Kohinata Hakuro, Morihei Ueshiba, and the Aikikai

Courtesy of Aikido Sangenkai

Top left - Kohinata Hakuro reviews members or the Nihon Seinensya (the Japan Youth Society), top right with Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba, below that having lunch in Iwama with Morihei Ueshiba his wife and students, and bottom - visiting Aikikai Hombu Dojo.

Kohinata Hakuro - King of the Mongolian Bandits

A member of the ultra-nationalist Gen'yōsha (Dark Ocean) society founded by the famous right wing ultra-nationalist Mitsuru Toyama, he was sent to China before the war to foment chaos and disorder, where he came to be known as the "King of the Mongolian Bandits".

In 1924 Morihei Ueshiba and Onisaburo Deguchi went to Mongolia to create a religious state that would be part of the expanding Japanese empire under the Imperial family and, coincidentally, Onisaburo Deguchi himself.

Deguchi's interference with the local population irritated the Mongolian warlords, and Onisaburo Deguchi and Morihei Ueshiba were arrested and scheduled to be executed. Their main Chinese liason, Lu Zhankui, was arrested with them and was actually executed, but they themselves were rescued through the efforts of Kohinata Hakuro.

After the war, Kohinata Hakuro became, at Morihei Ueshiba's invitation, a member of the board of directors of the Aikikai Foundation. He also remained active in right wing activist activities such as the Nihon Seinensya.

The Nihon Seinensya, founded in 1961 by the Sumiyoshi-kai Yakuza syndicate, remains today one of the largest right wing ultra-nationalist organizations in Japan.

Kohinata Hakuro's secretary (pictured behind him) stated, "Kohinata Hakuro always worked behind the scenes, but wherever we went, East or West, the members of the Seinensya and the Sumiyoshi-kai treated him like a god".