Gozo Shioda
Template:Short description Template:Infobox martial artist
Template:Nihongo was a Japanese master of aikido who founded the Yoshinkan style of aikido.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009">Aikido Yoshinkan: About Gozo Shioda (Yoshinkan Founder) (c. 2009). Retrieved on February 27, 2010. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref name="BB1964">Anonymous (1964): "Yoshinkai Aikido Institute." Black Belt, 2(4):52–55.</ref> He was one of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba's most senior students.<ref name="BB1964"/><ref name="Adams1974">Adams, A. (1974): "Status report: The 'other' Aikido." Black Belt, 12(2):34–37.</ref><ref name="ZernowHadden1982">Zernow, D., & Hadden, J. (1982): "Aikido Yoshinkai: Power and harmony." Black Belt, 20(11):56–60, 84–87.</ref><ref name="Makiyama1983">Makiyama, T. H. (1983): Keijutsukai Aikido: Japanese art of self-defense (p. 9). Burbank, CA: Ohara. (Template:ISBN)</ref><ref name="KoganKim1996">Kogan, D., & Kim, S.-J. (1996): Tuttle dictionary of the martial arts of Korea, China & Japan (p. 311). Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle. (Template:ISBN)</ref> Shioda held the rank of 9th dan Aikikai and 10th dan of IMAF aikido.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/><ref name=":0" />
Early lifeEdit
Shioda was born on September 9, 1915, in Shinjuku, Tokyo.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/><ref name="BB1964"/><ref name="Adams1974"/> His father was Seiichi Shioda, a physician<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> who also taught judo and kendo.<ref name="ZernowHadden1982"/> Shioda was a weak child, and reportedly credited his survival to his father's pediatric skills.<ref name="Pranin1987">Pranin, S. A. (c. 1987): Morihei Ueshiba and Gozo Shioda Template:Webarchive Retrieved on February 28, 2010.</ref> While still at school, Shioda trained in judo, attaining the rank of 3rd dan before completing secondary school.<ref name="BB1964"/><ref name="Adams1974"/> He also trained in kendo during his youth.<ref name="Pranin2009">Pranin, S. A. (c. 2009): The Encyclopedia of Aikido: Shioda, Gozo Template:Webarchive Retrieved on February 28, 2010.</ref>
Aikido careerEdit
Shioda began training under the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, in 1932.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> His training as an uchi-deshi (live-in student) under Ueshiba continued for eight years.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/><ref name="ZernowHadden1982"/><ref name="Allemann2004">Allemann, B. (2004): Aikido (p. 13). London: New Holland. (Template:ISBN)</ref><ref name="Takeuchi1968">Template:Cite book</ref> Shioda was a small man, standing at around 5' 1" to 5' 2" (155–157 cm) and weighing around 102 lb. to 108 lb. (46–49 kg).<ref name="BB1964"/><ref name="Adams1974"/>
Shioda graduated from Takushoku University, where he went to class with Judo master Masahiko Kimura and Kyokushin Karate founder Mas Oyama, in 1941, and was posted to administrative positions in China, Taiwan, and Borneo during World War II.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> In one incident in China,<ref name="Shioda2002">Shioda, G. (2002): Aikido Shugyo: Harmony in confrontation (trans. J. Payet & C. Johnston) (p. 207). Shindokan Books International. (Template:ISBN)</ref> he was drinking in a bar with an army friend in Shanghai when the friend got into an argument with a local gang member. Three of his fellow gang members came to his assistance. Shioda and his friend were cornered by the gang. In the ensuing fight, Shioda broke the leg of one of the gang members, the arm of another, and stopped another by punching him in the stomach, all using his aikido skills.<ref name="Shioda2002"/> Shioda later described this incident as his 'aikido enlightenment' and wrote that one could only truly appreciate what aikido was about once one had used it in a life-or-death situation.<ref name="Shioda2002"/>
Shioda returned to Japan in 1946 and spent several months trying to locate his family on Kyushu.<ref name="Adams1974"/> He rejoined Ueshiba for a month of intensive training, but was forced to dedicate the next few years to earning a living in post-war Japan.<ref name="Adams1974"/> He began teaching aikido in 1950.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> That year, he taught for the company Nihon Kokan at the Asano Shipyards in Yokohama.<ref name="Adams1974"/> In 1954, he entered the All Japan Kobudo demonstration, and won the prize for the most outstanding demonstration.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> This marked a turning point for the growth of aikido. Shioda's performance attracted sponsorship that enabled him to build an aikido dōjō (training hall).<ref name="Pranin1987"/>
In 1955, Shioda founded the Yoshinkan style of aikido,<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> which emphasizes self-defense applications.<ref name="DangSeiser2003">Dang, P. T., & Seiser, L. (2003): Aikido basics (p. 22). Boston, MA: Tuttle. (Template:ISBN)</ref> The name "Yoshinkan" was the name Shioda's father had used for his own judo dōjō.<ref name="Shioda1986">Shioda, G. (1986): An Aikido life Template:Webarchive Aiki News (No. 72, September 1986). Retrieved on February 28, 2010.</ref> According to biographer Stanley Pranin, this separation from his master's school has been little understood.<ref name="Pranin1987"/> Pranin notes that Ueshiba's school independently recovered later on, so that "there never occurred a formal split between the two organizations despite their rather different approaches to aikido. The two groups simply evolved independently while maintaining more or less cordial ties."<ref name="Pranin1987"/>
In an interview with Andy Adams for Black Belt magazine, Shioda said, "I don't really feel that I broke away from the mainstream of aikido since there was nothing to break away from back then. Ueshiba sensei (the late Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido) was farming, his son Kisshomaru was working for some company, and the sensei's aikido dōjō at Iwama in Ibaragi Prefecture was being rented out as a dance hall" (p. 34).<ref name="Adams1974"/> Speaking about that same period, Moriteru Ueshiba said, "there was not yet much activity at the Hombu Dojo. For a time my father [Kisshomaru Ueshiba] was actually in Iwama instead ... starting around 1949, he worked for about seven years at a company called Osaka Shoji. He had no other choice. Even if you have a dojo, you can't make a living if nobody is coming to train, which was largely the case after the war. So, he took a job as an ordinary company employee during the day and taught only in the mornings and evenings."<ref name="Pranin1999">Pranin, S. A. (1999): Interview with Moriteru Ueshiba Template:Webarchive Retrieved on February 28, 2010.</ref>
In 1957, Shioda developed the Senshusei course, an intensive aikido training program,<ref name="YoshinkanHonbu2009">Aikido Yoshinkan: Honbu introduction Template:Webarchive (c. 2009). Retrieved on February 27, 2010.</ref> for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> In 1961, Ueshiba promoted Shioda to the rank of 9th dan.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> In 1973, Shioda sent Takashi Kushida, one of his most senior students, to introduce Yoshinkan aikido to the United States of America.<ref name="Shioda2002"/>
Later lifeEdit
In 1983, Shioda received the 'Hanshi' rank from the Kokusai Budoin-International Martial Arts Federation (IMAF), followed by the rank of 10th dan from IMAF in 1985.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> In 1990, together with his son Yasuhisa Shioda, he established the International Yoshinkan Aikido Federation.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/><ref name="Pranin2009"/> That same year, he established the international Senshusei program to develop Yoshinkan Aikido instructors across the world.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/>
Shioda died on July 17, 1994.<ref name="YoshinkanShioda2009"/> He wrote a few books on his martial art: Dynamic Aikido (1968, published in paperback format in 1977),<ref name="Shioda1977">Shioda, G. (1977): Dynamic Aikido. Tokyo: Kodansha International. (Template:ISBN)</ref> Total Aikido: The master course (1997, co-authored, published posthumously),<ref name="ShiodaShiodaRubens1997">Shioda, G., Shioda, Y., & Rubens, D. (1997): Total Aikido: The master course. Tokyo: Kodansha International. (Template:ISBN)</ref> and Aikido Shugyo: Harmony in confrontation (2002, published posthumously).<ref name="Shioda2002"/> Shioda viewed aikido as being "not a sport but a budo. Either you defeat your opponent or he defeats you. You cannot complain that he did not follow the rules. You have to overcome your opponent in a way appropriate to each situation."<ref name="Shioda1986"/>