Draft:Edward Hagihara
American aikido instructor (1935–2023)
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Edward Shigemi Hagihara (Japanese: 萩原 重美, Hagihara Shigemi; March 29, 1935 – October 2023) was an American aikido instructor and one of the seven founders of the New York Aikikai. He held the rank of 8th dan shihan from the Aikikai and was recognized as the longest continuously teaching aikido instructor in the continental United States, with over sixty years of practice and teaching.[1]
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Comment: This draft does not demonstrate that your subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article. Please see WP:42 for more information on what kind of sources you need to present. At least three sources that meet all three criteria in WP:42 are required. In particular, interviews with or sources written by the subject (or their friends, family, colleagues, etc) are not considered independent. Although I cannot access all your sources, the ones I can access and the statements the others are sourced to strongly suggest that they are either interviews with Hagihara, things written or said by people closely connected to him, or passing mentions of his name. You are looking ideally for books or newspaper/journal articles or similar that discuss his life and his impact on aikido in some depth. Meadowlark (talk) 02:31, 20 April 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. MartialMetrics (talk) 03:21, 19 February 2026 (UTC)
March 29, 1935
United States
| Edward Hagihara | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward Shigemi Hagihara March 29, 1935 United States |
| Died | October 13, 2023 (aged 88) |
| Native name | 萩原 重美 |
| Other names | Eddie Hagihara |
| Nationality | American |
| Style | Aikido |
| Teachers | Koichi Tohei, Morihei Ueshiba |
| Rank | 8th dan shihan (Aikikai) |
| Years active | 1958–2023 |
| Other information | |
| Website | liaikikai |
Hagihara trained at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo during the early 1960s, where he served as the primary uke (demonstration partner) for Koichi Tohei, then the chief instructor of the Aikikai. He received direct instruction from the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba (O-Sensei), who personally directed him to return to America and teach. In 1964, Hagihara founded the Long Island Aikikai, one of the oldest continuously operating aikido schools in the United States.[2]
Early life
Hagihara was born on March 29, 1935, in the United States to Japanese immigrant parents. His mother had been born in Hawaii and held American citizenship. When Hagihara was five years old, his mother brought him and his brother to live with their grandparents in Hiroshima, Japan, while she returned to New York to join their father before the outbreak of World War II.[2]
During the war, Hagihara and his brother experienced harsh treatment in Japan due to being perceived as Americans. They lived through the constant air raids and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In 1948, the brothers returned to New York to reunite with their parents.[2]
At age 17, Hagihara began studying judo at his father's encouragement, eventually achieving the rank of 3rd dan.[3] While practicing judo, he encountered a book by Koichi Tohei about aikido. Upon seeing a photograph of Morihei Ueshiba, he later recounted experiencing an inexplicable trembling that drew him to pursue the art.[2]
Aikido career
Founding of the New York Aikikai
In the late 1950s, Hagihara learned of Yasuo Ohara, a young Japanese man who had studied with Ueshiba and was teaching aikido informally while attending Columbia University. Hagihara became Ohara's second student. The small group initially trained once a week, sharing space with judo practitioners in a university gymnasium.[2]
As the group grew, they sought dedicated training space. According to fellow founder Ralph Glanstein, the original founders of Aikido of New York City were "Eddie Hagihara (who was a 3rd dan in Judo), Virginia Mayhew, Barry Bernstein, Fred Krase, and me."[3] The group eventually secured a location on 19th Street, establishing the first aikido dojo in New York. By early 1963, the New York Aikikai had gained enough recognition to be invited to perform a demonstration at the United Nations headquarters, which was covered in the UN's internal Secretariat News publication.[4] A contemporary account by visiting Hawaiian instructor Meyer Goo noted that the dojo had "approximately thirty students" with "Mr. Yasuo Ohara of Keio University, Japan" as chief instructor, "assisted by Mr. Eddie Hagihara and Mr. Barry Bernstein, both shodans."[5]
Training in Japan
In June 1963, Hagihara traveled to Japan to deepen his aikido practice. According to the Aikido newsletter published by the Aikikai headquarters, "Eddie Hagihara is expected to leave Tokyo for his home in New York City at the end of April after receiving advanced training at the Hombu dojo since June, 1963."[6] He had contacted Koichi Tohei in Hawaii and was invited to train at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo. At that time, the dojo offered seven classes per week taught by notable instructors including Ueshiba himself, Tohei, Kisshomaru Ueshiba ("Waka Sensei"), Kisaburo Osawa, Seigo Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Tada, and Sadateru Arikawa.[2]
Hagihara trained extensively with the uchideshi (live-in students) of the era, including Nobuyoshi Tamura, Yoshimitsu Yamada, Seiichi Sugano, Kazuo Chiba, and Mitsugi Saotome. He became particularly close to Tohei and frequently served as his demonstration partner (uke) both in Japan and later in America.[1] Fellow practitioners Robert Nadeau and Henry Kono were noted as close friends during this period.[7]
Hagihara also studied weapons (bukiwaza) at satellite dojos, as Ueshiba would sometimes object when he saw students practicing weapons at Hombu Dojo. He trained with Tohei at Shimbashi and with Yamaguchi in Yokohama.[2]
During his time in Japan, Hagihara had the opportunity to receive personal instruction from Ueshiba and to spend time with him in informal settings, including sharing a kotatsu and listening to his spiritual teachings. He later described receiving Ueshiba's techniques as being "guided by a stream of warm air."[2]
Return to America and Long Island Aikikai
Before Hagihara's departure from Japan, Ueshiba personally summoned him and instructed him: "Go to New York, and teach my Aikido." Hagihara regarded this as both an approval and a duty that guided the rest of his life.[2]
Hagihara had met Yoshimitsu Yamada while training in Japan around 1962. In 1964, Yamada came to New York, originally for the 1964 New York World's Fair; contemporary accounts noted he was "planning to remain in New York City for four years to teach Aikido and to attend New York University."[8] When Yamada decided to stay permanently and become chief instructor of the New York Aikikai, Hagihara relinquished his position to allow this transition. At the New York Aikikai's 50th anniversary celebration, Yamada publicly acknowledged this, stating: "This is Mr. Hagihara, he is a very, very important person. Without him I won't be here... He actually—and I understand he never told me—he gave up actually, he gave up his position. He was supposed to be the leader of the New York Aikikai. He was so kind."[9]
Following this transition, Hagihara founded the Long Island Aikikai in 1964. The school has remained in continuous operation for over sixty years, eventually settling in its permanent home in Bay Shore, New York in 2012. The dojo is directly affiliated with Hombu Dojo in Japan.[10]
Hagihara continued teaching until his death, training numerous students who went on to establish their own dojos across the United States and internationally. He was recognized as a member of the Honorary Committee of the United States Aikido Federation.[1]
Teaching philosophy
Hagihara emphasized the spiritual dimensions of aikido alongside its martial effectiveness. He believed that physical practice was the necessary starting point, but that with time, "spirituality develops at the same time as technique refines." He taught that the ultimate goal was to receive an attacker "like someone receiving a guest at their home... with benevolence."[2]
He identified love and compassion as the essential qualities of a good teacher. Reflecting Ueshiba's teaching that the character for ai (合, harmony) in aikido could be read as the homophone meaning "love" (愛), Hagihara interpreted aikido as "the Way of the intention of Love."[2]
Hagihara expressed concern that after Ueshiba's death, much of the founder's spiritual teaching had been neglected, with aikido often becoming "nothing more than a simple physical activity." He advocated for restoring the place of non-violence at the heart of aikido's message.[2]
Legacy
Hagihara was acknowledged in Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere (1970), a foundational English-language text on aikido, for helping the authors during their early training in New York.[11]
Léo Tamaki, a French aikido instructor and martial arts journalist, conducted extensive interviews with Hagihara in 2016 and 2022, describing him as "the Master in the Shadows" (French: Le Maître de l'Ombre) who "had been a participant in several pivotal moments of Aikido's development" while deliberately avoiding the spotlight. Tamaki noted that Hagihara had learned to survive by "avoiding the light" and "being careful never to create conflict situations," having experienced animosity as "Japanese in America, American in Japan" from an early age.[2]
Hagihara died in October 2023. His technical successor at Long Island Aikikai is Adam Pilipshen.[2]
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