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Daito-Ryu Aikijujutsu
I T A L I A
Kondo Katsuyuki during a public demonstration - Tokyo Budokan, 1970
Kondo Katsuyuki was born in Tokyo in 1945. He began his training in Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu under one of Takeda Sokaku's leading students, Hosono Tsunejiro, and in 1961 he received the first instruction from Takeda Tokimune at Hosono's dojo. Later he became student of Yoshida Kotaro, who had been a representative instructor (kyoju dairi) under Takeda Sokaku. In 1964 he created an Aikido club at Chiba Institute of Technology with Yoshida Kotaro as its adviser. In July of 1966 Kondo became a direct student of Takeda Tokimune and from that time he began making periodic visits to Hokkaido to learn directly from the Daito-ryu headmaster. Kondo also invited Tokimune to Tokyo to teach on various occasions. He continued his training under Tokimune for some thirty-two years.
Takeda Tokimune and Kondo Katsuyuki - Abashiri, 1988
In November of 1970 Kondo created his own dojo.
Four years later, in 1974, Takeda Tokimune certified
Kondo as representative instructor of the headmaster
(soke kyoju dairi). In October of 1982, Kondo relocated
his dojo to the third floor of his company's new
building and named it "Shimbukan" (the name of the
dojo was actually bestowed by Omori Sogen, a
renowned Zen monk and Jikishinkage-ryu swordsman).
In 1988, Takeda Tokimune appointed Kondo Katsuyuki,
then the head of all Tokyo Daito-ryu Aikibudo
branches, to be both representative of the headmaster
(soke dairi) and director of the overseas headquarters
(kaigai hombucho) in regard to Daito-ryu Aikibudo.
That same year, Tokimune granted Kondo the menkyo
kaiden (license of full transmission) certificate in
Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, thus formally passing on the
Main Line Daito-ryu tradition.
During Takeda Tokimune's illness and in the wake of his death, some of his students, who were supposed to do their best to preserve the school, left or started claiming their own Daito-ryu styles. In this difficult time, with the aim to preserve the Main Line Daito-ryu transmitted from Takeda Sokaku and Tokimune, Kondo Katsuyuki became the head and general affairs director of the Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu headquarters after being elected to this position by the heads of all Daito-ryu branches during a meeting in September of 1994. In July of 1995, Kondo was recognized by the association of japanese traditional martial arts (Nihon Kobudo Kyokai) and association for the promotion of japanese traditional martial arts (Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai) as the legitimate successor to and head of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. Kondo has been a member of the executive board of the former association from May 2000 to May 2011, and is presently a member of the board of director of the latter.
In 2018 Kondo Sensei received a special prize from the Emperor of Japan for a lifetime of service to the community e, in particular, for the preservation of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu and its spread all over the World.
The special prize from the Emperor of Japan Akihito to Kondo Katsuyuki, for a lifetime of service to the preservation and spread of Daito-ryu around the world - Tokyo, 2018
Takeda Tokimune and Kondo Katsuyuki during a training session at Daitokan dojo - Abashiri, 1985
Kondo Katsuyuki's Soke Dairi Daito-ryu Aikibudo certificate obtained from Takeda Tokimune - 1988
Kondo Masayuki - Hombu-cho
Masayuki Kondo was born in 1952 as a younger brother of Katsuyuki Kondo, the general manager of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu.
He learned the basic of Budo from Katsuyuki and the second oldest brother Takayuki as their training partner since he was little.
In 1969, he got training directly from Tokimune Takeda, the Headmaster. As an apprentice of Tokimune sensei, Masayuki sensei could learn under great teachers' tutelage, such as Yukiyoshi Sagawa, Kodo Horikawa, Takuma Hisa, Kakuyoshi Yamamoto, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, Gozo Shioda, Kenji Tomiki, and Minoru Mochizuki.
In addition, Tokimune Takeda instructed Masayuki that Itto-ryu Kenjutsu and Jikishinkage-ryu kenjutsu are necessary for Daito-ryu, so he learned Ono-ha Itto-ryu (in which he reached the Menkyo Kaiden), Shinmuso Hayashizaki-ryu and Chokugen-ryu Naginata from the Headmaster Junzo Sasamori and, after him, from Hiroyuki Ohishi and Hajime Miyauchi. He learned Jikishinkage-ryu from Sogen Omori and, during university, Aikido from Sadateru Arikawa as well.
Masayuki sensei got training by Kondo Katsuyuki sensei after Tokimune sensei passed away, achieving the Daito-ryu Menkyo Kaiden in 2019. In August 2020 he was appointed as the new Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Hombucho.