It was a woman Aikido teacher, Virginia Mayhew, who first introduced me to this special martial art.

Virginia Mayhew was a very special American woman aikido teacher who first brought this gentle, near magical, art to Hong Kong.

The year was 1967, and I was a very immature 19-year-old who was working as a photographer on a local English-language newspaper.

I had done a little Judo at the Chinese YMCA, in Waterloo Road, Kowloon, as a teenager, and one of my acquaintances suggested I might wish to photograph this woman Aikido teacher and her class for my newspaper.

First Aikido demonstration
I went round to the class, and was most impressed to learn about the joint locks and throws that Aikido uses to immobilize the person who attacks you.

I took dozens of photographs and wrote about this in my story.

When the pictures were published, the newspaper’s sub-editors had added the horrifying headline, "Aikido, The Painful Art". Virginia was less than impressed by this, but she never said a word to me about it (after her initial grimace).

She was very low-key about most things, but in the two years I got to know her a little I realized that she was "on a mission" to spread peace and non-violence through her beautiful martial art. People would find her because they wanted to learn to fight, and she would teach them how to "not fight". That was her life’s mission.

Learning from O-Sensei
Virginia was one of only two women who ever learned directly from Master Morihei Uyeshiba, and the other woman aikido teacher was a Japanese national.

Uyeshiba is the founder of modern Aikido, and was affectionately known as O-Sensei (great teacher) by his students.

Virginia was taught by O-Sensei that violence is a sort of "temporary insanity", and is best neutralized without more violence. Otherwise it is just one insanity creating another insanity, and no peace comes from it. (Just look at places like the Balkans or the Middle East.)

Two other now well-known Aikido personalities who passed through Hong Kong at that time and helped at the Hong Kong Aikikai dojo were Henry Kono and Alan Ruddock.

There was an occasion where Virginia Mayhew gave a demonstration in a commercial gymnasium to recruit new students. She demonstrated an Aikido wrist throw on her training partner, and then she slowed it down so the audience could see how it was done.

"Always keep your partner's wrist close to their shoulder", the woman aikido teacher explained. "That way they can be thrown without being injured." Then she changed the grip slightly and lowered he arm... "If you do it like this, the wrist and the arm will break, here, here and here."

A thin, small European man in the audience stood up and clapped with obvious delight at the mention of arm-breaking. Virginia stared at him and said, "Your attitude is wrong. I will not have you as a student. Kindly leave my class." The man left the gymn without a word.

Now in 1967, Hong Kong was being racked by street riots and terrorist bombings. These were a by-product of Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution, happening just 40 miles away, across the border from the then-British Colony.

There were many street battles between communist sympathizers and the British authorities, and quite a number of people on both sides were killed in the violence, together with many innocents, including children, being killed when they touched these booby-trapped bombs.

Some weeks after that woman aikido teacher's demonstration, Virginia walked around a corner straight into a street riot in Shamshuipo district. The small man she had thrown out of her dojo was a uniformed Police Inspector, and she saw him on his own, cut off from his riot squad, with his back against a wall.

The mob of rioters was trying to reach him and snatch his .38 service revolver from its Sam Browne holster. He had lost his long riot baton, and was fending his attackers off by hitting at them with the edge of his wickerwork riot shield.

Virginia Mayhew danced into the crowd, smiling serenely and confidently. As the woman aikido teacher spun round, bodies were hurled away from her in all directions as the attackers discovered the power of "Ki". Reaching the shaken police officer, she took him by the arm and led him back down the street to rejoin his riot platoon.

The rest of the mob stood respectfully clear and let them both pass.

Once they were safe, Virginia said to him, "I am sorry. I was mistaken. I did not understand that violence has to be a part of your life. I will teach you." And for the next two years this remarkable woman aikido teacher instructed the cop as a private student.

The cop was from Glasgow, Scotland. At that time he was attached to the HK Police Emergency Unit, where he commanded a platoon of Chinese riot police.

He was the one who told me what happened, and he and I became great friends. But he was always mindful what he said to me because I worked as a journalist back then.

The Aikido techniques that Virginia, the woman aikido teacher, taught him saved his life many times both in the riots and later on in his career after he returned to the United Kingdom, where he married his fiancee and settled down.

O-Sensei died in 1969, and I remember Virginia telling us all that the great master was dead.

She travelled back to Honbu Dojo in Japan soon afterwards to ask for a replacement instructor for her schools. She wanted again visit India where she had a spiritual Guru she wished to continue learning from.

When Virginia was unable to reach an agreement with the Aikikai Honbu, (Honbu just means "home base") she came back to Hong Kong, closed up the dojo and the other clubs and schools where she taught, and she went off to India.

There, this remarkable woman Aikido teacher married a businessman and took his family name of Patel. Some time later, Virginia bore a daughter she named Shankari.

Some years ago I managed to find an address for Virginia and I wrote to her. I received a reply from Shankari saying Virginia has suffered a stroke, but when I wrote again my letters were returned, "address unknown".

Virginia Mayhew was a perfect example of the best qualities that Aikido has to offer. Those of us who knew her have had our lives enriched as a result.

Wherever you are, Virginia Mayhew, may God bless you.

Copyright, David M. Harvey, Sydney, Australia. January 2001-2003.

Woman Aikido Teacher, Virginia Mayhew, Found in Los Angeles
Sydney, Australia. 8th August 2001.

A reader contacted me and supplied me with an address and telephone number in Los Angeles to reach Virginia. She is now known as Virginia Bailey, and she lives alone in dire straits both financially and health-wise. Her daughter Shan, (short for Shankari), visits her regularly, but life must be hard for both of them.

I telephoned my woman aikido teacher, and spoke to her a few days ago. Virginia said she had just been in hospital again, this time with heart problems. That is cruel, because this beautiful woman aikido teacher is a lady with a heart as big as a mountain. She was so full of love and beauty when I knew her. She is now in her mid 70's. Amazingly, she has still the same quiet voice that I grew to respect and love.

If anyone in the L.A. area would like to help this wonderful woman aikido teacher in any way, please contact Virginia or her daughter, Shan.

Thank you,
DAVID HARVEY

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