Kanshu Sunadomari (1923 – November 13, 2010) was an Aikido teacher with a 9 Dan in Aikikai. Learned from the O-Sensei directly and founded the Manseikan Aikido style.
Kanshu Sunadomari was born in Kagoshima, Japan. He comes from the Omoto-Kyu believers family. This religion was a base for O-Sensei to create the Aikido philosophy. Because of the elder brother, Kanshu became an uchi-deshi for the Morihei Ueshiba as a teen. This was an early stage of Aikido development. The name was Kobukan instead of Aikikai and there were only a few of the teachers except the founder: Koichi Tohei, Kisaburo Osawa and Minoru Hirai.
In 1953 Sunadomari gave a first Aikido demonstration in Kumamoto city in front of the 300 people. He proved to be great with the demonstrations a lot of the times after and this was the start of the Kanshu Sunadomari’s Aikido way in the role of a teacher and influencer. After that demonstration Aikido was recognized in the Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and other regions. The opening of the Manseikan Dojo on the territory of a Tettori Shrine was done by Sunadomari Sensei in the following year.
Sunadomari was a part of a time when practitioners count in Japan grew to 20000 with 3000 black belts. At the age of 38, he was awarded the rank of 9 Dan by the founder. After the death of the last one, Sensei founded an independent Aikido style and went deeper with the studies of the art in the Kyushu region.
Sensei wrote several books about the Aikido with one translated in English. Enlightenment through Aikido. Also, read the interviews to get a better feeling about the Kanshu Sunadomari on the AikidoSangenkai.org, AikidoJournal archives and join a website of his Dojo.