Japanese aikidoka: Morihei Ueshiba, Kenshiro Abbe, Morihiro Saito, Koichi Tohei, Gozo Shioda, Isamu Takeshita, Masamichi Noro, Masatomi Ikeda, Toshishiro Obata, Hirokazu Kobayashi, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, Hiroshi Kato, Nobuyoshi Tamura, Shizuo Imaizumi

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 41. Chapters: Morihei Ueshiba, Kenshiro Abbe, Morihiro Saito, Koichi Tohei, Gozo Shioda, Isamu Takeshita, Masamichi Noro, Masatomi Ikeda, Toshishiro Obata, Hirokazu Kobayashi, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, Hiroshi Kato, Nobuyoshi Tamura, Shizuo Imaizumi, Kanshu Sunadomari, Yoshimitsu Yamada, Moriteru Ueshiba, Fumio Toyoda, Katsuzo Nishi, Tsuneo Ando, Minoru Mochizuki, Hiroshi Tada, Hitohiro Saito, Toshikazu Ichimura, Toshiro Suga, Michio Hikitsuchi, Terada Kiyoyuki, Minoru Hirai, Kazuo Chiba, Mitsuteru Ueshiba, Mitsunari Kanai, Seiichi Sugano, Seiseki Abe, Tadashi Abe, Akira Tohei, Kyoichi Inoue, Kenji Tomiki, Noriaki Inoue, Shoji Nishio, Takashi Kushida, Morito Suganuma, Kenji Shimizu, Tsutomu Chida, Itsuo Tsuda, Mutsuro Nakazono, Hideo Ohba, Yasuaki Kurata, Takuma Hisa, Tetsuro Nariyama, Kinoshita Ryoichi, Hiroshi Isoyama, Bansen Tanaka, Seishiro Endo, Kisaburo Osawa, Yasuo Kobayashi, Yasuhisa Shioda, Sadateru Arikawa, Fumiaki Shishida, Kazuo Igarashi, Sagusa Ryusei. Excerpt: Kenshiro Abbe Abe Kenshiro, 15 December 1915 ¿ 1 December 1985) was a prominent Japanese master of judo, aikido, and kendo. He introduced aikido to the United Kingdom in 1955, and founded the Kyushindo system. Abbe was a graduate of the famous Budo Senmon Gakko, having studied judo and kendo there. Following an illustrious early career in the martial arts, he served in the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. He then trained in aikido under its founder, Morihei Ueshiba, for a decade. Abbe held dan ranks in several martial arts, most notably 8th dan in judo, 6th dan in aikido, and 6th dan in kendo. After introducing aikido to the UK, he established several Japanese martial arts councils there during the late 1950s. He returned to Japan in 1964 and remained there for most of the remainder of his life. There are contradictory accounts of Abbe's final years, but it appears that he was in poor spirits and poor health towards the end. Abbe was born on 15 December 1915 in a village in Tokushima Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Japan. He was the son of Toshizo Abbe, who was the local school's headmaster and a kendo instructor, and his wife, Kote Abbe. The couple had four sons and five daughters, and Abbe was the youngest child in the family. On 4 September 1919, when Abbe was not yet four years old, his father drowned in a flash flood while training in the mountains. A young schoolteacher, Manpei Hino, subsequently became a father figure for the young boy and introduced him to the martial arts, including sumo. Abbe went on to become a local school champion in sumo. In 1929, Abbe began learning judo from Kazohira Nakamoto, a former police officer. That same year, he was promoted to the rank of 1st dan in the art and, unusually, he reached 2nd dan the next year, and 3rd dan the year after that. Thus, at the age of 16, he became the youngest judo student ever promoted to 3rd dan¿an honour he received directly from Shohei Hamano, an instructor of the Dai