“For those who don’t know this, it’s like magic.” So says Harvey Konigsberg, chief instructor for decades now at Woodstock Aikido. And indeed, to an outsider watching one of Konigsberg Sensei’s classes at his dojo in a barn on the Byrdcliffe grounds, his consistent ability to deflect a student attacking him (the uke, in martial arts parlance) seems almost supernaturally effortless. Like Star Trek’s Spock disabling an adversary using the Vulcan nerve pinch at the back of the neck, all it takes is a finger or two applied in the perfect spot to make the uke collapse and roll. It’s pretty impressive technique – especially from a guy who’s now 82 years old and has had knee replacement surgery and shoulder injuries.
One of the most respected and experienced American aikido masters — his rank is Seventh Dan, Shihan — Konigsberg has been practicing for 58 years now, since almost the dawn of aikido in this country. He has taught on five continents and is still regularly invited to give classes at dojos and conferences around the globe, including a weekly session at the New York Aikikai, run by Konigsberg’s mentor, Yoshimitsu Yamada. Yamada is one of the last living senseis to have trained at length in person with the founder of aikido: Morihei Ueshiba, also known as Osensei or Great Teacher.
The son of a gentleman farmer in Tanabe in Wakayama prefecture, Ueshiba (1883-1969) studied Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu with its founder, Takeda Sokaku, before going on to develop his own form, informed by the spirituality that he embraced as a member of the Shinto sect known as Omoto-kyo. Aikido translates as “the way of unifying energy,” and what sets it apart from other East Asian martial arts is its decidedly unmartial approach: a commitment to defusing conflict without seriously hurting anyone.
“The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood,” Ueshiba wrote following his experiences during World War II, which he had tried to forestall. “It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter – it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.”
Aikido’s fluid, almost dancelike self-defense techniques are designed to channel the momentum of the attacker and ground it, while exerting little obvious effort on the defender’s part. This is often accomplished through a pivoting semicircular motion called tenkan, which keeps the attack on the periphery while the defender calmly commands the center. There are no striking counterattacks, as in karate, but rather a firm but gentle grappling that employs precise pressure on certain nerves, joints and soft tissue to “lead” the opponent to fall away from the initial point of contact.
“Osensei was highly religious, but never imposed his religion on anyone,” Konigsberg observes. “The only restriction in aikido was not to do harm. He taught that a human being can’t evolve at the expense of another human being. Thus, aikido training is joyful and vibrant.”
So noncompetitive is this approach, in fact, that practitioners (aikidoka) progress in rank through their demonstrated mastery of the techniques, without having to defeat other students in matches as in most other forms of martial arts. Improvisation is encouraged, especially once a student has practiced long enough that the forms have been internalized into muscle memory. Both student and instructor are expected to treat one another with courtesy. There’s no drill-sergeant mentality here. “I’m known for being not strict,” notes Konigsberg. “Respect is one thing; severity is another.”
Aikido’s cooperative and non-dogmatic spirit was part of its initial appeal to Konigsberg, who had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family and was fed up with rules. Born in Manhattan in 1940, he moved with his family to Florida. “At 16 or 17, I was going to be a boxer. I didn’t like school,” he says.
But his teachers had noticed his artistic talent and encouraged him to pursue that as a career. He majored in art at the University of Miami and apprenticed himself to painter Eugene Massin. To keep body and soul together after school, he went to work in a warehouse, and continued to pursue boxing as a hobby.
He returned to New York City in his twenties as a working artist, in time racking up more than two dozen one-man shows. And he found himself needing something that would replace the thrill of movement that he had found in boxing without the punishment of being repeatedly hit in the face.
In 1965, he saw his first aikido demonstration at the first aikido school on the East Coast: New York Aikikai, headquarters of the US Aikido Federation. At the time, it was a martial-arts form that hardly any Americans had ever heard of, other than the few military personnel who had encountered aikido in Japan just after World War II. Most Americans had only seen approximations of East Asian martial arts in spy movies by that point.
It was only one year before, in 1964, that judo had become an official Olympic sport and Bruce Lee had captured the spotlight at the first annual Long Beach International Karate Championships, It was not until 1966 that he would be cast as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet. The kung fu mania of the 1970s had not yet taken hold.
At age 25, Harvey Konigsberg was living in a loft on West 24th Street, a short walk from the New York Aikikai, which he had heard about from Harry McCormick, an artist friend who was showing his work at the same Greenwich Village gallery.
Together with a fellow boxer named Clem Florio, Konigsberg stopped in to watch a class taught by two world-class senseis who had both studied with Morihei Ueshiba himself: Yoshimitsu Yamada and Koichi Tohei. “I was entranced,” he recalls.
Konigsberg signed up for classes at once, and although he “had to unlearn things I did in boxing,” he learned how to fall properly and was “teaching within a few months,” he says. In 1967 his first wife Patti, a clothing designer, decided to open a boutique in Montreal, and they moved there for a couple of years.
By then, aikido had become a part of him, even invading his dreams. The snowy winters drove them back to Manhattan, and he resumed his training with Yamada Sensei – this time for good. As an early recruit to New York Aikikai, he’s now one of the longest-practicing American-born aikidoka still active.
Fast-forward to the 1980s, when skyrocketing real-estate prices forced the Konigsbergs to give up their Chelsea loft. They had already found a summer retreat in Woodstock through their friendship with painter Mylo Quam, so they moved there full-time. Harvey joined an aikido dojo in Saugerties founded by Lowell Miller, and became its director not long after the death of Lou Kleinsmith Sensei. He reorganized the group in its present location on Upper Byrdcliffe Road, as Woodstock Aikido, in 1986. Konigsberg Sensei also became a member of the technical committee of the US Aikido Federation, responsible for teaching guidelines as well as rank promotion across the US.
The historic barn formerly used for wood storage and now housing Woodstock Aikido, like most of the historic buildings on the site of the former Byrdcliffe colony, has been maintained and gradually improved over the years thanks mostly to volunteer labor and donated building materials. In a recent visit, a 40-year-old overhead propane heater was about to be replaced after a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Following a long fallow period during the pandemic, when instruction was offered only over Zoom, Woodstock Aikido is back up to a full schedule of in-person classes, viewable at https://woodstockaikido.com/schedule. Participants range in age from preschoolers in the Saturday morning parent/child classes to seasoned veterans, including five senior instructors who have reached Sixth Dan level.
Konigsberg, who can no longer do exercises in a kneeling position due to his bionic knee, is especially sensitive to the need to tone down falling and rolling exercises for older students. Special low-impact evening classes are geared for seniors, people rehabilitating from injuries, and others who have “physical challenges,” he says. “They’re not brutal or damaging in any way.”
While Konigsberg Sensei himself has had to adjust his teaching style in recent years, he’s still personally conducting three classes per week, and says that after each one he “comes out feeling rejuvenated.”
Currently he is traveling the world to offer seminars once again. And he’s thinking it’s about time for another art show. You can see some of his paintings at https://harveykonigsbergart.com. To schedule an introductory aikido class or inquire about signing up for an ongoing class, e-mail woodstockaikido@gmail.com or woodstockaikidokids@gmail.com.
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