Morihei gradually developed interest in a government plan to colonize the northern island of Hokkaido . In March 1912 he became head of a group of fifty-four families, more than eighty people , that he ‘ll bring and install in a remote northern part of the island and where he’ll build the village of Shirataki near Yobetsu .

Shirataki village in Hokkaido

The life of the settlers was Spartan. The group, named Kishu, devoted himself mainly to agricultural and forestry work. Morihei seemed to thrive in these difficult living conditions where winters were harsh and work heavy. He also participated in local politics as territorial adviser. At that time a fact made a deep impression on Morihei’s life and influenced in some way the development of the future of Aikido : in February 1915 he met, in the city of Engaru , the eccentric .Sokaku Takeda Sensei , specialist in Daito Ryu jujutsu, who was installed on the island of Hokkaido that he traveled regularly in order to conduct the jujutsu training .

Morihei Ueshiba was then only thirty two. He was already very skilled in martial arts but not as much as Takeda Sensei, who was at that time in the prime of life.

Sokaku Takeda

Morihei was fascinated by the number, the complexity and the power in the techniques practiced by Takeda. Therefore he devoted much time and money on the learning of them. He even invited Sokaku to live at home in order to receive private tutoring. As all these private lessons were expensive , his father helped him financially by sending him funds from Tanabe .

Morihei became very quickly one of the best students of Takeda and received a degree in education at the first level of Daito- ryu in 1917. The teaching transmitted to him included hundreds of highly sophisticated techniques, consisting of arm locks, projections and neutralization techniques. All these techniques will be the basics for what would later become the Aikido of Ueshiba Sensei. It was also at this period that his first son Takemori was born.