We feel that this wonderful innovation will permit a much wider audience to view and understand the teachings of Saito Sensei on the weapons training of aikido.

Click here to view a description of Aiki Ken DVD and for ordering information.

Click here to view a description of the Aiki Jo DVD and for ordering information.

Both programs also include bonus material consisting of rare historical films of Saito Sensei in his prime. There are also links to fascinating video clips giving you a glimpse of the contents of these DVDs.

You may also wish to consider our Morihiro Saito: Lost Seminars DVD Set consisting of the five wonderful DVDs of Saito Sensei’s historic seminars complete with English subtitles.

Stanley Pranin took a lot of heat when this editorial was published back in 1997. What is your take on this subject?

You can see your aikido past, present, and future at this demonstration. From the playful little children to the teetering old men, you can see the entire range of aikido experience encapsulated. If you follow the teachings of your sensei and the example of your seniors, this is how you will look at all stages of your aikido career. Neat, isn’t it? You can rewind and fast-forward through your aikido life in a single afternoon merely by allowing your eyes to scan the mats. This being the case, I have a question to ask: if I train diligently over a lifetime in accordance with the principles of aikido, how come I still end up a stiff, decrepit old man? After all, in aikido we exercise our bodies regularly over a period of many years while others lead sedentary lives. How is it that we too end up in such sad shape?”

The Aikido Journal archives now include more than 800 articles in twenty different languages and numerous video clips. We are constantly adding new 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!

Click here to read entire article.

Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.

Click here to read entire article.

The Takemusu Aikido series contain hundreds of techniques that encapsulize the teachings of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba in Iwama in the years following World War II. These wonderful reference manuals feature thousands of technical photos including historical shots of O-Sensei and Saito Sensei.

All books are in stock now, some in short supply, so please explore the these titles to discover the wealth of information that awaits you!

Takemusu Aikido, Volume 1: Background & Basics
Takemusu Aikido, Volume 2: More Basics
Takemusu Aikido, Volume 3: Basics Concluded
Takemusu Aikido, Volume 4: Kokyunage
Takemusu Aikido, Volume 5: Bukidori & Ninindori
Takemusu Aikido, Volume 6: Special Edition

John Wooden was one of the top college basketball coaches of all time. He coached the mighty UCLA Bruins and almost every year that he was coaching his basketball team won the NCAA championship. Most of the basketball players on his college teams went on to play at the game highest level – the NBA.

My high school basketball coach used to tell me, “Stop making excuses!” John Wooden’s quote is more eloquently expressed, but both men were sending the same message. My high school basketball coach, Roy Garcia, was one of the most influential people, outside of my parents, that helped to shape the person that I am today. Of course, it is my decisions and actions that have and continue to determine my life’s path and consequences.

What does this analogy have to do with aikido? Mainichi no keiko – and all of the excuses that I have heard over my years in aikido as to why my fellow aikidoka and my aikido students cannot make it to training! They have used the excuse of things they can’t do prevent them from going to train. When I would see my sensei, the late Bill Sosa, at seminars that he was conducting, the first thing he would ask me was how often I was training.

When I first began aikido, the instructor used to teach that aikido is a “way of life.” I have heard many students recite this mantra when asked in their first ever kyu test, “What is aikido to you?” Then I never saw them again in the dojo, some of them ever! In 2007 I celebrated 10 years of having opened my own dojo. Any aikido teacher that has been in business for over 10 years will have seen hundreds, if not thousands of potential aikido students walk through their door, stay a while, then leave. Almost every one of those students enjoyed the benefits of aikido but every one of them found a reason to prevent the continued study of the art. It may be that aikido was too hard, their progress was too slow, training was interfering with another area of their lives, they got hurt, the cost was too high, they found that aikido didn’t work for them in an altercation, etc

The martial arts are not for everyone. If it were easy every student who walked through the door would still be in aikido today and would be instant black belt candidates. I don’t expect aikido to be for everyone. I expect a certain number of beginning students to not last a year. I honestly thank every one of those ex-students that have come and gone. Thanks to them, the serious students have the opportunity to continue training. Those students helped pay the rent and utilities for the extreme few that have continued to train over the years. They have provided us the opportunity to work with ukes of different heights, weights, body structures, attacks and attitudes. It has helped us to forge our aikido into what it is today.

The ones that really bother me are those students that have been aikido for many years, have some rank (nidan or above), then mysteriously leave the art. They found something else in their lives that filled the space that aikido used to fill or they found a reason to stop training. It has led me to a theory: I think that most aikido students are trying to find a reason to quit. They look for excuses not to come to class: it was raining, it was cold, my back hurts (substitute any other part of the body), my hakama was torn, my uniform wasn’t washed, etc. As an aikido teacher, it is my job to nullify the reason for a student to quit or, rather, create a reason for the student to continue coming to class. Maybe this is the real job of any martial arts instructor, making a reason to come to training. Maybe it isn’t enough to have impeccable waza or technique, if we don’t have the students there to hand this down to.

Returning to the idea of excuses for not coming to class, learning to train with pain or minor injuries is part of the martial arts training. If your fingers are hurt, learn how to continue training with the pain. If you shoulder hurts, learn how to roll in that situation. If your back hurts, learn how to move with your stiff back. You just might learn something about yourself when you work through the pain. “Don’t allow the things that you can’t do prevent you from doing the things that you can do.” It’s more than just trying to find an excuse not to come to class, it’s trying to find a solution to train daily – mainichi no keiko. Part of the training is self improvement and finding out the body’s limitations – physically and mentally. When you know what your limitations are, the next step is to overcome those limitations. You can only find this through daily training.

The highest level shihans today trained through pain, trained long hours, overcame all of their limitations to become who they are today. I am pretty sure that many of today’s “warriors” would have never made it through O’Sensei’s “hell dojo” days like our shihans did. Our current aikidokas would have found an excuse to not be there. I would like to thank those shihans alive today that continued training so that they would have something to hand down to us. I will be there – no excuses!

Joe Cavazos
Houston, Texas
A student of Hiroshi Kato Sensei (Suginami Aikikai)
jycavazos@yahoo.com
www.freewebs.com/acst

Among some innovative actions that have been taken, Shumeikai Italia adopted the suggestions published in Aiki News #69 editorial “Dan rankings” (November 1985) concerning dan certificates. Aiki News editor Stan Pranin envisaged the design of a new type of dan certificate containing supplementary information, in order to prevent abuses and sloppy behavior in rank awarding.

Therefore, as a means to guarantee and display the integrity of its dan ranking awarding system, Shumeikai Italia is currently issuing three different kinds of dan certificates:

· Technical rank certificate, awarded by the Technical Committee upon technical examination;
· Acknowledged technical rank certificate, in recognition of a rank that has been previously awarded by another association (acknowledged after appropriate scrutiny by the Technical Committee);
· Honorary rank certificate, awarded in recognition of non-technical merits in support of the Art and/or the association.

The text printed on each certificate clearly states to which category it pertains. Furthermore, both “technical” types include a “verso,” where the holder’s complete ranking history clearly appears. This personal history includes all previously conferred ranks, both technical and honorary, from any group or federation, that have been appropriately authenticated. Relevant data such as rank, issuing organization, issuing date and certificate number are reported.

This represents just a signal, hoping to leave a mark in a world that greatly suffers from lack of integrity in rankings. Stan Pranin’s editorial was mainly concerned with big organizations and with Japan in mind; however, the problems brought to the reader’s attention (such as abnormal ranking pace, artificially built-up careers, lack of transparency in personal ranking history as well as in rank awarding systems) are frequent, if not commonplace, in many countries. Italy’s highly fragmented Aikido environment is but one example, and Shumeikai Italia is proud to act as a test rig for these innovative - albeit 23-years old - ideas!

The running time of this new DVD is 97 minutes in full color. All of the programs include English subtitles. This DVD, like the others of this series, are of outstanding quality having been shot with top-of-the line video equipment.

Click here for more details and to order this new DVD by Shoji Nishio!

Click here to take advantage of the special offer of all 4 DVDs of this series plus Nishio Sensei famous technical tome titled Yurusu Budo, his only book publication.

When I entered the Hombu Dojo most of the people training there were members of either the Tempukai or the Nishikai. Of course, at the time there were only six or seven people at the dojo. Among them were Keizo Yokoyama and his younger brother, Yusaku, both of whom were students at Hitotsubashi University. Yusaku spent the last years of the war in the naval academy and entered the university after the war ended. It was he who introduced me to the Tempukai and the Ichikukai. After that another person taught me about fasting exercises. These practices, along with the teachings of Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, became the basis of my training.

The Aikido Journal archives now include more than 800 articles in twenty different languages and numerous video clips. We are constantly adding new 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!

Click here to read entire article.

Seigo Yamaguchi at 1993 All-Japan Aikido Demonstration
Seigo Yamaguchi at 1983 All-Japan Aikido Demonstration
Seigo Yamaguchi at Aikikai Hombu Dojo, 1973 - Part 1
Seigo Yamaguchi at Aikikai Hombu Dojo, 1973 - Part 2

Aikido Journal is able to continue providing these archival films and articles based on your support of our efforts. If you would be interested in taking out a subscription to the Online Aikido Journal, please click here.

If you would like a particular combination of products—books, DVDs, posters, etc.—which are not already offered as a set at a discounted price, this is your chance to tailor-make your own special purchase at a more affordable price.

The only requirement to receive a discount is that you order a minimum of 3 products. They can be any combination of different products, or 3 or more of a single product. Naturally, the greater the number of items you order, the larger the discount we’ll be able to apply to your purchase. After submitting your order as described below, our staff will review your list of products and apply the maximum possible discounts. We will then email you a special, individualized link that will allow you to complete the purchase with your discounts applied just as if placing a normal order.

Click here for further details!

Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.

Click here to read entire article.

It suggests that the Law (or those presuming some unique relationship to it) can do unlawful things, can justify acts of vengeance and that some are above the law and other not.

It also seeks to cast a dark shadow upon the law itself, as if it were a deific tyranny of sorts only to be wielded by some few privileged as a weapon to whip the supposed under classes into place.

All such concepts are erroneous and in a Democracy, cannot stand.

Let’s take a look at it.

In a Democracy it is the mission and duty of each and every citizen to indeed and in fact TAKE THE LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS and uphold it.

In order to “TAKE THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS” you first need to KNOW THE LAW.

How many do?

Too few.

Jurisprudence is an essential social navigation tool if not THE RUDDER itself.

Yet most people, whilst having some measure of commonsense, have little, if any understanding of common law; even though the two are very closely related!

The uninformed however, usually lack CONTEXT because they tend to react emotively instead of responding by being fully informed.

Fully contextual, evidence based information PROPERLY ARTICULATED AND DEMONSTRATED is the primary weapon or tool of law when it comes to testing ANY situation at ANY and ALL levels of society, social responsibility and governance.

You cannot assess anything unless all the information on the subject is on that hypothetical table. At least all the available facts.

A criminal action, a murder, any act of revenge, in fact and by definition IS NOT THE RESULT OF ANYONE HAVING TAKEN ANY LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS, but in fact having acted AGAINST that very law.

Before you can enact law you need to know what law is. It is everybody’s mission and duty to not only live by the law, but to facilitate its purposes, the greater good for which the law exists to uphold.

The law being self-upholding when used correctly, legally and in conformity with morality, justice and core value ethics cannot be broken, only upheld and enhanced. Unjust laws cannot last and cannot stand because, being perversions of law and acting against the purpose of law, they self corrode.

There is something sinister about this much-misused phrase, which wrongfully tries to suggest that some imagine themselves to be above the law because they have jostled themselves to be in a position of enforcing the law and that this gives them alone dispensation to break the law in the name of the law. And would then suggest that any other lawbreakers have somehow used the law to break the law in a way such as that the wrongfully privileged imagine they alone can or have title to do. Such constitutes a legal oxymoron.

For it is a primary legal statute (in civilized places); and correctly so, that: “You cannot use the law and it’s due processes to bring about a breach in the law, or in any way pervert its meaning, its intent or its purpose.”

The purpose of law being the greater good, inclusive to all.

This does not stop some from trying, however. They are criminals despite the cleanly pressed white shirt, suit and tie.

In the past, the processes of law were in fact misused by the quasi-educated but immoral, to exploit the less educated. There is nothing legal about using the processes of law to bring about criminal outcomes.

On this basis, each and every person should admonish the newer generations to get educated and this inclusive of studying the law, its meaning and purposes so that such travesties as existed in the past cannot be repeated.

In a democracy the “political leaders” are not the public servants that, we the people assign to do our bidding, but the people themselves. But this carries a caveat and a proviso. An uninformed ignoramus cannot contribute much because such are not equipped to do so and therefore exclude themselves in part from the process, not from justice itself, but the finer details and implementation, lacking credible context as mentioned before.

Best governance being a process of communication and not tyranny, it works best when the communication is traveling both ways, from the ground up and also the top down.

If only by failing to articulate their concerns some place themselves in a position of risk.

This, however is not, nor should it be construed as a license to tyrannize and oppress the ignorant and uneducated. Rather the opposite.

A fully informed and duly educated individual with a contextually correct natural justice based argument, however may lend weight to a meaningful process with power and leverage to bring about results that will augment not only the immediate case at hand, but also the ultimate common good.

This is the domain of every person.

Particularly in a democracy, participation in the due process of law is not the sole and exclusive privilege of some classes, because in a democracy no manufactured, artificial classes can exist, individuals classifying themselves by their own efforts and motivation to become educated as is and should always be freely available.

The days of tyranny, if we so choose can be gone. But we have to choose collectively as well as individually and enact this to come about, using due process by TAKING THE LAW INTO OUR HANDS BY KNOWING IT, BY UNDERSTANDING IT AND BY USING IT CORRECTLY.

An unpopulated world would neither need nor require any laws. Law implies participants who are participating and who seek to interact with reasonableness and harmony.

Such as voting, for example. Or preparing well articulated, fully detailed briefs backed up by evidence, in matters of contention.

Those who presume that by dint of position, accident of birth, money, some kind of inherited privilege or any other misconstruction of natural justice, to have in some way placed them above the law, are in error.

Further, if such imagine that being caretakers of the law, allows or in any way permits or encourages them to break the law, they are in error.

In a justly motivated society, no one, without exception, is or ever can be either above or below the law, all individuals, without exception, being equal before the law.

And that, is indeed, by the very allowance that the law itself provides, to be cared for and in YOUR HANDS!

Use it well and good outcomes will ensue.

The question of “taking the law into your own hands” cannot arise.

For that is where THE LAW belongs and already lives, dwells and has its being: In the heads, hearts and hands of each and every thinking, caring and participating citizen.

Where does Budo fit here?

Where there is law, matters can usually be resolved without war. Courts and other places of law are intellectual dojos where, where with authentic intent, balances of power can be resolved with greater compassion and no bloodshed, albeit with the severity due in the maintenance of harmony.

Who provides that authentic intent?

Don’t look around you. The providing of authentic intent is up to each and every one of us.

Nev Sagiba
aikiblue.com
10th November 2008