei" this book has only 48 pages translated into english but for those who can read french, a full version of the book with a lot of nice pictures and "advice" is available.
In Europe, Tokitsu Kenji was probably the first to talk about Sagawa. Tokitsu Sensei is both an accomplished martial artist and a researcher. About 20 years ago, he started translating some parts of transparent power.
Among Daito-ryu circles, Sagawa is generally considered as the most prominent figure. His skills were said to be extraordinary. Sagawa was also very critical of other Daito-ryu branches, including Takeda Tokimune´s one and did not get along with Ueshiba Morihei, the founder of Aikido. In substance, Sagawa claimed to be "the one and the only" belittling all of Sokaku´s deshi. This include men like Ueshiba Morihei, Takeda Tokimune, Yoshida Kotaro, Horikawa Kodo, Matsuda Toshimi and others.
Even though the hype around Sagawa is important, I think that his statements were incorrect. Sagawa might have been the "best" for what it worth but, as a matter of fact, his fellow practioner of Daito-ryu were indeed very skilled. There are now people from the Matsuda and the Yoshida branch who teach in the open and that display serious skills. I guess that what is to be found in transparent power should be taken with a a grain of salt.
In any case, the Sagawa-ha Daito-ryu Aikibujutsu, now run by Kimura Tatsuo has kept a low profile and even for people living in Japan, it is still very difficult to get accepted as a student.
Back to the original topic, I might end up ordering a book which could turn out to be a good read but as far as I know Sagawa never mentioned Taichi or any kind of chinese martial art. Sure enough, there are a lot of similarities in Daito-ryu aiki and Chinese internal martial arts. Interestingly, one of Sagawa´s deshi, Keisetsu Deshimaru studied Chinese martial arts after he left the Sagawa dojo. Some say that his skills got better after that since he could gain valuable information in CMA.
