Kenshiro Abbe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenshiro Abbe (1916-12-15 Tokushima- 1985-12-01) was a famous Japanese martial artist who brought several martial arts to the UK.
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[edit] Kenshiro Abbe's Life
Kenshiro Abbe's introduction to the martial arts began with his father, a kendo teacher. During school he trained in sumo, winning the regional school championships before starting to study judo. By 1932 he was awarded his 2nd dan in judo by the Butokukai. The following year he became the Tokushima High schools champion and was awarded his 3rd dan, the youngest person ever to receive this. During his 5th year at school he entered an inter-city tournament involving 30 towns, representing the town of Kawashima as captain. Being very fast and light he threw every opponent and was given the nickname of Pegasus, the winged horse.
Abbe then enrolled at the Butokukai's special teacher training college (Budo Senmon Gakko aka Busen). He received instruction in kendo from Ogawa Hanshi and in the same year he became the youngest student to gain his 4th dan in judo. Every Saturday afternoon tournaments were held at the Busen which involved Abbe fighting five opponents in succession, each contest lasting five minutes. He invariably won these tournaments and in the autumn of his second year at Busen he gained 5th dan.
Abbe, now 18, won the 5th Dan Championships at the Emperor's Palace, and became All Japan Champion by winning the main trophy in the East Japan versus West Japan Contest, a pinnacle in competitive judo.
In 1938, Abbe received his 6th Dan and then enlisted in the army, spending the next four years in Manchuria, before returning to Kyoto and Busen in 1941. He returned to Tokushima when war expanded and ran a military training company, where he studied and mastered Jukendo, the way of the bayonet. It was during this period that Abbe started formulating his own budo philosophy of Kyushindo. He was also selected by Morihei Ueshiba (the founder of aikido to receive special training. Aikido at that time was still very selective. Abbe studied for ten years under Ueshiba and became one of his senior students.
The Butokukai granted Abbe Sensei his 7th dan judo and 6th dan kendo in 1945. In 1949 he took up the position of the chief instructor to the Kyoto police and Doshisha University.
In 1955, after an invite from the London Judo Society, Abbe now an 8th Dan, came to the UK. The initial invitation was to become the chief instructor but after a series of disagreements he parted company with them. This allowed Abbe Sensei to teach Kyushindo in the UK. He formed a number of martials arts councils, including: British Judo Council (BJC), British Kendo Council, British Karate Council, as well as an overall governing body - the International Budo Council (IBC).
In 1957 Abbe Sensei received a letter from Morihei Ueshiba, stating that all instructors outside of Japan now had permission to teach aikido to anyone who wished to learn. Before that time the teaching of aikido was kept solely for the Japanese.[1]. At this point he was instrumental in introducing kendo (the way of the sword), aikido (the way of spiritual harmony), kyudo (the way of the bow), jukendo (the way of the bayonet), iaido (the way of sword drawing), yarido (the way of the spear) and naginatado (the way of the halberd) to Europe.
A serious car accident in 1960 left Abbe with chronic neck and back injuries. By this time he had about 25,000 students following his way. In 1964 he returned to Japan in time to see judo as an event in the Olympic Games. He died of a stroke in 1981.
[edit] Stories about Kenshiro Abbe
The following are extracts from various publications and sources that mention Abbe. The writers and sources are not all known.
[edit] Meeting with Morihei Ueshiba
Abbe Sensei was 'All Japan Judo Champion' at the age of 18, prior to World War II. He admitted to being rather arrogant at that time, having achieved fame at so young an age. Anyway, it was during a train journey in Japan that he first met O'Sensei. Abbe didn't know who he was and he reacted to Ueshiba Sensei looking at him, saying: "What are you staring at, old man?" Ueshiba replied: "I know who you are", to which Abbe modestly retorted: "Everyone knows me, I am Kenshiro Abbe, Champion of All Japan". O'Sensei then introduced himself as the Founder of Aikido, and was told by Abbe that he didn't look strong enough to be a Martial Arts Master. O'Sensei then offered Abbe his little finger, and said: "But young man, you look very strong indeed. Please break my finger". Abbe at first declined, but eventually accepted the challenge, presumably to shut the old man up. Abbe Sensei claimed that, as he took hold of the old man's finger and tried to break it, he found himself on the floor of the carriage and totally immobilised. Whilst on the floor Abbe asked the Founder for permission to study under him.
Memories of Henry Ellis: Co-author of `Positive Aikido`.
[edit] Muggers in UK
He was walking down a quiet suburban street on his way home after his usual evening teaching session. He noticed three youths hovering several yards away on the opposite side of the street. When they approached him he was ready. 'Give us your money, or you'll get hurt' said the leader of the three. Abbe looked at each one in turn, then casually took his wallet out of his jacket pocket, throwing it on the floor between himself and the antagonists. He pointed to the wallet and said, 'I am prepared to die for that wallet, what about you?' The three would-be attackers looked at the wallet on the floor, then at Abbe and then at each other and then moved away. Abbe picked up his wallet and calmly walked home.
Reported by Geoff Thomson in The Art of Fighting without Fighting
[edit] KIJA Newsletter Profile
Strongly independent and even unpredictable to the point of eccentricity as a person, Kenshiro Abbe was nevertheless regarded with great respect as a judoka and as an instructor. He was, however something of an enigma. He possessed very definite and uncompromising ideas about life in general and judo in particular.
For instance, after years of thought and study, he approached the breaking of balance in a greatly simplified way to the standard Kodokan way and his system remains controversial. At other times, however, he would go to the extremes of complexity, breaking down a throw into as many as fifteen or more component parts in an exhaustive analysis. His courses often involved long lectures and hard concentrated periods of training, but then he would take the Judokas out to a local playground and do aikido moves in a sandpit. Many English judokas found this kind of unpredictability bewildering, yet he retained respect not least because his own Judo was very light and fast. There were other sides to him too, for during his years at 10 Stuart Road, Acton, the home of Masutaro O'Tani, he transformed the garden into a carefully nurtured Japanese garden...
