The transcript below is from the video “The Truth About Steven Seagal’s Aikido” by Martial Arts Journey.
Martial Arts Journey:
Most of us know Steven Seagal as an Aikido master, turned movie star. Despite losing his strong stand in Hollywood, he is still loved by many. Yet when you look at his life more closely, many plot holes start to pop out. Being a controversial figure as he is, one can only stop and wonder, what was the influence of Seagal to martial arts and his primary art – Aikido? To better understand the answer, we will have to look at some details that are often left unmentioned.
There are loads of caricaturist montages about Seagal. One could argue, that a caricature could be made about anyone. It is also said that there is 60% of truth in every joke, which means that every caricature is actually inspired by something. That seems to be true about Seagal when you look at the details of his past. It turns out that Seagal has a strong reputation in Hollywood as a pathological liar. There are many stories about his distorting of truth. One of the more commonly known claims to have been an operative in CIA and also a member of the NAVY SEAL. In 1988, he told Los Angeles Times “You can say that I became an adviser to several CIA agents in the field, and. through my friends in the CIA, met many powerful people and did special works and special favors.”
Martial Arts Journey:
Yet, it was stated by many of those associated with the CIA, that this claim is absurd. As one of the examples, in a story told by Gary Goldman, an ex-mercenary and former business partner of Steven Seagal, while they were together on a trip, he realized that Seagal had no clue how to even use a map or a compass. In his letter to Times magazine, he wrote that Seagal would surely die of starvation if he was given a compass and a map that led to a restaurant five miles away.”
A story like this really puts some doubt about the possibility of Seagal ever being a CIA operative or a former Navy Seal, even more so with him never giving any proof about it. Actually, even Steven Seagal’s Aikido background story has been caught being suspicious. Based on “Peoples” article published in 1990, during various interviews, Seagal indicated that it was anywhere from 1968 to 1973 that he went to Japan. According to enrollment records at Fullerton College, he attended classes from the fall of 1970 and left after the fall of 1971, putting him at age 19 before he could have departed for a long stay in Japan. Of course, it could have been a mix of dates in Seagal’s memory, but what these dates contradict with, even more, is that Steven was also claiming that he studied with Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. This was not only denied by one of Ueshiba’s Western students, Terry Dobson, who stayed with the founder during that time, but Morihei also passed away in 1969, during the time when Seagal was recorded to be still in College in the States, making his claims even more so ridiculous.
Martial Arts Journey:
One element that is often used to fortify Seagal’s image as a ‘great’ martial artists, is the often proclaimed statement, that he was the first non-Asian person to open a Dojo in Japan. Yet based on ‘Peoples’ investigation, it turns out that the Dojo that he was teaching in Japan, belonged to his former wife’s, Miyako Fujitani’s, father. Looking at all these claims and contradictions, Seagal’s role as a martial artist and an Aikidoka become really peculiar.
Seagal had been into other series of trouble as well. To begin with, he had a series of lawsuits for sexual harassment and there are many recorded stories of different women sharing how awful and sexually inappropriately Seagal was acting with them. Up until now, Seagal has had three lawsuits for sexual harassment, spamming from 1995 to 2013. He has also been reported acting unethically and violently in the filming set, most notably when he intentionally punched actor John Leguizamo during a rehearsal when John laughed from Seagal’s statement: “I’m in command, what I say is law, anyone not agrees?”.
Martial Arts Journey:
There had been numerous other troubling events that were recorded about Seagal in various situations, yet these alone mentioned before, are already enough to create a big sense of doubts about his personality and credibility. One could argue, that maybe some of these stories are not true, that maybe it is just what happens to actors in Hollywood, with lots of gossiping. Yet then why so much trouble with Seagal in particular? With so many of these stories and recorded facts, for all of them to be out of thin air, it becomes hard to believe. Yet trying to prove if it is true or not, is not our main goal. It is now time to come back to our original question.
Without doubt, Seagal has been an important figure in the development and popularization of martial arts in the West. Popular culture always had a strong influence on people’s interests. With Seagal’s fame rising, rose also the fame of martial arts and Aikido even more so. Many came trying martial arts after seeing his movies. Yet what image has he presented about Aikido and martial arts in general?
Martial Arts Journey:
Most martial arts masters who have demonstrated incredible feet’s, even after turning famous, proclaimed self-development and good example as of utmost importance in martial arts. Up to this day we still look up to the founder of Jeet-Kun-Do and famous actor Bruce Lee, who would go about saying: “To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.” Many other great martial artists would promote good character and example as well.
Yet looking at Steven Seagal’s actions, it almost seems that he was acting the opposite, showing a terrible example of how a true martial artist should be. What is even worse, is that many still associate Seagal as a representation of Aikido. Yet the founder of Aikido constantly emphasized that a true martial art should be a means of creating good individuals. He would often say that: “The goal of Aikido is to reconcile the world”. Yet did Seagal represent this at all?
Martial Arts Journey:
Steven Seagal’s movies not only lacked completely mentioning the philosophy of Aikido but to make it worse, in his movies, he would always go about injuring and utterly destroying his opponents. With the excuse of them being bad guys, he would sometimes be hurting them beyond common sense. Some could say that Seagal was just playing his role as an actor, but even then, an actor always has a choice at what movies to start. Although, his support of violence, which contradicts the essence of Aikido, does not end there.
Even in his life, he is proud to this day of having a close connection to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and expressing personal support to the annexation of Crimea. We all have a choice to whom we connect ourselves with, but here we speak of supporting a leader with a very controversial situation and worse so, a military war strategy, which has the outcome of violence and loss of lives. Could that ever be called a representation of Aikido?
Martial Arts Journey:
It is clear that no human is perfect, but the more we expose ourselves to the general public, the more conscious we should become that our actions do matter and that others will potentially take us as an example for what we stand for. When this leads to a strong impact, we have to be very conscious of what we do, in order to show a good example, not only for ourselves but also for what we represent.
Seagal’s movies have brought a lot of attention and flow to martial arts, yet for what cost? Even these days there are still people who would come to various Dojo’s wanting to be the next Steven Seagal. But is that what we really want people to think of martial arts? Is that how we want a true martial artist to be represented and thought of? A person of pathological lying, sexual harassment, one using force without sense? Worse so, many people when being asked if they know Aikido, often connect it to Steven Seagal, as a representation of what it is. Yet, it is so far from what Aikido really stands for, that despite all the attention that it brought, it only makes one wonder if there was more gain than actual harm, to people’s ability to understand what Aikido is truly about. So I ask again to look back at what we might have taken for granted.
Martial Arts Journey:
Steven Seagal is for many a representation of a martial arts, and especially that of Aikido. But is that really a representation that we want to have? Do we really want to take Seagal an example and support him in that? Or should we rather take him as an example of what a martial artist shouldn’t be? The more we will be aware of the true situation, the easier it will be for many to understand how it truly is. Martial arts should not be vehicle for misconduct. It should be a vehicle for self-development and the bringing of the best of ourselves, not only in fights but even more importantly, into our daily life. But as long as we will accept terrible examples as a representation of it, we will probably never get very far. Let’s become clear on what is what and start cleaning the harm by supporting those, who show a true example and doing our best to living in a good example ourselves.
What do you think a true martial artist should be? Do you think Steven Seagal good example? Join the discussion in the comments below in searching for what true martial arts are. Also, subscribe if you like the video to further explore these topics together. This is Sensei Rokas and see you on the virtual Madigan soon.
