A Global Perspective on the Pandemic: Interview with Kei Izawa

In August 2020, Josh Gold, Executive Editor of Aikido Journal, spoke with Kei Izawa Sensei, Chairman of the International Aikido Federation, from his home in Boulder, CO to discuss the global aikido landscape in the midst of a pandemic. 

Izawa Sensei has been an avid practitioner of Aikido for the last 50 years. He holds the rank of 6th degree black belt and has been active in teaching the art around the world. Izawa was elected in 2008 as the Secretary General of the International Aikido Federation and then elected as Chairman for the term ending in 2020.

Kei Izawa graduated from Keio University in Tokyo majoring in political science and completed his graduate studies at Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in International Relations. Izawa spent 14 years as a senior executive for General Motors and 10 years working for the Japanese government in international trade.  

Kei Izawa with Josh Gold in September 2019.

Josh Gold (Aikido Journal): Thank you for joining us today, Izawa Sensei. What’s life like at the moment for the Chairman of the International Aikido Federation?

Kei Izawa: It’s always a pleasure to speak with you, Josh Sensei. I am in quarantine in Boulder, Colorado in the U.S. and while we have a lot of nature and I can go out for walks, the activities available are quite limited. I only meet with aikido friends through Zoom classes so my aikido life is very digital at the moment.

We are in a similar position here in California as well. Through the IAF, you have a unique vantage point from which to view the global aikido community. We’re in pretty bad shape right now in the United States. Can you share with us what’s going on in other parts of the world and how aikido practitioners and teachers are facing the challenges of the pandemic?

Well, I think there are many differences in how the coronavirus has evolved around the world. As you know, it started in Asia and suddenly became a global phenomena. It became a pandemic. In the beginning, Europe was in a very severe condition while the U.S. had yet to face major difficulties. Countries like Italy, Spain, and others experienced dire conditions. But now things there have improved and in many Western European countries, aikido training has resumed, starting back in July. 

“I think if we want to grow, we have to find a way to unite. So one of the fortunate things out of the tragedy of this pandemic is that it gave us the opportunity to look inwards and say, “What are we doing wrong? What can we do to work together?”

Japan has experienced a little bit over 1,000 people dead due to the coronavirus, but has resumed aikido training with contact. Other countries in Asia are doing fine as well, such as Taiwan. I think Taiwan experienced only seven people dying from the coronavirus, which is exceptionally good. 

Like the U.S, South America is also struggling right now. Circumstances vary by country, but the pandemic is forcing many dojos to close down, and the dojos that are open cannot have contact training, so options are very limited. Some people seem to be training behind closed doors privately on a small scale, but it’s not done openly in most of the dojos.

So Asia and Europe are, little by little, getting back to normal and have resumed practice, but in the Americas, it’s not looking good.

Well, I think some parts of Eastern Europe are also suffering. In many countries there they cannot train. But there too, some people gather behind closed doors. I think it’s against the law, but that’s how much people would like to train with partners. It’s very difficult to practice aikido digitally.

Indeed, it is. I’m fortunate in that I’m able to train with my wife, who never practiced Aikido before the pandemic. It’s been a great opportunity for both of us to connect, learn, and grow. But even so, it’s tough. My dojo has been closed since March, aside from Zoom and limited outdoor weapons classes. It’s quite limiting when we can’t practice the art in the way that it’s meant to be manifested. The experience and practice of aikido is so deeply rooted in creating a physical, intellectual and emotional connection with another person. When physical connection is not possible, we can focus on self-training, weapons practice, and research and discovery – through videos, books, discussions, and such. But it’s definitely not the same.

This is very true. Now many of us have to train by ourselves. We have to train the movements, and it’s good for us to maintain our physical capabilities, stability and so forth. But the beauty of aikido is in the merging with the energy of someone else. The word Ai-ki-do can be translated as “The Way of merging forces.” So if you don’t merge with another person, then yes, you still can train, but the level of enjoyment and the experience becomes much more limited. 

Sensei, you’ve been practicing Aikido, since 1969 I believe.

Yes, that is correct.

Kei Izawa: 1977 in Central Square Cambridge, New England Aikikai.

That’s quite a long history within the art. The world has changed so much over that period of time. You’ve seen Aikido grow and spread throughout the world and you’ve seen it endure great challenges. There have been wars, revolutions, economic downturns, and many other threats. In your history with the art, has aikido ever faced a challenge on the scale of what it’s experiencing now?

This is the first major global pandemic that’s happened in the lifetime of the art of aikido. However, one advantage or benefit we have while in quarantine is that we can communicate with each other online. This is changing perspectives, not just for aikido, but in the business world. Many companies are beginning to realize that perhaps there is no need to have so many office buildings, to staff everybody inside these huge, expensive structures that people need to commute to. People have been forced into a global experiment to see how far we can take digital communication and collaboration. 

And in the aikido world, it has really opened our eyes. People have begun to connect with each other and study aikido in ways they never would have dreamed of 50 years ago. 

I think that’s right. From my vantage point, I’ve seen the pandemic bring the Aikido community closer together in many ways. And I know the IAF has been organizing initiatives to to bring the community together using technology in the midst of the pandemic. 

We never expected the pandemic to last this long. We still don’t know how long it’s going to continue. This is a major problem for us because we cannot make plans. Because of the geographical differences in the progression of the coronavirus, the status within different regions is constantly in flux. 

In the beginning, we started to post some photos and short videos of people doing interesting things. We’re here, we’re a happy Aikido family and so forth. However, we soon realized that the pandemic was not ending. So we needed to do something more. We began hosting online classes with instructors throughout the world, including those outside the IAF family. Kayla Feder Sensei, who you know, led a class for us. This has been quite a successful way for us to bring many aikido people together.  We  also recently worked together with the Colombian Federation of Aikido to run a Zoom class with some senior instructors in South America. Wilko Vriesman, the IAF General Secretary, and I both joined. We consider that event to have been a major success..

“This is the first major global pandemic that’s happened in the lifetime of the art of aikido…People have been forced into a global experiment to see how far we can take digital communication and collaboration. “

More recently, we supported an event organized also by our Columbian member federation, in which 12 countries participated. We had an all-female instructor roster led by 17 women from around Latin America, many of them who are not even members of IAF at this stage. This has given us, I understand, a reach of more than 120,000 people in the course of two days, and it continues to be viewed by many people. So I think the pandemic has opened new doors – in ways we never expected.  We’ve recently started a series of events like this in the U.S. Patricia Hendricks Sensei just taught the first class of the series on August 10th. 

I think the pandemic has given us strong encouragement to get up to speed with the latest communication technologies and figure out how to use them as best we can. Then, post-pandemic, hopefully these online events can become a tool we use over the long term that can unify us with others around the globe.

Recently, I had a case. This is my personal thing. It’s not IAF or Aikido related, but one of my relatives was celebrating his birthday and his daughter arranged a Zoom meeting with all the family and friends. This was a surprise to him. He’s 78 years old. He never expected to suddenly see everybody on the screen. That was amazing for him. Some of our relatives said, “We should do this more often.” 

Hachi and Kei Izawa: Departing for a hike in Boulder, Colorado.

Now, the same thing is happening with the online seminar we organized with female instructors. Many talented and accomplished women instructors who couldn’t participate have expressed their desire to be involved in future activities. So what we have done became the first move of perhaps a much bigger initiative, and this will not go away. I think we can continue to expect that online events will become a strong asset for us in building the unity that we need to continue to seek.

What do you think are the greatest challenges facing the Aikido community right now? Especially in the countries like the United States where we don’t know when this is when this is going to end and many dojos are closed and struggling. 

Well, I think you can categorize this into a set of different cases. In many European countries, aikido is more established as a sport and dojos are integrated in the sports community of the country. The governments provide facilities at very low costs, or sometimes even subsidize them. Some of them provide pensions to the instructors and so forth. 

“The pandemic has allowed us to open up our eyes and see the negative aspects of dividing into small groups.”

On the other hand, there are other countries like the U.S. and many others, where the government has no role in aikido. Instructors and dojos don’t receive any government funding, and don’t have access to facilities. As a result of that, many people have had to close dojos because they cannot continue to pay rent when they cannot operate classes and their full student bases are no longer paying tuition. I think many dojos have closed. The issue is very pronounced in South America right now. If the government is not subsidizing or not recognizing an entity, those entities are suffering a lot. There are a few places like Chile, where aikido is  recognized by the Olympic committee of the country, and they get some subsidy from the government. But that’s not the case most places. Many dojos have closed in South America.

I think a great challenge we will face is this: Once the pandemic is over, how do we recalibrate all the dojos back to their pre-pandemic status? This will take some time. I think many people have left. Those practitioners who were borderline in terms of commitment have stopped training. So one of the biggest challenges we will have as an IAF mandate or priority would be to find a way for all these countries to come back and stand up again and be able to train. So it’s not only a matter of, “Oh, now you can go back to train.” Sometimes the infrastructure is gone.

Kei Izawa (far right) at the Doshu Seminar in September 2019, hosted in San Francisco by the California Aikido Association.

Many dojos have closed. Many dojos are struggling. Some simply can’t manage the financial challenges with many of their students having their own financial challenges and being unable to support the dojo with tuition, especially in a time when there’s no training. Some dojos have made intentional strategic decisions to shut down and say, “Hey, we know it’s going to be a while before we’re able to get back to practice so we’re conserving our resources, closing down, and we’ll be ready to reopen when it’s an optimal time to do so.” But I think across the board, it’s challenging for everybody.

Indeed. We cannot tell how long the pandemic will last, and I cannot tell how much this will impact the basic infrastructure for people training in aikido. There are many who are fanatic about their aikido, but if we continue without training for a long time and financial difficulties come on top of that, the situation for aikido will require a lot of care and attention to bring it back to pre-pandemic status.

What are your thoughts on how we can best unify and strengthen ourselves during this period of adversity?

Thanks to online video platforms, we have been able to connect people regardless of your organization, and the sensei you train under.  Many people said, “Let’s get together and let’s enjoy what we love to do.” So this has opened an opportunity to take a look, a serious look, at what is happening in the world of aikido.The fact is that many countries have so many aikido practitioners divided in small groups, sometimes single dojos, and even in the same state or city, they don’t talk to each other. People may see signs on a street from another dojo, and they’ve never dropped by. They never exchange training or get to know each other. 

This, from my perspective, is a very narrow-minded view. The pandemic has allowed us to open up our eyes and see the negative aspects of dividing into small groups. I’m not saying that you should lose loyalty to your teacher, your line of thoughts and so forth, but the exchange of ideas and training with people from different groups, I think will elevate the overall level of aikido. But moreover, I think it can strengthen the art and all of its practitioners and will allow us to do more things together. Perhaps some national events.

Kei Izawa with Linda Holiday, September 2019.

I couldn’t agree with you more. When Stan Pranin Sensei passed away and I took over the helm at Aikido Journal, I found myself in a position to spend time with, and learn from so many different instructors and aikido practitioners around the world from different lineages and organizations. I found it to be so enriching from a technical development perspective and also from the perspective of building new friendships. I was able to gain a better understanding of what the art of Aikido is and what it means to me personally. So I really resonate with what you’re saying.

Well, we have the responsibility to promote aikido as O-Sensei taught, but at the same time, reality tells us that we are influenced tremendously by who was our closest teacher in the beginning of our training. But we shouldn’t be restricted to only that lineage. I think if we want to grow, we have to find a way to unite. So one of the fortunate things out of the tragedy of this pandemic is that it gave us the opportunity to look inwards and say, “What are we doing wrong? What can we do to work together?” So I am very proud in a way to see the resilience and creativity of the Aikido community and I’m hopeful that through this time of physical isolation, we can build new friendships and alliances that transcend physical geography, organization, and lineage. We will need the strength that brings to face the challenges ahead.  

Josh Gold

Executive Editor of Aikido Journal, CEO of Budo Accelerator, and Chief Instructor of Ikazuchi Dojo.

6 comments

    • Great to hear from you Bob. I also agree that unity is desperately needed in these most challenging times for all of us, and for the art of aikido itself. Looking forward to catching up soon.

  • Excellent interview! Thank you both Sensei! There are a couple more positives aspects of our iso-training during this Pandemic:
    1) Nature – many of the early dojo opening opportunities involve gatherinng outdoors at safe distances, with masks. After starting in the parking lots, many of us have sought out more beautiful settings for practice (ie. the woods, on a farm, in a local park, etc.).
    2) Weapons partner training – with practice partners each holding the opposite end of a Jo & moving to transmit energy through the Jo to affect the energy of the other.
    3) Internal focus – since the beginning of my own training I’ve seen a change of emphasis on internal practice (breathing, centering, etc.). Prior to pandemic training there was much less focus on those aspects compared to what I remember from my initial training back in the late 70’s-early 80’s. But now, a reemergence has begun to remind us of it’s importance.

  • Like Kei Izawa, I began aikido training in 1969, but in the UK. Eventually, I became Kei Izawa’s predecessor as IAF Chairman. It is very good to hear that under Mr Izawa’s leadership the IAF is reaching out to other organizations relating to aikido and the martial arts. Looking back on my own tenure, I think the major problem faced by the IAF at that time was the need to establish the credentials of the IAF as an international organization dedicated to practicing a martial art. In this respect he IAF is very similar to sports organizations dedicated to judo and karate. However, aikido is not a sport and so it could be argued that aikido, via the IAF, has no business being a member of sports organizations like GAISF and the International World Games Association. The IAF joined both organizations under my chairmanship and this was the result of many serious discussions with aikido Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba. Another issue is whether the IAF should become a legal ‘person,’ similar to the Aikikai and other sports organizations. I never made any effort to achieve this, but the issue led to my retirement as IAF Chairman. I no longer have any connection with the IAF and my own dojo here in Japan is completely independent of any organization, except for recognition by the Aikikai.

    • I’d want to confirm with someone at the IAF but I believe they will do the business / congress portion in 2021 (perhaps online) but they have deferred the summit (the big training event) until 2022.

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