(April 26, 1915 – May 18, 2011,
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) was a
Japanese shodo
also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language.
Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrins ...
and
aikido teacher who had a unique relationship with aikido founder
Morihei Ueshiba, being both his student in aikido and his teacher in calligraphy.
Early life
Born in
Takatsuki, Osaka
is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is located in northern Osaka's Hokusetsu region.
As of 2020, the city had an estimated population of 347,944 and a population density of 3,300 persons per km². The total area is 105.31 km².
The c ...
, Seiseki Abe was introduced to the art of calligraphy by his father in 1934 and became a shodo teacher in 1948, teaching in his hometown of Osaka. Finding himself in a sort of spiritual crisis early in his calligraphy career, he started training in
misogi
is a Japanese Shinto practice of ritual purification by washing the entire body. Misogi is related to another Shinto purification ritual called ''Harae'' – thus both being collectively referred to as .
Background
Every year, many people ...
under
Kenzo Futaki
was a Japanese doctor who studied infectious diseases.
Futaki was educated at Tokyo Imperial University. He received the prestigious Order of Culture (Bunka Kunshō) from the Emperor for his academic contributions, which included identifying th ...
, director of the Misogi no Renseikai ("Misogi Training Society"), who happened to be a former student of Morihei Ueshiba. Futaki advised him to learn aikido.
Seiseki Abe and Morihei Ueshiba
Abe met
Morihei Ueshiba at the inauguration of the aikido dojo of
Bansen Tanaka
was a Japanese aikido master and a pre-war and post-war disciple of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba.
Tanaka was a judo practitioner when he met Ueshiba in 1936. Eager to learn about aikido, he set up a dojo in Osaka for Noriaki (Yoichiro) Inoue ...
in Osaka in 1952 and began training immediately. He was particularly struck by the similarity between the breathing technique used in aikido, misogi and shodo and arrived to the conclusion that the three arts are pursuing the same ultimate goal - the comprehension of the concept of
ki. He studied aikido under Ueshiba for many years while perfecting his shodo technique. Ueshiba gradually took interest in calligraphy and one day asked Abe to teach him shodo (around 1954). A very special relationship developed between the two men and from 1959 until his death, Ueshiba would regularly come to stay at Abe's home in Osaka to learn calligraphy and teach aikido at the traditional dojo Abe built for him just next to his house (the
Ameno Takemusu Juku Ameno may refer to:
* Ameno, Italy, a comune in the Province of Novara, Piedmont, Italy
*Lacco Ameno, a town and comune situated in the northwest of the island of Ischia, in the Gulf of Naples, Italy
* "Ameno" (song), a song by musical project Era
...
Dojo). Abe was verbally awarded the grade of 10th
dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
by Ueshiba, although the
Aikikai
The Aikikai is the original school of Aikido. It is centered on the Aikikai#Aikikai Foundation, Aikikai Foundation in Japan, and its figurehead is the Aikikai#Doshu, Doshu (the family heir of the founder of Aikido). It is represented globally thr ...
only recognized him as 8th dan.
Later career
After the death of Ueshiba in 1969, Abe continued to teach both shodo and aikido at his dojo in Osaka. He had formed over 200 shodo
shihan
is a Japanese term that is used in many Japanese martial arts as an honorific title for expert or senior instructors. It can be translated as "master instructor".
The use of the term is specific to a school or organization, as is the process of ...
and had about 3000 students in the
Kansai
The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
region as well as in the United States (New York, Los Angeles) and in Australia. He was an active member of the
Nitten, the most important art organization in Japan. In aikido, one of his most notable former students is the movie actor and martial artist
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal (; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-l ...
.
Abe is the author of the large "Aiki Jinja" stone carving at the
Aiki Jinja shrine in
Iwama.
References
Interview with Abe Sensei
/ref>
External links
*
Aikido Shihan Seiseki Abe – Meeting Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, Seiseki
1915 births
2011 deaths
Japanese aikidoka
People from Takatsuki, Osaka
Shihan