Tribute to Morihiro SAITO Sensei by Daniel TOUTAIN

Morihiro Saito Sensei, 9th Dan, passed away in Iwama on May 13 this year at the age of seventy four. The passing of this unique teacher represents a huge loss to the world of Aikido and a painful absence for his closest students.

Saito Sensei devoted fifty six years of his life to Aikido. He was just eighteen when he started training in the Dojo of O Sensei in Iwama. Master Saito studied there alongside the founder for twenty three years and was privileged to witness the development of Aikido. At the death of Master Ueshiba, he took charge of the Dojo and the Aiki Jinja, a shrine built near the Dojo that is dedicated to Aikido. Saito Sensei has always faithfully preserved the authentic techniques of his Master. I have never seen him teach a course in Iwama, or a seminar elsewhere, without speaking repeatedly about O Sensei and his specific instructions. I will never forget what he told me the first time I went to Japan: "The Dojo Iwama is not my Dojo. It is the founder's Dojo, and I must scrupulously teach there as he taught. I can not do something different by creating my own style. After some moments he added: "There are many great teachers of Aikido, but having been very close to O-Sensei I can say that even today no one has surpassed him, or even reached his level."

Saito Sensei has nevertheless been innovative in combining modern teaching with the traditional Aikido of Master Ueshiba. In fact, he said that in the teaching of weapons in particular, it was difficult, even dangerous, to learn the techniques immediately in their entirety. The teaching of weapons that he received from O-Sensei could only be transmitted from person to person, it was not possible to teach a group in that way. So he developed a methodology that decomposed the techniques initially, to enable everyone to understand and reproduce them. For example, in Aikijo, he often explained that O-Sensei's kata, known as the thirty-one step kata, was performed much more fluidly. This corresponds to the more advanced form practiced today, but he broke down the kata into thirty-one techniques to facilitate teaching it to beginners. And he laughed heartily the day that an eminent professor claimed to have learned the thirty-one step kata (sanjiu ichi no kata) directly from the founder, since Saito himself had given it that name. It must be said that many people took inspiration from his books and films, without really having all the elements available, most of the time this explains certain misunderstandings and differences.

Saito Sensei was a brilliant teacher. He perfected the art of simplification and gave very clear explanations. Moreover, he knew how to measure his teaching carefully and often said that it was a mistake to try to teach everything at once. He showed that teaching was no excuse to demonstrate his own skills, but to provide a student with exactly what was needed at the time. Today, teacher training courses are very popular and seem to be getting more and more sophisticated. Master Saito, on the other hand, tended to simplify things and above all to appeal to common sense, common sense which comes naturally if one has a complete understanding of what has to be taught.

Saito Sensei also used to say: "I am a simple man". In fact, he never made a grand speeches about the philosophy of Aikido. He taught by example, by his attitude in everyday life. I could tell many stories about it. He was very fair with his students and treated them all equally. In Japan, there is of course a greater respect for the Sempai (the more experienced students), but Saito Sensei's uchi deshi were all treated in the same way. Even if some of us were closer to him, he often said that he considered all his students to be a bit like his children. He also repeated that everyone was free and that there would always be a place for them there.

Master Saito had an encyclopedic knowledge of Aikido. You could ask him about anything, he always gave a clear, logical and obvious response. He shared everything without mystery. On the contrary, by staying practical and realistic, he had a tendency to demystify many false beliefs about Aikido.

Questions were never asked during class, but at other times such as during lunch or other moments shared together. I remember many wonderful evenings during which a few Sempai gathered around him in his hotel room, when he was conducting training courses in Europe.

There, the questions came. He always responded generously and we often pushed the furniture in his hotel room aside so he could demonstrate a technique and show us all the possible applications. He enjoyed telling the story of two enemy samurai trying to cross a suspension bridge, in opposite directions, when the bridge was wide enough for just one of them. He then showed us how to apply a technique in a very confined space. He had so much knowledge and such skill that one had the impression of never reaching the limits of his teaching. When Saito Sensei spoke about Aikido, he still had the enthusiasm of a beginner and to see that at well over seventy years was a great lesson for us.

Master Saito became ill late in 1996. He had to undergo major surgery for a cancer of the esophagus but he recovered well. He should have stayed in hospital for more than three months, however after only three weeks he wanted to go back to Iwama and the evening of his return, he went to the Dojo to show the basics that we practice every day at the beginning of Iwama classes. He then entrusted the rest of the lesson to his son Hitohiro. He was always very proud of doing that and often repeated that during his life there were only twenty-one days on which he had not worn his keikogi. He recovered rapidly from that operation and quickly resumed his classes and trips abroad. I followed him most of the time during these trips, as well as continuing to visit Iwama regularly during these later years. His dynamism and vitality were remarkable. The relapse, when it came last January, was brutal. I had attended his classes in Iwama just three months earlier, yet when I saw him in February he was unable to walk. Stricken with bone cancer, he must have suffered horribly, but he did not show it. I was at his bedside, worried about his condition, but instead he enquired about me and asked if everything was going well. Every time someone asked him how he felt, he gave a thumb's-up to show that all was well. I was told that he still continued to make this gesture in the final moments when he had to wear an oxygen mask.

He displayed extraordinary courage. At the time of his first operation he said to us that he was quite calm and not afraid of death. He told us that before the surgery he had done breathing exercises and that the medical team were so captivated by his calmness that he had had to explain to them that this was simply due to Aikido. Saito Sensei was a true Budoka and will remain an example to us all. More than a thousand people attended the official ceremony of his funeral on the 22nd and 23rd of June at Tomobe near Iwama. The current Doshu and of course many great Sensei came to pay their respects. Messages arrived from around the world and there were so many people that buses had to be organized to avoid traffic jams with all the cars. If there were so many people, it was not just because of what he represented in the world of Aikido. All those who came into contact with him could not help but be touched by his great kindheartedness and his honesty.

Hitohiro Saito Sensei, son and successor of Saito Sensei with Daniel Toutain
during the funeral ceremony.

His succession is now amply assured by his son Hitohiro Saito Sensei whom I invited to France on the 9th, 10th and 11th of November 2002 to conduct a special seminar in honour of Saito Sensei. Hitohiro Saito Sensei has really inherited some of the technique of his father. He has a lively personality and is very charming. I had already invited him several times to Rennes, but this was the first seminar that he conducted on foreign soil after the death of Master Saito. Saito Sensei is gone, but he lives on through his students. True to his own Master, he did his duty until the end. May he rest in peace now with O-Sensei.

I am profoundly affected by his passing. He occupied a very important place in my life and will remain present in my heart forever.

Some photographies of the ceremony in Tomobe...