Hirokazu Kobayashi

Hirokazu Kobayashi

Hirokazu Kobayashi ( Japanese 小林 裕 和 Kobayashi Hirokazu ; * February 14, 1929 , † August 28, 1998 ) practiced karate , kendo and judo at the age of 7 . At the age of 16, he was stationed as a kamikaze pilot on an aircraft carrier during World War II . When it came to his mission, he was unable to take off due to a technical defect in his aircraft. All members of his squadron, however, were killed. Before the next “last mission” could take place, the aircraft carrier was torpedoed by a submarine and sank. Kobayashi was one of the few survivors. After four days in the water, he was rescued, seriously injured. He'd been clinging to wooden planks and barrels the entire time.

In 1946 his then karate teacher gave him a letter of recommendation for Ueshiba Morihei . With this letter of recommendation he went to Tokyo to learn the martial art of Aikido .

Kobayashi was friends with Morihiro Saitō , with whom he also shared joys and sorrows as a Uke . While Saitō was usually asked to be Uke during the Aikijō training hours, it was often Kobayashi with the sword. For this reason, Kobayashi has always felt extremely attached to Aikiken. Kobayashi himself described the long time at Ueshiba's side not only as a Uke, but also outside of the tatami as an accompaniment to the impulsive Aikido founder, as extremely tough.

Kobayashi stayed in Tokyo for a total of about nine years. In 1954 he went to Osaka . Ueshiba Morihei also went to Osaka almost every month to teach ten-day courses. According to Ueshiba, 10 days in a row are the optimum for learning and understanding Aikidō.

From 1957 Kobayashi trained full-time Aikido. When he was not accompanying Ō-Sensei, he taught at universities in Osaka and Kobe at his behest . In 1964 Kobayashi got the 8th Dan from Ō-Sensei at the age of 35 and thus became the youngest 8th Dan. In that year he went to Europe for the first time at the request of the Sens-Sensei to teach Aikido there. Until 1996, Kobayashi visited Europe for several weeks each year. He regularly gave courses in France , Switzerland , Belgium , Italy , Germany and the Netherlands .

On August 28, 1998, Kobayashi died of a very high fever after being in a coma for four days.

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• Web biography
• Bu Iku - Chivalry Education was published in 2002