(April 26, 1915 – May 18, 2011,

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

shodo , also called , is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Japanese writing system, Written Japanese was originally based on Man'yōgana, Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japane ...

and

aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

teacher who had a unique relationship with aikido founder

Morihei Ueshiba was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art, martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" or , "Great Teacher". The son of a landowner from Tanabe, Wakayama, Tanabe, Ueshiba studied a number of ...

, being both his student in aikido and his teacher in calligraphy.

Early life

Born in

Takatsuki, Osaka 270px, Takatsuki City Hall is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 348,020 in 164,494 households and a population density of 3.300 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Takatsuki is ...

, 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, ''harae''. Thus, both are collectively referred to as . Background Every year, many people take pilgrimag ...

under Kenzo Futaki, 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

at the inauguration of the aikido dojo of Bansen Tanaka 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 Dojo). Abe was verbally awarded the grade of 10th dan by Ueshiba, although the

Aikikai The Aikikai is the original school of Aikido. It is centered on the Aikikai Foundation in Japan, and its figurehead is the Doshu (the family heir of the founder of Aikido). It is represented globally through the International Aikido Federation ...

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 o ...

and had about 3000 students in the

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

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, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-Dan (rank), dan Black belt (martial arts), black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instru ...

. Abe is the author of the large "Aiki Jinja" stone carving at the Aiki Jinja shrine in Iwama.

References

Interview with Abe Sensei
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External links

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Aikido Shihan Seiseki Abe – Meeting Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, Seiseki 1915 births 2011 deaths Japanese aikidoka People from Takatsuki, Osaka Shihan