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Tohei Sensei’s first Hawaiian aikido demonstration took place at the Nishi Kai and was attended by the Nishi Kai membership and invited guests, which included many of the area’s prominent martial artists, among them Yukiso Yamamoto; karateka “Koa” Kimura (who would later shift his study to aikido and ally himself with Tohei’s Ki no Kenkyukai before breaking away to found his own organization): judoka Kazuto Sugimoto; noted kendoka and respected local business-man Isao Takahashi; and judoka and Okinawan Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Oki Shikina. Suenaka has vivid memories of this important event:

“[The demonstration observers] took part in the demonstration and, naturally, they resisted, they tried to really, really overthrow [Tohei Sensei], and they couldn’t do it; he threw those guys around like nothing. Tohei Sensei was a bear. He was about five-feet three-inches tall, and at that time probably weighed about 180 pounds, so he was a bear—a big, little man—extremely powerful, and these guys could not hold him down. Even . . . Oki Shikina... he was thrown around, and said, ‘My, this guy is phenomenal.’ His demonstration was very impressive. But, at the same time, everyone who stepped onto the mat with him was very respectful of who he was, and why he was there. They tried hard to throw him, but they didn’t come at him full-force, as in a street-fighting situation. It was a very controlled situation.”