Steven Seagal Page -YKK

Steven Seagal - a brief Martial Arts History...

In the mid 1950's, when Steven Seagal was just a few years old, he attended a football game with his father. The half-time show included a martial-arts demonstration. Steven was amazed by the little old man that could defend himself from multiple attackers twice his size with what seemed to be no effort at all. That demonstration had a lasting effect on Steven. He knew he wanted to train in the martial-arts.

The Seagal family moved from their home in Detroit, Michigan, to Fullerton, California, in 1957. At age seven, Steven began training in Karate under Fumio Demura. At fifteen, Steven, unsure of what he wanted to do with his life, left home. He began training with Shihan Kyoshi Ishisaki, a master Aikido instructor. He quickly became Ishisaki's top student and did demonstrations with his teacher at the Japanese Village in Deer Park, California.

At the young age of 17, Steven moved to Japan to train with the Aikido masters. In 1974, he received his 1st Dan from Koichi Tohei, 10th Dan and top student of O Sensei, the founder of Aikido. In 1975, Steven became the first American to open a martial-arts Dojo in Japan, the Aididai-Hombu affiliated Tenshin Aikido Dojo in Osaka. Being American, Steven had to overcome many challenges and biases. He soon gained respect, however, with his abilities and devotion winning over even his strongest opponents.

Steven Seagal began studying the religion and teachings of O Sensei, in addition to his Aikido. He became a follower of the Shinto religion, and more specifically the Omoto-Kyo sect of which O Sensei was a member. He also spent a great deal of time studying natural healing practices, such as the use of herbs and acupuncture. These studies have had a profound effect on Steven's life. It also had a great effect on his Aikido, both his technique and his teaching. He strongly believes that Aikido is not just a practice for the body, but for the heart and mind as well.

In 1982, Seagal Sensei opened a Dojo in Taos, New Mexico. In October 1983, he opened the Tenshin Dojo in Sherman Oaks, California. He brought his senior student Haruo Matsuoka from Japan to help him introduce not only Aikido, but the Japanese culture itself to California. Their teachings included Japanese calligraphy, tea ceremonies, and the healing arts in addition to traditional Aikido. This Dojo would later move to North Hollywood in January 1984, West Hollywood in February 1987 and to its final location in West Los Angeles in November 1992. The Tenshin Dojo closed in January 1998 due to Matsuoka Sensei's return to Japan. The Dojos in Taos and Osaka continue to operate with students of Seagal Sensei as the instructors.

Steven Seagal recently received his 7th Dan from Doshu, O Sensei's son and the current head of Aikikai. Steven continues to do live martial-arts demonstrations around the world as well as train some senior students from his home. He also conducts public teachings and seminars for his religion, especially since being named a tulku, a reincarnated lama, in 1997.

In the Aikido world, Steven uses the name Take Shigemichi, which means "pathway to prosperity". This is a name he has certainly lived up to.

- Seagal -

A stern-looking martial arts wizard who studied and later taught his craft in Japan, Seagal (pronounced say-GAL) got his feet wet in motion pictures as a fight coordinator on John Frankenheimer's The Challenge (1982) and later set up a popular martial arts school in West Hollywood. He caught the attention of Michael Ovitz (then head of Creative Artists Agency) who arranged a martial arts demonstration for Warner Brothers president Terry Semel. Impressed by Seagal, Ovitz arranged a screen test and he was somewhat unexpectedly catapulted to action stardom. His first feature was the low-budget, urban cop drama Above the Law (1988), for which he provided the story, served as producer, and played a CIA operative in Vietnam who later exposes the corruption of Chicago government officials.

Seagal cemented his popularity as an avenging action hero with the follow-up action/aikido films Marked for Death, Hard to Kill (both 1990), and Out For Justice (1991), in which his larger-than-life presence alternates between meditative serenity and vigilante violence. His persona represented an odd mix of the mainstreaming of Chinese and trendy New Age philosophizing with the contemporary taste for good guys who seemed sinister and yet satisfied an increasing taste for simplified notions of instant justice in a troubled US, justified heroes who enjoy dispatching their enemies in as dispassionate a manner as possible.

The canny, pony-tailed actor has enhanced his mystique by creating a public image shrouded in mystery and surrounded by speculation about his possible past links with the CIA. Although critics have carped at Seagal's modest acting abilities, Janet Maslin of The New York Times has summed up as the aspects of his star persona: "What Mr. Seagal offers is a clever, uncategorizable hybrid of physical prowess, fortune-cookie wisdom, law-and-order politics, street-smart bravado and, above all, the confident insouciant manner of a natural-born star." Seagal earned mainstream status with Under Siege (1992), a Die Hard-style thriller that grossed over $80 million.. Its villains were played with relish by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey and it possessed welcome moments of deadpan humor Seagal followed up this success with his directorial debut, On Deadly Ground (1994), a well-intentioned eco-thriller featuring Seagal as Alaska's last hope. The inevitable sequel to his earlier smash, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), followed, with the inscrutable but increasingly accepted star receiving the occasional kudo for some lively action scenes. Indeed, although many critics found Seagal to be unchanged for his "guest star" supporting turn in the Kurt Russell actioner Executive Decision (1995), some found his cool dispatch to constitute some of the best moments of his career to date.