Shihan Steven Seagal friendship with Shihan Hiroshi ISOYAMA
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Hiroshi ISOYAMA (AMA) was born on January 14, 1937 in Iwama in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Coming from a hostel family, he decided to study martial arts when he was a teenager. Indeed, postwar is a very difficult time for Japan, and all kinds of people pass into the family hostel, including members of the yakuzas!
In order to learn to defend himself, he goes to the dojo of Master UESHIBA, in June 1949. The latter has just opened classes for teens and young Hiroshi, then aged 12, becomes the Founder's student.
The training is hard and rigorous, there are no tatami in the dojo and students, few at that time, have to learn to fall on the wooden floor. After three months he finds himself alone, the teens class disappears but Hiroshi continues to practice with adults.
His training partners are named Morihiro SAITO, Takeo MURATA, Sakae SHIMADA, Sachio YAMANE or Kunio OYAMA.
In 1958, Hiroshi left Iwama to join the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces (Nihon Koku-Jieitai). He is mobilized to Chitose on the island of Hokkaido. At 21 years old, he begins teaching aikido to members of the US military police, then at the request of the garrison commander, to all members of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Many of his military students are physically stronger and taller than him, which forces ISOYAMA Sensei to develop powerful techniques to meet the challenges of his students.
Master ISOYAMA, is one of the few individuals, with Master SAITO among others, to have studied with the Founder during the maturation period of modern aikido. Loyal to the UESHIBA family, he holds important functions in Aikikai and in various organizations, such as the federation Japanese Aikido and the Ministry of Defense.
Shihan 8th dan, Hiroshi ISOYAMA is recognized worldwide for his powerful (sometimes brutal) technique and for his famous over-the-shoulder projections (ganseki otoshi).
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