“Available for you all in our archives is a rare clip of Koichi Tohei Sensei in his prime. This footage was shot in Florida in 1967 during one of his early visits to the mainland USA. A very young Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei of the New York Aikikai is seen taking ukemi for Tohei Sensei. The latter demonstrates the basic techniques required for examination purposes in those days. There is also a spectacular jo demonstration the likes of which many younger aikidoka have never seen!
The Aikido Journal archives now include more than 100 video clips and 800 articles in twenty different languages. We are constantly adding new videos, articles and translations in our effort to document aikido and related disciplines past and present. If you would like to support us in this effort by taking out a subscription to the Online Aikido Journal we welcome you to do so by clicking this link. Remember that if you subscribe or renew for two years you will now receive the Aiki News / Aikido Journal Archival DVD absolutely free of charge. Don’t pass up this special offer!
“Many people criticise aikido for being too soft (and many love it just because of that). Others watch Steven Seagal films and say that aikido is brutal (and many would love to start aikido because of that). Now, is it soft or hard?
Styles don’t work. You don’t bring a style to a fight or any emergency.
“If someone had told me a few years ago that out of a western Christian tradition would come a martial art as deep, sophisticated and evolved as the best of the oriental arts I would not have believed them. Yet there is such an art coming out of the ancient Russian culture with deep roots in the Russian Orthodox monasteries. At its root in the present day is an exceptional man, Mikhail Ryabko. Trained by one of Stalin’s Falcons from the age of five and beginning his operational career in the Russian Spetsnaz (Special Forces) at the age of 15, Mikhail Ryabko was not only given the secrets of this ancient art, he was put in the position of repeatedly applying both the art and its principles in life and death combat on, what for much of his early life, was a day-to-day basis. This System, taught by Mikhail Ryabko, is not a shadow of what once was, it is a living practical art that even now is being applied by warriors in combat. When working with Mikhail and his foremost student, Vladimir Vasiliev, one is struck by the calm depth of these men. Enormous knowledge and ability taught with calm, deep conviction. ”
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“If Sokaku Takeda can be said to have provided the technical basis for the later development of aikido, it was Onisaburo Deguchi, leader of the Omoto sect, who offered the key spiritual insights that struck a responsive chord in the religiously oriented Morihei. This second installment in a series of essays on Morihei Ueshiba by Aiki News. Editor-in-Chief Stanley Pranin focuses on the relationship between the aikido founder and Onisaburo, which had a major bearing on the spiritual thinking of Morihei and the ethical framework of aikido.”
It is my sad responsibility to communicate to the Aikido community the passing of Inaba Sensei on January 26, 2009 at The Foothills Hospital in Calgary, Alberta Canada.
“Over the years one of the most commonly asked questions by prospective students is, “How do I evaluate a dojo?” To someone who has no experience in martial arts this is a somewhat intimidating task.
“The Dojo dynamic is driven by interaction between teacher to student and student to student. These relationships are quite unique, but not independent from each other.
“The secret of Aikido, said Osensei, “is to harmonize ourselves with the movement of the universe and bring ourselves into accord with the universe itself.” This is, of course, easier said than done. Still, I find Osensei’s perspective to be rewarding in Aikido practice, as well as remarkably accurate even from a scientific viewpoint.
“One of the questions that gets discussed probably more than any other in Aikido. The Various styles of Aikido (Akikai, Iwama, Ki, Yoshinkai, Tomiki etc etc) all have there own slants on the nature of this mysterious, omniprescence force, and this is one discussion that, by it’s very nature, will remain endless, rather like Ki itself.”
“Many aikido teachers and schools, however, have so misunderstood aikido’s concepts of harmony and spirituality, and its history, that there has been a dilution of attention to technical detail. As a result, aikido technique often becomes so soft, flowing and dependent on cooperation that, when practiced in this manner, it loses its martial effectiveness.