The fact that Aikido is not a democracy is a given. Neither is it a fresher version of an anachronistic return to feudal thinking, where there needs to be superior people over inferior people for the system to function...
Archive - September 2011
Josh Gold“Aikikai Foundation and Legacy” by Francis Takahashi
The fact that Aikido is not a democracy is a given. Neither is it a fresher version of an anachronistic return to feudal thinking, where there needs to be superior people over inferior people for the system to function...
Budo and Reconciling The Triune Brain (reprint)
Budo and Reconciling The Triune Brain by Nev Sagiba Here it is again. Valid at the time of writing, this article was originally published on Aikido Journal Online in four part installments during June and July of 2007...
Gaijin Complex by Stanley Pranin
Aiki News #99 (1994) “Foreigners are at no particular disadvantage in grasping the “essence” of aikido, even though they may have no knowledge of the Japanese language.” The other day I received an anonymous...
Founder of Aikido: “First Encounter with Sokaku Takeda,” by Kisshomaru Ueshiba
“This was the start of the long and fateful bond between the two men.”Takeda Sokaku is recorded in modern budo history as the transmitter of Daito-ryu Jujutsu. He was an awe-inspiring person with a...
“The Day Minoru Hirai Cut Me Down to Size!”, by Stanley Pranin
“The whole implausibility of the scenario, and the realization of whothis great man was, made for a totally exhilarating experience…” Back in 1994, I had a breakthrough in my aikido research. An...
“Yukiyoshi Sagawa: Daito-ryu Master,” by Kiyokazu Maebayashi
“… I felt instinctively that I had finally encountered a true martial artist for the first and probably last time and knew immediately what I must do…” “What was even more mysterious was...
Aikido Research and Development
Morihei Ueshiba said, “Training is not real because nobody dies or is injured.” As it should be! Do you remember the good ol’ original Aikido and other methods’ “how to,” books each purporting to show “how” a technique...
Aikido Journal Beta-Testing Our New Members Site!
Have you ever had a question or wondered about some aspect of aikido? Were you able to quickly find a satisfactory answer to your question, and find additional resources to explore the subject further? We have lots of...
“My Career in Yanagi-ryu Aiki Jujutsu,” by Don Angier
I was born in 1933 in Utica, New York. My father was of French extraction, but always claimed to be Irish because my paternal grandfather had emigrated from Ireland where the family had lived for generations, descended...