“Movie Star Aikido Master”
Steven Seagal 1952 –
“Movie Star Aikido Master”
Seagal is a 7th degree black belt in Aikido. He is also an actor, film producer, screenwriter, film director, musician, reservedeputy sheriff and entrepreneur.
At the age of 13, Seagal lied about his age and got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant named The Wagon Wheel. One of the cooks at the restaurant was a Japanese shotokan karate expert and noticed Seagal moved very quickly around the kitchen. He taught Seagal the basics of karate. Seagal then began training in aikido under master Harry Kiyoshi Ishisaka, founder of the Orange County Aikido School in 1964. Seagal considers him to have been the most important martial arts teacher in his life. Seagal moved to Japan at some point between the ages of 19 and 21 with his father who was visiting for military purposes, and met karate masters and decided to remain in Japan. He received his Shodan in Aikido under the direction of Koichi Tohei. He continued to train in aikido as a student of Seiseki Abe Seagal refused to join any other group except Aikikai, Kisaburo Osawa, Hiroshi Isoyama and the second doshuKisshomaru Ueshiba.
He attained a 7th dan degree and Shihan in aikido and became the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Japan.
After returning to California in 1974, Seagal met Miyako Fujitani, an aikido instructor teaching in Los Angeles. He returned with her to her native Japan in 1975 where they married. When Seagal's father-in-law, also an aikido instructor, retired, Seagal became the new head of the organization known as Tenshin Aikido in Jūsō, Osaka City (affiliated with the Aikikai).
When Seagal left his dojo in Osaka, his then-wife Miyako became the caretaker of the dojo which has continued to the present day.
After another period in Japan, Seagal returned to the U.S. in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in North Hollywood, California, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997.