Tadashi Abe

(1926 – November 23, 1984) In 1952, after graduating in law from Waseda University, he moved to France where he studied law at the Sorbonne and taught aikido as a 6th Dan representative of the Aikikai. After seven years, he returned to Japan. By 1964 he held the rank of 7th dan.

Aikido had been introduced into France a year earlier by Minoru Mochizuki during a visit, but it was Tadashi Abe's teaching at the judo dojo of Mikonosuke Kawaishi where aikido was first taught on a regular basis in the West.

In his beginning years in aikido, Abe had been very keen on ascertaining the martial effectiveness of the art. He wrote two books on aikido in French, and a scathing letter in critique of Koichi Tohei´s decision to break from the Aikikai and start his own Ki Society.