“From a young age, [Abbe] regarded the martial arts as expressions of deeper ideas-significantly, he was strongly influenced by personal contact with Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. And though be also studied Aikido, Kendo and Jukendo (The way of the Bayonet) and during the late 1930’s taught at the special Judo College of the Butokukwai in Kyoto, he was gradually forming his own philosophy which he later called Kyu-Shin-Do. In 1938 he was promoted to 6th Dan (age 22), the youngest in Japan, and in 1945 7th Dan (age 29).He became chief instructor in Doshisa University (the same university, incidentally where Tani represented for nearly fifty years before) as well as the instructor for the Kyoto Police.”
Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.