How Many Black Belts Does Aikido Master Steven Seagal Really Have?

Steven Seagal has a lot of qualities: actor, blues musician, reportedly a difficult colleague, perhaps useless in a real fight. Although he has been known to tell tall tales from time to time about his abilities and role in training various famous fighters, his status as a dude who is very good at aikido is rarely disputed. Does he have a black belt (or better yet, belts) to prove his prowess, or is he one of those martial arts actors who doesn’t even have a black belt?

Steven Seagal Martial Arts Roles

Steven Seagal Has Many Black Belts

Yes, it’s “belts” in the plural: although Seagal is mostly known for his aikido, the biography tells us that he is also the proud owner of black belts in karate, kendo and judo. Segal has been into martial arts since childhood, and at age 17 he moved to Japan to “learn Zen” and hone his martial arts skills. He ended up spending about 15 years in Asia doing all sorts of Steven Seagal stuff like “learning oriental philosophy” and working as a martial arts choreographer…

Aikido Seagal:

According to Black Belt Mag, Matsuoka was one of Seagal Sensei’s favorite students in the 1970s, and Seagal even hired him as his uke – the guy who demonstrates all the techniques of aikido – when he set out to conquer Hollywood. Matsuoka and the article present Seagal’s aikido as a rather ruthless, violent and street-ready endeavor heavily influenced by Japanese swordsmanship (which may explain his claimed black belt in kendo), but also indicate that Seagal had great influence in aikido circles and was on good terms, with some of the higher ranks.

Matsuoka also notes that aikido was going through extremely hard times in the West until Seagal’s breakthrough 1988 film Above the Law caused the art to explode in popularity overnight. On the other hand, Matsuoka points out that Seagal’s newfangled paths to fame eventually estranged them from each other and led to them falling out in 1997. Seagal began to transition from box office successes like “Under Siege” to direct-to-video release like “The Patriot”.

Judo Seagal:

An aikido master as Steven Seagal can be when it comes to his claimed prowess in Judo. That man was Gene LeBell, a true martial arts legend who, according to Uproxx, was still in the ring for fellow judo and renowned fighter Ronda Rousey when he was 79. As the story goes, Jin, nicknamed Judo, was 58 years old when he worked as a fight director for Seagal’s film In the Name of Justice. When Seagal boasted that he had the moves to ensure he was simply impossible to choke, LeBell happily accepted the challenge. As a result of this very short skirmish, Seagal lost consciousness so badly that he had… well, a bowel movement.

In front of about thirty stuntmen and crew members, according to LeBell. To be fair, LeBell is completely sincere about this incident and says that he respects Segal as a martial artist, though he notes that an aikido master will do well if he refrains from a potential kick in the mouth. It should also be noted that LeBell, as It is known that at one time he told a couple of stories, and Segal himself categorically denies that this ever happened. However, one could be forgiven if he didn’t bet on Segal in a judo match.

Karate Seagal:

It turns out that Seagal, he began to practice karate as a child. He actually studied with Fumio Demura, the man who also trained Pat Morita, who played Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid films and brought a lot of Demura to that role. According to the Daily Beast, Demura played a role that inspired legends such as Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris. He was even associated with Bruce Lee, whom he briefly trained in the use of the nunchaku. Seagal is happy to sing praises to his old teacher: “Demura-sensei is real.”