Koichi Tohei Sensei passed away

[Saint Louis Ki Society]

Koichi Tohei Sensei, founder of Ki Society, passed away at 9:14 this morning (May 19, Tokyo time). He was 91 years old.

Koichi Tohei Sensei went into the hospital two weeks ago with inflammation of the lungs, so he had been receiving treatment. But his heart got weaker and this morning he passed away.

A closed funeral will be held with his family including Ki Society President Shinichi Tohei Sensei. The formal funeral for all members will be held in Tokyo some weeks later for those who would like to be present. The date and place of the formal funeral will be announced soon.

A commemoration and get together of some sort is being planned for Saint Louis Ki Society after testing this Saturday (May 21). All are invited. Testing begins at 4 pm and ends about 6. There will be a short demonstration and meditation after testing. Then, rather than go out to a restaurant like we usually do after testing, all current and former members are invited to come to the home of Mark Rubbert and Kate Theis at 6836 Plateau Avenue, 63139. We may just order pizza or do some simple food, but this might be a better setting for conversation. If the weather is dry we will be on the patio. There will be a big bottle of Sake that should provide a small toast for everyone. Other than that, B.Y.O.B.
We will also take up a collection to help send Kashiwaya Sensei to Japan for the funeral.

Please join us if you can.
 

[Saint Louis Ki Society]

A message from Midland Ki Federation Chairperson Stan Haehl:

MKF Members and friends:

The Official Funeral Service for Tohei sensei will be held July 17, at 13:00 (=1 P.M. Tokyo time) at the Tsukiji Honganji* in the Tsukiji district of Tokyo. This schedule is designed, in part, to give overseas Ki Society members time to make travel arrangements. Kashiwaya sensei plans to attend this service, both for his personal expression and to represent MKF and US Ki-Aikido.

Sensei expects that many MKF members will want to express their feelings and profound gratitude to Tohei sensei's family, even if they cannot travel personally to Tokyo. This is appropriate, but can become complicated, if many individuals (some not well known to HQ or the family) send flowers or memorial messages. Sensei suggests that we channel our memorials through our local groups and the MKF organization.
To this end MKF is accepting donations to be used for
1) a flower arrangement to be sent to the funeral from MKF and
2) supporting Kashiwaya sensei's travel expenses.
If you would like to contribute to this fund - as an MKF Member Group or as individuals-, please use the donation-link on this MKF Website (below) to do so. Please send an email to Mark Rubbert, St. Louis Ki-Society (see below), specifying this so he can assign the donation to the appropriate fund.
Alternatively you can send checks, made payable to MKF, to Midland Ki Federation, 6006 Pershing Ave., St. Louis, MO, 63112. Please write “memorial fund” in the check's notation field.

If you or any of your individual members DO plan to attend the memorial in person, please inform Kashiwaya Sensei  about this, so he can communicate with HQ and the family.
Once we are informed of details of the service, we will pass this on to all MKF groups. One idea is that local groups may want to have simple memorial services timed to coincide with the service in Tokyo, or on the same day.
Also note that sensei has created a Facebook Memorial page (search "Memory of Koichi Tohei sensei") and invites everyone to add comments or memorial statements.

As noted before, the US National Training in Las Vegas (August 4-7, 2011) has taken on even greater significance in light of the cancellation of World Camp and Tohei sensei's passing. It would be really great to have at least a representative from each MKF Group in attendance. Please let me (Stan Haehl) know if we will see you there!

Thank you.
Stan Haehl
MKF Board of Directors Chairperson
Lead Instructor, Athens (OH) Ki-Aikido

*The Tsukiji Honganji is a major branch temple of the Honganji sub-sect of of the Jodo Shinshu sect/denomination of Shin (Pure Land) Buddhism. See: http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~kennyko/tsukiji/tstop_e.htm  It is customary for Japanese to use Buddhist ceremonial practices for funerals. 13:00 Sunday July 17 Tokyo time is 12:00 Midnight Saturday July 12 US Eastern Daylight time.