aster Morihei Saito, 9th Dan, studied Aïkido for 24 years with the founder, Maître Morihei Ueshiba. During that period of time, he has become the only true expert in the arms of Aïkido (Aïkiken and Aïkijo). He is also one of the most reputed experts in bare handed techniques. He has acquired an impressive expertise in them. He is able to practise and explain step by step a great number of techniques and their various applications. Master Saito has been able to preserve the exact techniques O Sensei had taught him: he often repeats that it was his duty to forward rigourously these techniques, just like his Master had wanted him to do.

The whole of these techniques, as well as the Aïki Spirit, are the foundation of the Iwama School. At the age of 18, in 1946, Morihiro Saito meets the founder Morihei Ueshiba. Minoru Mochizuki shows the young Saito the place where O-Sensei used to practise with a few students. He entered a small room with 6 tatamis and saw, in the adjoining dojo, O-Sensei with Tadachi Abe (A pioneer of Aïkido in France). O-Sensei asked him to come and strike him with his hands, then his feet, in order to seize him. Young Saito was flung away each time in an incomprehensible way. After this short demonstration, O-Sensei accepted him as his student. The first months were very difficult for the young apprentice, for the elder ones gave him a hard struggle. He endured the pains without showing the least suffering. Morihiro showed his courage and little by little gained the respect of his elders.

M.Saito used to work in the Japanese railways every other day, which left him a lot of time for the dojo. He soon was permitted to attend the morning classes reserved for the boarding students.
They were arms classes (Aïkiken and Aïkijo) and were held outside. This daily practice, for twenty-four years, enabled him to become the most acknowledged expert in arms ever trained by O-Sensei. Later, he will codify all the techniques studied in a detailed programme, which will the study the bare-handed techniques of the complete Iwama Ryu School.

Even after his marriage, M.Saito served the founder with the same eagerness, his passion for Aïkido has never weakened, even his young bride entered the service of the founder's family, she personally took care of "Hatsu", O-Sensei's wife, and later was in charge of the logistics at the dojo.
A few years after of a long and dedicated service, O-Sensei opened his heart out to him and taught him the whole of his art, offered him a plot on his grounds, where he could build his house. After years of intensive practice, M. Saito became very powerful and one of the best instructors at the dojo. O-Sensei asked him to take his classes at Iwama. While he was away, as well as at the Aïkikaï in Tokyo. M. Saito regularly taught there, on Sunday mornings. His classes were very reputed because he used to to mix Taïjutsu (bare-handed practice) and arms (Buki-wasa). He was indeed the only one, apart from O-Sensei, to be allowed to teach the arms of Aïkido.

After the founder's death, on April 26, 1969, M. Saito became the new instructor at the Iwama dojo and the caretaker of the Aïki Jinja. From that time, he did his utmost to teach in the most accurate way the Aïkido of the founder. After he retired from the Japanese railways, M.Saito will travel a lot abroad particularly in the US and Europe, to introduce the Aïkido of Iwama: a aïkido which is a practice where the efficient bare-handed techniques are

as emphasized as the techniques of the arms such as O-Sensei had taught at the Iwama school.. M. Saito has published a number of books since the 70's. He started with a series of five volumes called Traditional Aïkido which will be reference and establish him as an expert in this martial art.
These works, unfortunately unavailable today, contained hundreds of bare-handed techniques, many techniques of arms (Aïkiken and Aïkijo). These works will be completed by a remarkable series of films.
In 1994 M. Saito publishes a new series. Today, six works have been published, called Takemusu Aïkido. This new collection of works, based on modern pedagogical conceptions, permits a faster learning process. It comprises of hundreds of bare-handed and arms techniques and many variations. (Henka wasa). It will be the future bible of Aïkido techniques.

Master Saito's success is probably due to his modern and traditional approach of Aïkido and his will to keep intact the traditional heritage of the founder, added to a modern classification of the hundreds of the arms and taïjutsu techniques that he had learned during the 24 years spent at the side of the founder.

Saito Sensei passed away on the 13rd of May 2002, aged 74