Koichi Tohei was born 1920 in Shitaya ward (下谷区), presently Taitō, in Tokyo and graduated from the Economics Department of Keio University.

Tohei was distressed at the thought of losing his newfound strength of body and his means of training it, so he decided to replace his judo studies with Zen meditation and misogi exercises, learned at the Ichikukai Dojo in Tokyo.

After his recovery from pleurisy, Tohei became convinced that it was his efforts in training his mind and cultivating his ki that had helped him to heal and recover.

Tohei trained with Ueshiba for six months before being sent as a representative (dairi) to teach at the Shumei Okawa school and the military police academy.

Because of the lack of doctors, Tohei developed during the war the principles of what he later named Kiatsu Therapy, based on sending Ki through the fingertips.

[3] Beginning in 1953 Koichi Tohei Sensei was responsible for the introduction of Aikido to the West, mainly through regular teaching journeys to Hawaii, but also continental US and Europe.

For that reason, Hawaii became a center for diffusion of Aikido in the United States, and remains today an important place for Ki-Aikido.

During his years at the Aikikai, Tohei Sensei taught Aikido to many famous Shihan like Hiroshi Tada, Sadateru Arikawa, Seigo Yamaguchi, Shigenobu Okumura, Kazuo Chiba, Yoshimitsu Yamada and Steven Seagal.

On 15 May 1974, Tohei sent a letter in English and Japanese to the majority of the dojos both in Japan and abroad, explaining his reasons for the breakaway and his plans involving Ki-aikido and the Ki-society.

This branch of aikido is still active today even though Tohei himself retired from the day-to-day business of the Ki-aikido section and then concentrated solely on the Ki-society and further personal development of ki.

Among these are (in alphabetical order): Tohei died at 9:14 AM, Japan time (GMT +9) on May 19, 2011, after two weeks of being admitted in hospital due to a discomfort in his chest which proved to be inflammation in the lungs.