Master Koretoshi Maruyama, Founder Aikido Yuishinkai
Koretoshi Maruyama was born in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, on October 5, 1936. He graduated from the Economics Department of
Keio University in March of 1956, after which he joined his father's business, Maruyama Manufacturing. He became
interested in the martial arts from his Middle School years, and at his father's urging he took up Judo and earned
a black belt. Again at his fathers urging, in his first year of college, he entered the Rikidozan School of Professional
Wrestling, and also trained in weight lifting and boxing, while continuing his training in Judo at the Kodokan.
In the spring of his third year of college, he began to develop doubts about the martial arts of judo, wrestling and boxing,
which emphasized a mere contest of strength. At this point he entered the Aikikai, as well as the Keio University
Aikido Club. It was here that he found in Aikido what he had been searching for all those years, a martial art
which did not depend on strength, and taught the right attitude of mind. After he graduated from Keio University,
he continued his training in Aikido, while working in the family business.
In 1967 he delegated his responsibilities in the family business so that he could become a full time professional
Aikido instructor, under the tutelage of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, and dedicate himself to the martial
art that taught the principles of mind and Ki.In 1971 he went to Hawaii for 4 months, to teach Aikido on each of the
islands. In 1972, he resigned from the Aikikai to become the Chief Instructor of the Ki no Kenkyukai, founded in September
of 1971 by Koichi Tohei Sensei, who granted Maruyama Sensei the rank of 8th-dan.In 1973 he became responsible for teaching
in Hawaii, and for 10 years taught Ki Principles at the University of Hawaii in Hilo, as well as at Keio University
Physical Education Research Department in Japan. From 1977 he studied with Haruchika Noguchi Sensei how to heal and
help people with Ki and use Ki in daily life. At the same time, he also studied the psychology of Zen from the Zen
Priest Shogen Munou, from whom he learned how to use the mind positively.
