Читать книгу Complete Aikido. Aikido Kyohan: The Definitive Guide to the Way of Harmony онлайн

51 страница из 78

Although Suenaka told O’Sensei in Hawaii that he would soon be in Tokyo, he hadn’t called ahead to inform the Aikikai of his arrival. Consequently, when he walked into the Hombu dojo and announced he wished to see the Founder, the staff afforded him a polite, yet understandably cool reception:

Morihei Ueshiba O’Sensei in his Iwama dojo; Aiki Festival, April, 1964.

“I walked in; there were secretaries there, and the office manager, and they said, ‘Who are you?’ I said I had just arrived from Hawaii, and they said, ‘Oh! O’Sensei just returned from there!’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know, I saw him there.’ So I said, ‘Can I see him?,’ and they said, ‘Well, we don’t know, we can’t bother O’Sensei.’ Apparently, though, somebody had gone back (into the dojo) and said there was a visitor from Hawaii. So I sat in the office, and they served me tea.

“There were Dutch doors that led from the outer office to the dojo—the bottom part was open, and the top was shut. As I was sitting there, I could see partially into the dojo, under the door ... I saw O’Sensei walking. Suddenly he stopped, and then he bent over and peeked under the doors and saw me, and he ducked under the Dutch door and came into the room. He couldn’t remember my name, so he said, ‘Hawaii Boy! How are you, how are you?,’ and he came up and hugged me. He was really happy to see me, and I was even happier than he was! [There were] all these stories that we heard about him that he was untouchable, he was unapproachable, you had to get permission from his chief disciples to even get close to him, let alone talk to him, so when he came in and hugged me, I thought, ‘Hey! This is real special!’ And, of course, that’s when our relationship began.”