Profile of Head Instructor
Nobuhiro Fukuda

Graduated from Sendai Daiichi High School, Miyagi Prefecture, and the Faculty of Law at Gakushuin University.

While studying law at university with the goal of becoming an attorney, at the age of 21 he began studying the Shin-shin Toitsu method at the Tempukai, founded by Nakamura Tempu Sensei.

He later encountered Koichi Tohei Sensei, the founder of Ki-Aikido, who was deeply trusted by Nakamura Tempu Sensei.

From that point, he dedicated himself to studying under Tohei Sensei, committing to a life of contributing to the world through the transmission of Ki-Aikido.

Immediately upon entering, he enrolled in the Ki-Aikido Academy and the Tokyo Ki-Pressure Therapy Academy (now the Ki Health Academy), both established to train professional instructors. Upon graduation, he was appointed lecturer at the Tokyo Ki Health Academy ? a position he held for seven years, rising to head of the education department.

Ki-Aikido 7th Dan Former Senior Instructor, Ki-Aikido Society Headquarters Chief Referee and Technical Referee, All-Japan Ki-Aikido Competition, 2007?2015

At Sendai Daiichi High School, he was surrounded by classmates who went on to become Supreme Court justices, mayors, physicians, lawyers, university professors, certified public accountants, and directors of listed companies ? a remarkable group whose influence continues to inspire him to this day.

As a member of the basketball team, he led the team to two Miyagi Prefecture championships and reached the national high school tournament (Inter-High), finishing in the top four ? a milestone in the history of basketball in Miyagi Prefecture.

At university, he represented Tokyo in the Club Championship and competed again at the national level. He also coached the Gakushuin Girls' High School team, guiding them from the Tokyo top 16 to consistently competing at the highest level.

During his university years, he received direct instruction from Franz Lauter, one of Austria's top professional ski instructors, through the Japan-Austria International Ski Association.

I have many people to whom I owe my deepest gratitude. If even one of them had been absent from my life, I would not be who I am today. I believe that with my whole heart.

And so I truly wish to be of genuine service to each of you ? to contribute to your growth.

The most important thing I can offer, I believe, is this:

To transmit the truth.

I have more experience than most of you, and sharing that experience alone might bring you some benefit. But that is not enough.

True instruction, I believe, means being able to explain why things are the way they are ? from the fundamental principles and workings of this world.

Let me share how I came to think this way.

In high school, I encountered an extraordinary basketball coach. He was a former member of the team ? utterly serious about the game and about the players. (He later became a teacher.)

I was captivated by the way he learned and the way he taught, and threw myself into it completely. Every single play, I refined to the edge of my ability. That, he told us, was the meaning of daily practice.

Thanks to him, we competed at the national Inter-High tournament and achieved what was then the highest result in Miyagi's history ? fourth place.

When I entered university, I chose basketball as my physical education major.

There, a professor turned to me and said:

"Your play is unmistakably first-rate. It's the real thing. Where were you trained? High school?"

"You found a good teacher."

I was stunned. Because that professor was the former head coach of Japan's Olympic team.

It didn't matter where you learned. It didn't matter whether your coach was famous.

If what was transmitted was true ? if what you had built was genuine ? even the person at the top of the world would recognise it.

That is what universality means. Truth travels everywhere.

The real is strong.

That was the day I experienced, in my bones, that truth carries universal power.

The very first words that professor spoke in his coaching seminar were:

"A truly great instructor cannot teach from personal experience alone. They must draw from every field of knowledge ? and be able to explain why things are the way they are."

I was deeply moved. Every word rang true.

In that moment, I understood for the first time just how rare and precious my high school instruction had been. I felt genuine gratitude ? and a deep resolve to become that kind of person myself.

The master teacher I found on that path was Koichi Tohei Sensei.

Tohei Sensei always said:

"No matter how strongly you insist something is right within the world of Aikido alone ? that is merely a frog at the bottom of a well."

"Unless it holds true across every field, in every world, it cannot be called truly right."

"Universality and reproducibility." "That which everyone says yes to, and no one says no to."

That alone, he said, is right.

Never self-righteous. Always humble toward truth. Always verifying through practice. That is the posture of one who seeks what is real.

The truth that Tohei Sensei transmitted ? the principles of heaven and earth ? naturally proved itself across the worlds of sport, performing arts, and education. Those who resonated with it grew across many fields.

I see in this a vivid demonstration of the universality that accompanies what is right.

This, I hope, makes clear why I hold the transmission of truth as my highest purpose.

I am one of the few direct students who spent the most time with Tohei Sensei in the final 21 years of his life, receiving personal instruction.

Every Monday I traveled to Tochigi to learn from him. Two to three times each month I attended the Tochigi headquarters seminars. Once a month I traveled from Sendai for the early morning practice at the Tokyo headquarters. Every time, I received his direct guidance.

I did so simply because I wanted to.

Throughout my life I had experienced ? again and again ? how essential the real is, how universal the value of truth. That knowing drove me.

I became a full-time instructor specifically so I would miss no opportunity to be in the presence of what was genuine. For a time, I worked part-time alongside running the dojo. But what mattered most to me was the truth unfolding before my eyes.

Sadly, not one person chose to walk that same path alongside me. The door was open to all ? and yet. What a loss.

And so I feel a deep responsibility: through the careful transmission of Sensei's teaching, to help each of you truly feel what Sensei was seeing, and what he wanted you to grasp.

Behind every word Sensei spoke, there was a world he was perceiving ? a felt sense that existed before the words.

He chose words carefully, within the range of what we could understand.

What he did not put into words ? the felt reality, the world he was inhabiting ? I can only imagine.

And yet: that is where the truth lives. That is why he transmitted Ki-Aikido.

I cannot look away from it for a single moment.

"What kind of felt sense did he want us to develop?" "What kind of world did he want us to be able to face?"

The time I spent at his side is my only guide.

Each direct instruction, each correction I received ? these are my chances to understand his true intention.

I was given truly precious time.

As a direct student entrusted with teachings of this depth, I feel an enormous responsibility.

Why I Transmit Ki-Aikido
In any country, in any era, people are the treasure of society.

Our primary purpose in transmitting Ki-Aikido is:

To develop human beings.

I have walked this path with that as my mission.

It was also what Tohei Sensei hoped for me. Had Tohei Sensei taught the tea ceremony, I have no doubt I would have learned tea ceremony from him. He knew that about me.

I did not come to him for martial art. I came for his human power ? his depth as a person.

"What kind of being is a human, at the deepest level?" "What is the capacity that human beings are naturally given?" "How can that capacity be fully expressed?"

That is what I wanted to learn.

Sensei once said to me:

"Fukuda-kun, I hear you've been practicing earnestly. But no matter how many people you can throw ? there is no guarantee that makes for a happy life."

He was always reminding me what truly needed to be transmitted.

I believe there was genuine meaning in my encountering Tohei Sensei.

Basketball. Skiing. The Tempukai. And then Ki-Aikido. Each experience had meaning. Each one led me ? toward what was real, toward what was true. I believe I was guided there by heaven and earth.

And here I stand.

The same chance awaits each of you. Children and adults alike ? every single person carries truly infinite possibility.

And that means each person is also living right now with the growth challenges that possibility brings.

Children especially ? with limited life experience, still in the midst of growing ? it is only natural that much is still missing. There is nothing wrong with that.
People gain insight through experience. From insight comes a foothold for growth. From that foothold comes the next step forward.

Facing each challenge honestly, wrestling with it, working through it ? that is what growth is.

We adults have a responsibility to watch over and nurture these children so full of possibility.

To care about their moments of discovery. To share in them. To support them. That is how we entrust the future to the next generation.

Such children will surely go on to meet many wonderful people.

I hope each person who comes here will find hope in good encounters, and confidence in their own possibility ? building a foundation for a self-reliant life.

Adults are no different at the core.

We tend ? without realising it ? to blame others or society for what happens around us, and to become passive.

But it is possible to grow into someone who takes full initiative ? who governs themselves from within.

In other words: knowing that you are held and watched over by heaven and earth, you can meet every event in your life as nourishment for your own growth.

That is what it means to be self-reliant.

The foundation for this is the ability and individuality that each of us has been given. That which has been given and supported by heaven and earth ? recognising how extraordinary that is ? is what Ki-Aikido practice makes possible.

That awareness is essential.

Only when the capacity and individuality you have been given form a solid foundation does a confidence that is truly yours take root.

The first step: being able to control your own mind and body ? your posture ? in alignment with the principles of the universe.

In that state, a person can express their full capacity with unshakeable stability.

And when respect for others is added to that ? you can move together with them, and guide them.

A respect free of any shadow ? a pure care and consideration for the other ? when that is cultivated, and leadership without hesitation flows from it ?

others follow naturally, willingly, without resistance.

This is not merely a philosophy or an ideology. It is the very workings of our life ? the principle by which we are alive.

That truth is the essence of Ki-Aikido ? and simultaneously the foundation of all human relationship.

Trust between people, and a life that cherishes connection ? it all begins here.

Ki-Aikido is the path of refining your humanity in alignment with the essence of life.

Understanding and respecting the workings of life is the path to self-reliance.

Face heaven and earth rather than other people ? and even when the mind wavers for a moment, it finds its place of rest.

Live in alignment with the principles of heaven and earth. Express the individuality that is yours.

The dojo is the place where that growth can be felt and verified through practice.

What I want you to take from Ki-Aikido is not the technique of throwing others ? but the power of your own humanity, which you already carry within you.

We have been given, by our parents and by nature, a life of extraordinary value.

To honour that fact ? to believe in your own possibility, to hold hope and vision for the future, to believe in the progress of society and contribute to it ? to grow each day into that person ?

that is the true way of living a life of value.

We are a community of dedicated professionals.

For each person connected to us by this encounter, we will continue to grow and refine ourselves ? so we can be of genuine service.

Let us learn together.

Our Teacher: Koichi Tohei Sensei, Founder of Ki-Aikido
Koichi Tohei Sensei served as Chief Instructor of the Aikikai ? the highest instructional position ? for nearly 30 years through the final period of Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba's life.

During that time, he made the greatest contribution to the Aikido world. The founder praised him as "the child prodigy of Aikido" and held a grand celebration upon awarding him 10th Dan.

The global spread of Aikido today traces its roots to Tohei Sensei, who in 1953 ? shortly after the war ? traveled alone to the United States, returning many times over the years to lay the foundation.

In those days, he faced relentless physical challenges from those who showed no mercy to a visitor from a defeated nation.

Through years of facing large, powerful opponents abroad, he experienced in his own body more deeply than anyone that the slightest reliance on physical force makes technique completely ineffective.

In this sense, he was also the person most capable of truly understanding ? and demonstrating ? the Aikido of pure principle that founder Morihei Ueshiba embodied.
After the founder's passing, he continued in his senior role for three more years, honouring the founder's wishes.

Tohei Sensei was also deeply trusted by Nakamura Tempu Sensei, having understood and practiced the Shin-shin Toitsu method more thoroughly than any other student ? and was the person most wished for as successor.

When Tempu Sensei taught him that "mind moves body," Tohei Sensei had a profound awakening ? and his Aikido blossomed in a single stroke.

After founding the Ki-Aikido Society, his reach extended far beyond the martial arts world ? into professional baseball and other sports, Noh, Kabuki, music, flower arrangement, calligraphy, and painting.

The unshakeable conviction in the "principles of heaven and earth" at the core of Tohei Sensei's being is perhaps best illustrated by a remarkable historical fact: as a 24-year-old platoon commander in wartime China, he led 80 soldiers and returned home with every single one ? not one lost.

Throughout the war, he permitted no looting or misconduct from his men. As a result, local security actually improved, and the community came to regard them with respect.

Even after defeat, his unit maintained its discipline for months in enemy territory ? and every man came home safely.

Nakamura Tempu Sensei
Born of the lineage of the former Yanagawa feudal lord, Nakamura Tempu Sensei spent his early years as a military intelligence agent in China, at the recommendation of Mitsuru Toyama.

Years of extreme hardship led to progressive tuberculosis. He left Japan for the United States, earned a medical doctorate at Columbia University, and went on to study philosophy in Germany.

Wrestling with the bewilderment and frustration of finding himself ? once fearless ? now living in daily dread of coughing blood, he had accepted his approaching death and was returning to Japan when he happened to share a ship with Kaliappa, a great master of Yoga.

At Kaliappa's urging, he traveled with him to the foothills of the Himalayas in India ? the only foreigner ever permitted to train there.

After three years of meditation by a waterfall, he attained enlightenment and was permitted to descend. To this day, his Japanese name ? Nakamura Saburo ? is spoken of in that region.

On his return to Japan, he became involved as a senior military advisor in China's Xinhai Revolution, and returned home with Sun Yat-sen when the latter came to Japan in exile.

He later managed a bank.

After this turbulent life, he relinquished all his business interests and devoted himself to sharing with the world the Shin-shin Toitsu method he had attained in the Himalayas.

From the early to mid-Showa era, he profoundly influenced an astonishing number of figures from the Imperial household, the worlds of politics, finance, science, and philosophy ? and was known as "the philosopher."

In the period immediately after the war, his name became known even to American military officers through GHQ.