Tadao Okuyama

Tadao Okuyama was born December 1918 in the western city of Osaka Japan, into
the wealthy family of a doctor. His father was a highly educated intellectual person
and was awarded a special prize from the Emperor which was only awarded to the top
student of the Imperial University; currently Tokyo University. His father was a man
of virtue and very kind to hospital patients and the weak in general. Therefore his
father’s reputation became known and those who felt the obligation made a bow in
passing before the entrance of the hospital.

Tadao Okuyama was a very intelligent and spiritual person with a keen sixth sense.
He was one of those rare persons who in his character and ability was quite different
from secular persons in his purity and who had no worldly desire. Physically he was
far from muscular and comparatively small in size and was usually very quiet and
gentle. He looked like a scholar or a novelist in his appearance. But since his spirit
was so strong, excluding his marvelous martial arts skills, he was very much awed by
his disciples and his surroundings. In fact they were much frightened of him. In this
sense, I think I am rather in a special position which is different from his disciples and
more like the relation between senior and junior instructors of the karate club at
Waseda University. Looking back to the far distant past of my school days, around
1951, one day I was caught by an attractive appearance of Okuyama Sensei hitting
the straw punching post (makiwara) and this first meeting was a tie with the Sensei
(Junior Funakoshi).

About five years later, in 1956, I happened to have a chance to live with him and one
of his students in a house in Tokyo. It was during this time that Okuyama Sensei and
I used to receive the instruction of Inoue Sensei in Yoyogi Hachiman-gu, just west of
the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Since Mr. Okuyama was a genius, he must have learned a lot and must have built up
his base for later. But his invention of "Kotodama Tsurugi" (Sword of Spiritual Words)
is quite different from Inoue Sensei's ken. As it was widely known, the founder of
Aikido, Ueshiba and his nephew Inoue, were both disciples of Deguchi Onisaburo, the
leader of the Omoto-Kyo sect of Shinto. Okuyama Sensei was treated like a sensei of
the grandson of Onisaburo in Omoto.

As for the "Kotodama Tsurugi", those interested in it can research the material in
“Waraku” and the teachings of Maeda Sensei, a disciple Okuyama Sensei inherited.
Any way his invention of this unique method of training through the Ken is a
marvelous one as a human discipline, elevating the spirit and access to God. This
unique and worthy "Kotodama Tsurugi" is really a product of Okuyama’s intensive
concentration, which I admire.

Okuyama Sensei is 13years older than me, and he used to foretell that he would pass
away on August 16th, and he passed on August 16th as he prophesized. I owe to him
what I am today and my debt is to convey what I have studied to my students who
come after me.

Kenjiro Kawanabe