Letter from the Editor: November 2020

The winds of change are upon us. The United States is transitioning to new political leadership and much of the world is entering winter and facing the most dangerous phase yet of the pandemic. We’ve lost many aikido dojos around the world, and nearly every dojo has lost members. The very soul of our art is human connection, which we have largely turned away from for the common good.

We don’t know what the future holds for the aikido community and what our infrastructure will look like when we emerge from the pandemic. We do know that it will be our generation, those of us reading this editorial now, who will be responsible for the very survival of the art. I’m not a historian, as my predecessor, Stanley Pranin was, but I do believe that our generation will become known as one of most pivotal in the history of the art of aikido.

As we all find our way through this unique time in history, we can use this moment not just to hold our communities together, but to reflect and plan. What can we do through the remainder of the pandemic to best position us for its end? And what strategies will we pursue to preserve our art and create a more meaningful place for it in today’s society?

This is a time to ask the hard questions:

  • What does our community look like now- demographically and organizationally? What‘s left of our infrastructure?
  • What is the essence of what we are practicing?
  • What should the role(s) of aikido be in today’s world?
  • How can we best recover from this crisis?

Through the remainder of the year, Aikido Journal will be exploring these questions and looking at ideas and perspectives from both the past and present. We will be republishing interviews with members of the Ueshiba family, editorials from Aikido Journal’s founder, and pieces from others with keen insights into the essence of aikido. We will also be publishing new articles that outline key demographics of the global aikido community and highlight some forward thinking ideas and initiatives that have recently emerged. Lastly, we’ll have some announcements about products we have in development that I’m very excited about.

Now, more than ever, we need knowledge, ideas, and skilled leaders with the conviction to shape our future.

We hope you’ll join the conversation.

 

Josh Gold

Executive Editor // Aikido Journal

 

Josh Gold

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

32 comments

  • Take this comment for what you will as an outsider looking in (not a Aikido-ist, but a faithful follower of the Journal along with other many other writings of the community, I truly enjoy the content and interview shared here).

    I recall much of Aikido’s early growth was based on the proliferation of taiho-jutsu (逮捕術). If there was ever a time for Aikido to have a central role in police arrest & crisis de-escalation restructuring in the US as we approach 2021, it would be now. Aside from C19, this is the central social issue this year across major cities and communities. I expect there will be funding to support such a high profile issue given the change of the guards. I hope Aikido can be at the forefront; it is mutually beneficial for the health of the this community and society as a whole.

    Completely off topic question: Is there a JP version of AJ that would include some of Stan’s original interviews?

    • CC-

      Great to hear from you. Thanks for your comments. And if you are a reader of the Journal and engaged with the community, I don’t consider you an outsider just because you’re not an active aikido practitioner. I think we are all part of the same tribe. We don’t currently have a Japanese version online of older AJ interviews with Stanley. Some of our books have Japanese and English but not the articles. We can look into this at some point in the future when we have more time and resources 🙂

  • Thank you Josh, with your usual clarity you have asked very important questions about the future of our art.

    I look forward to the challenge of the future and how we can sustain the art into that future.

    I think one part of the infrastructure question is how to operate dojos without the burden of very high rents and other expenses. The future stability may be in low rent spaces such as community centers and other similar facilities.

    I also believe that the downtime caused by the pandemic may result in people who are looking for more meaning in their lives. Aikido can offer a practice to fulfill those deeper needs. A previous article you published talked about the importance to more effectively market what Aikido has to offer. Reaching out to people who have come to the realization that they are looking for more could help the art to start growing again.

    All the best to our community.

    Bob Noha
    Aikido of Petaluma

  • Thanks Josh, I appreciate so much of what the Aikido Journal does. A few months ago I passed my 2nd Kyu Aikido test as a solo practice.

    It was a powerful experience making sure I knew all the techniques deeply enough to do them solo and really feel the dynamics of it in my body.

    Black Belt Essentials and Aikido Extensions both helped me study effectively for my test. Having these resources certainly helps me feel more connected to a bigger world of Aikido, when it is so easy to shrink in one way or another.

    • Thank you Liz, for the kid words. And congratulations on your 2nd kyu test! My wife took her 3rd kyu test during lockdown as well, but she was able to do it with an uke (me 🙂

      Through lockdown, I have taught distanced classes and I think a solo practice as you describe (even on a test) can be a legit way to do it. It really does force one to focus on all the details and mechanics of each movement. Much can be learned this way.

      Glad you got value out of the AJ Academy courses. We have another one in development now, which we will announce in the coming weeks. We’re very excited about it.

      Great to hear from you and be sure to keep me updated on your aikido journey.

      • Thanks Josh,

        I think one of the things that helped me with my solo practice was that I did solo practice in the dojo when I returned to the mat only 1 week after a shoulder separation. I didn’t want to lose my routine, returning can be hard and I figured out how to do it solo and stay within the range of motion and risk my injured shoulder allowed.

        When my shoulder recovered I think I had a much easier return to full practice than many people returning from injury. My practice had deepened by all the focus on opening technique, core engagement and grounding, and I hadn’t lost the habit of coming to practice.

        I like to think that maybe, if more dojos learn how to teach solo as well as partner practice it might make an environment that’s friendlier for folks with injuries or disability that make full participation difficult.

        Thanks to online practice I’ve even been able to train the morning after I sprained my ankle, I sat on an office chair and used the wheels on the smooth floor of my home. It was so interesting propelling myself about and doing what I could and I did manage to sweat a bit and get some of the peace that comes with practice.

        I hope deepening online and solo practice helps folks who experience barriers (be it fibromyalgia making it hard to get to the dojo, injuries that limit partner practice, geography or any other reason) access a beautiful martial art.

    • Agree. Thank you for the comment David. It’s great to hear from you and I hope we can all use the remaining time in this pandemic to connect more, make new friends, allies, and advisors, and position ourselves to come out of this as a stronger community.

  • Hi Josh Sensei,

    I think that we will be figuratively revisiting the 1960s with our art. Many dojo have disappeared due to the pandemic and many will never return, and sadly many students who were excited and on the mat at the turn of the year will go away permanently. Like the 1960s, there will be a lot fewer dojo and a lot fewer teachers trying to instruct our art. But again like the 1960s, there will be some people who will be interested and want to train. With the assumption that we won’t suffer a future crisis again like the Corona Virus, the dojo will get bigger in time and there will be more again. It is going to take time and I suspect many sensei will feel it necessary to use recreational facilities in their communities instead of buying or leasing hard dojo.

    Overall, my bottom line view is that our art will survive, but it will be a tough, uphill battle for some time to come.

    • Michael,

      Thanks for the comment. I agree with you. The art will survive, and those who are still with it at the end of the pandemic will be the most dedicated practitioners. We can rebuild with a strong core, but it will be small and our resources and reach will be limited. But as you mention, it was done in an earlier era (after WWII, Hombu Dojo had to take extreme measures just to survive), so we can do it too.

  • Aikido is an art based on the concept of responding to multiple attackers, and looking (and moving) in more than one direction during an interaction. As we look to the past for cherished artifacts of early chapters of the art, I suggest we must also look to the future, to inquire into the art in this time and place to discover adaptations and innovations that are called for now. Aikido can be more than a repository of techniques, it can also be a quality of awareness in movement and connection with partners and our environment. Can we honor the past, the historic teachers who brought aikido out into the world through their own living example and follow that connection into our collective future? From where I am sitting, the world needs the legacy of aikido to be brought forward to engage with challenges we face and challenges yet to come.

    • Cheryl,

      Great to hear from you. I agree with your position, and I think many others do too, including the current Doshu:

      “I don’t ponder how Aikido and/or the Aikikai should directly contribute to society. It is not the way or approach that we should take. Instead, each Aikido devotee, after a long time period of practice, shall consider how they can offer their power and knowledge cultivated by Aikido practice to the betterment of our society.”

      -Moriteru Ueshiba

  • As I practiced solo technique with bokken last night, in the park, in the cold, in the dark, with just one other student…I realized that I was still receiving much of what draws me to Aikido in the first place: getting out of my head, into my body, interacting tactilely with the the universe and reality, my balance, the ground, and in this case the cold and the darkness. Though not with a human partner, their intention, inertia, weight, strength, balance and the satisfying release of ki that comes from “working it all out” (yes, I do miss that part), it reminded me of one of the biggest challenges to my training all along: getting onto the mat in the first place. Even before Covid, the hardest part of training was getting off the couch and going to class. Once there, the “failures” were as positively experiential as the successes; the actual “doing” of Aikido always was worth it. I wasn’t going there to win anything. I was going there to be.
    Now, with Covid, it’s a challenge to our infrastructure, and our habits. But we are Aikidoka. Our test is to blend with the challenges of life (not just a single partner at distance). Where can we push back against Covid, redirect it, and where shouldn’t we fight it’s strength and inertia? Maybe more importantly, where do we push back against our own expectations, habits, and comfort zones to redirect ourselves into a position of strength inside the whirlwind of this disease (dis-ease) and the tumult of society that it has caused. This is OUR test.
    I’ve heard my sensei say (or maybe it was his sensei he quotes, or O-Sensei) that we don’t do Aikido “to” our opponent, but that when attacked, Aikido is what we do with ourselves in response to the challenge. what is our Aiki response to Covid?
    In a video from Savoca Sensei that I happened on yesterday, he talks about making a “vow” and how it isn’t a grandiose one-time commitment…rather it’s getting up every morning and making that vow again. My challenge? Go train! In whatever format, structure, parameters that means. My sensei talks about breaking the layer of Ice off the tatami in the morning during his time at Iwama. Maybe we aren’t that tough…but we can get off the darn couch.
    I’ve seen this modified training be difficult for newer students: solo techniques seem like nebulous pantomime without the context of how it relates to a partner. So, maybe yes…it is the current generation who’s job it is to just keep training. Not to build a student-base and spread Aikido now, but to cultivate our own aiki-base through this storm. The world and humanity probably needs Aikido more than ever (the nightly news seems to scream), but before we can dish-it-out to the world…we may have to take-it for a bit.

    Brooklyn Aikikai video here: https://www.brooklynaikikai.com/holidayfundraiser?fbclid=IwAR3M-5ZVQ00sOBh87bpe1rwZYhzMm3OdLxs60zfg6ZLl0l2cwoaTJHP2DjI

    • Ben,

      Yes, let’s all keep training. That’s the foundational thing that will keep aikido alive. That will be critical to our ability to rebuild a student base and spread Aikido (which will be necessary to do when conditions are right).

      Sounds like you’re doing a great job of adapting to the conditions. I believe Chiba Sensei described martiality as adaptive capacity. Clearly you’re embodying that through this period of adversity.

      Hope to meet and train with you post-pandemic.

  • The art of aikido is also called by some, the art of peace. I do believe the art is practiced at many levels, not just the physical one. While physical training is very necessary, training and blending at other levels is also important. After thirty-plus years of training, I’m honored to say, I’ve never had to resort to the physical resolution of a conflict. Not that it couldn’t have easily gone there, but my training, confidence, and understanding of conflict allowed me to stay present in the moment and resolve the situation peacefully. Perhaps this is a time in our training and the art of aikido, to go within and work on one’s own inner strength. Or perhaps we need to innovate and find ways to express the art and movements in the physical sense as other arts do in the form of katas and routines that visualize the movements in the trainees’ mind so he/she can train the body. Then of course there are always going to be those closed groups of students/schools, that are mindful of their health circumstances, that will continue to carry on, no matter what. The art may not experience significant growth at this time, but it will no doubt survive and continue to be one of the truly magnificent martial arts.

  • Hello Josh, Catherine Stenzel Sensei here. Your communication with us is so timely and vital, especially the questions you ask. Perhaps you remember our brief conversation about the Aikido book I am writing with my Shihan. It’s quite uncanny, but the book’s purpose is to try to answer some of the questions you pose, especially “What is the essence of what we are practicing?” The key answer to your question appears to be a mission statement for us as a community when you say, “. . .create a more meaningful place for it [our art] in today’s society.” This is the core of what will guide our survival. More people than ever are seeking answers or at least a path to the “big questions” about meaning and purpose, individually and for the planetary community. Being far more than a “martial art,” we know that Aikido has much to offer to these deep and significant inquiries. The challenge is building the bridge from the dojo to the rest of the world. After all, isn’t that O’Sensei’s vision?

  • Beautiful call to action. I was just starting a club (precursor to a dojo) with a few students when this pandemic hit. The sense of joy and connection we established was remarkable, and is sorely missed. At the same time, I was very aware of the economic disadvantage compared to the tae kwon do school where I was borrowing space. There, they had hundreds of students able to flow through every week, mostly kids, coming for 45 minutes classes. To that end, aikido development feels more akin to a buddhist temple or similar mindfulness practice, which will take steady, slow development over a long period of time. Finding that time and space in this country / this world is a difficult task.

  • Hello. First time commenting. I am 1st NYU and have missed my shodan test the last two years in a row due to back surgeries. I will not give up.
    Our dojo is small and closed for about 6 months. We have done distance weapons classes til the pandemic got too high.
    I find that going through each technique by doing the physical moments as I imagine an uke helps immensely. Visualization is used by all athletes. I do the same with weapons. I hope this training technique can help. Train hard. Be safe.

    • Hi Chris. Welcome!

      Glad to see you have the spirit of perseverance- an important quality in Budo. I’m quite sure your training is useful, and yes, visualization training has been proven to be beneficial to high performing athletes. It’s a worthy training method. Take care and please let us know when you take your shodan test!

  • I had been thinking for such a long time that there are just to many personal agenda in Aikido. Why is it necessary for Aikido to follow the path that has been established throughout history that religious philosophy has followed? Can’t the training be in and of itself enough? Aikido becomes the identity of the teacher rather than what they do they can’t identify who they are outside the buzz the ego gets from this attachment. It’s very similar to the reasons professional athletes struggle to detach themselves from what they do after they retire.(watch HBO documentary, The Weight Of Gold)
    Anyway, I would like to see a move away from dogma and intellectualisation and a move back to basic training. The method not the dogma. I am slowly moving our organisation away from this attitude and back to a simpler way of thinking. I hope it shows results in the future. I wrote a blog post about this.
    http://www.aikidoyuishinkaiaustralia.com.au/wheres-the-dog-ma-a-way-to-fix-the-current-aiki-crisis/

  • Thanks for holding the flag, Josh. Here in New Zealand, we were fortunate to be able to run an Aikido seminar over the last weekend, with 5 guest teachers from different schools. For the first time, we felt that it was a momentous occasion in the global situation.

    It appears that aikido has run a course over the last 30-50 years, that has somehow turned away from the thoughts and teachings of the founder. His words tend to be dismissed as archaic, anachronistic, and perhaps even the rantings of an aging person. Yet, like zen koans, like deep philosophy, and like ancient scriptures, the meanings don’t come easily, and need to be contemplated with intent, experience, and focus.

    The founder, Ueshiba, was not a trivial man. A person who has experienced what he did, cannot possibly be. His thoughts were profound, and his words tried to convey the unspeakable, the unfathomable reality of our existence.

    Without the foundation of his philosophy, which ultimately is natural, universal philosophy, aikido is a mere sport; the mechanical repetitions of increasingly complex techniques that apparently have little use off the mat.

    Ueshiba’s paradigm was of a cosmos that was alive with energies, of which we are a holographic representation. We need to move beyond a limited positivistic, mechanistic paradigm that has arisen from recent western technological progress, and give life back to the cosmos, and in turn give life back to aikido. We need to move beyond the foolishness of a clockwork universe to a conscious, evolutionary, process-based universe.

    Ueshiba turned a violent art of combat (jiu-jutsu) into an art that offered infinite options, including the option of reconciliation. Many young people (and even many older people set in their ways) do not see this, and compare aikido with other combative arts. They are not the same, and never will be: Ueshiba created something completely new.

    By sincerely trying to understand the founder’s insights and vision, we can help aikido to recover its meaning, its dignity, and its purpose in the world. This, as you say, needs bold leadership.

    What was agreed in last weekend’s seminar, was that, in the end, every teacher’s message had a similar intent and vision, and that every practitioner needed to open their minds in order for aikido to creatively progress.

  • Groups of senior people gathering together to decide what philosophy/dogma a person from history meant is fraught with danger and sounds just a little like religion to me. Like the council of Nicaea, or the inquisition, or the crusades….. I could go on.

    No one is denying the founder created something unique, from jutsu to do, a way for us to find our true purpose in this world(his words not mine).

    Looking at this message objectively, and understanding Ueshiba’s very strong sense of national loyalty, it is almost impossible to not look at the way Confucianism influenced all of Japan’s sense of nationalism. Filial piety, sense of community, sense of loyalty to empire. It also empowered them to take a strong stand against tyranny if necessary, so his going off to Mongolia to establish utopia was seen as in the best interest of an empire that had sold its soul to western intellectualism and commerce.

    On more than one occasion the founder said Aikido is Misogi – ritual SELF purification. This came from his years of ascetic practice, and from his religious belief in Shinto through Amoto Kyo.

    If we put the two together, thinking objectively, if Misogi is to purify the self, and Confucian doctrine states that getting the self in order with heaven is the highest priority in human endeavour, then perhaps, just perhaps, Ueshiba wanted us to focus on ourselves.

    Imagine a few million enlightened purified practitioners of Aikido and the change it would be able to create without attachment to any form of external agenda?

    Training then is, and of itself, all that is necessary for the world.

    Attachment with good intention is still attachment. Many great tragedies in history have come about through a shared vision of supposed good intent.

    What I proposed in leaving all dogma aside.

    It’s hard, because so many life practitioners and teachers have an external identity attached to these methods they promote that it is hard for them to gage self worth outside these agenda.

    To realise that perhaps, just maybe you got it wrong all these years is too big an ask for most, they can’t be seen to have been selling the wrong story to their acolytes for such a long time and thus dig in with strong resistance and passive aggressive diatribe or rhetoric, it’s unfortunate for the future of the art that so many cling to the past….

    The ego feeds the mind even to perceived good intention.

    I believe the message in the practice is greater for the unification of humans than the dogma we need to attach for the practice to presumably be valid in this world. People that do great works of peace and humanitarianism are not self promoting, never needed a platform, a website, a group driven shared identity. ( mother Teresa, Ghandi…??? Many more……)

    Any of the altered objectives of dogmatic drivers of Aikido don’t differ at all from religious objectives – peace, love harmony, unity, mindfulness and so on. Is Aikido superior as a way to deliver such an outlook to mankind based on the founders’ perceived similar notions?

    Not if its driven by the same reasoning that dogma minded individuals possess, its exactly the same, and as we all know, Einstein stated that a problem can’t be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it….

    I would say if one truly cared about these things in the world, they would act on them with humility, and without the platform that they perceive Aikido provides.

    It’s interesting that zen is mentioned, or religious scripture of any type, which were all intended to point the way, they were never the practice, nor were they ever intended to be. The 6th zen patriarch is shown in painting tearing up scripture to indicate non attachment to dogma – The flag doesn’t move, it’s the mind, and the boat is destroyed upon arrival at the far shore…..The practice of Jesus isn’t Christianity, the practice of Buddha isn’t Buddhism, the practice of Mohammed isn’t Islam.

    These philosophical, theological ideologies were created when practice and interpretation of practice separated.

    Aikido has already suffered this great demise….

    The current world situation throws fuel on the fire that flames individuals and groups driven through dogma and philosophy, talking, not doing is where we came from, surely not where we want to head towards.

    Aikido doesn’t need to be just another way to propagate love, peace, harmony, temperance, unity or any other virtue. What it needs to be is a way for individuals to assess themselves within the system, to lose daily, not gain daily as Lao Tzu so eloquently put it.

    Aikido is unique. A tactile kinaesthetic way to come to terms with who we are, who we were supposed to be. It is unique because it is realised in action. Not in a monastic life, in a philosophical society, in a university or seat of higher learning or in theology. A physical act done to a point of self realisation may not be a path for everyone, just as sitting in meditation or a University lecture for a kinaesthetic learner is as painful as waterboarding. The mark of a superior man is integration of many virtues(Confucius again) of human relations and physical merit.

    Practice as the founder intended changes the world through changing the heart of the practitioner. This is Misogi Harai.

    It may just be all the world needs.

    Realisation that we are the universe, then living that reality.

    That know the true heart, see the true self……
    Here are some links regarding Japanese national identity and Confucius Doctrine.

    http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/keiwakokusaika/culturaltefl.htm

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-confucian/

  • I am not full of roses and sunshine when it comes to the future of my dojo and the Aikido community at grassroots level.
    The pandemic has given me time to consider what I haven’t liked at my dojo locally and of weaknesses of the larger community’s myopic assumption that everything is “fine”.
    The passive “we’ve always done it this way” approach hadnt been coomon wisdom for a while now. The pandemic has just made the failings of that assumption more obvious.
    We should have been asking ourselves how to adapt our teaching and appeal to younger students long ago. Youth is our connection to the future. Have we found a way to do that in the last decade. I dont see that we have.
    Questions about if we will be healthy and survive another decades something we should have already been asking ourselves. Societal and cultural changes, including access to 24/7 to content are common now.
    Why havent we already been using them to our advantage? Why are we so late to the game? With the exception of Aikido journal, where else could I have gone for curriculum based content before 2020?
    Pre-pandemic, I was frustrated that I could find complete online curriculums from our cousin arts like the ground based jujitsus or even fitness movements like Yoga, but Aikido seemed absent of the digital universe except in 5 minute clips on YouTube. I’m not devaluating the special relationship and critical importance of in-person teaching and practice. That’s kind teaching is what we’re good at. But, we have to ask if we should have been caught so flatfooted and unprepared to reachout to the students online. Why haven’t we spent the last 10 years figuring out how to do that?
    I think its criminal how we’ve failed to capture the imagination and enthusiasm of people who would consider an online workout when in person practice was out of reach because of travel, geography, or competing time obligations. Our cousin art have put out archived home workouts for decades. Why are we so married to the ways we’ve always done things that we havent looked at keeping that strong while learning how to do better and do more?
    Our cousin arts seemed to already understood that people need to be engaged to stay engaged. Why havent we worked hard to be innovated and agressive about doing that?
    The pandemic has shown what we could do when forced to be creative about teaching.
    We now see there are things we could do solo and have access at the touch of a keyboard. Our mantra that Aikido is impossible to train out of context of 2 person practice has been shattered by the necessity to do just that.
    Ongoing failure to adapt to the next challenge may yet destroy our relevance and ongoing growth. If we assume everything is “fine” we will die a slow death from attrition and aging. We might become a niche relic of a once healthy vibrant community. But, will we be more than that?

  • What is the essence of what we are practicing?

    Josh Gold rightfully argues Covid has impacted our Aikido community, and that this is a time of contemplation. Fortunately we have many Aikidoka who don’t start contemplation only when there is adversity. But the invitation to contribute does resonate.
    The question what the essence is of what we are practicing is one that resonates for all Aikidoka. It is so multi-faceted that it justifies a book on its own. I’ll shed some light on the mere multitude of angles.
    Having been in the board of the IAF, we have often asked the question what we practice and what the future of Aikido should be. The first and foremost perspective we took in that forum was that the answer to the question is the prerogative of the Ueshiba family and the Aikikai so Hombu. But the answer to the question itself usually entailed the following elements:
    – Aikido is what it is, as it was handed down to us by O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. We do not wish to change the heritage
    – Aikido is daily practice, it’s not mastered or understood in any other manner
    – Aikido contributes to world peace. This is achieved by daily practice
    Having trained with a number of Hombu Shihan, I believe that with some authority I can state that what we practice is subject to personal interpretation. When I started Aikido (1985) in the Netherlands, the main body of instructors were the Japanese Shihan in Europe. Most countries that had an established base for Aikido had a person in charge. In France this was Tamura Sensei, in Germany Asai Sensei, in Switserland Ikeda Sensei, in Italy Tada Sensei together with Fujimoto Sensei and Hosokawa Sensei, in Britain Chiba Sensei and later Kanetsuka Sensei, in Spain Kitaura Sensei, and so on. Each of these instructors was responsible for a country and their students followed them diligently.
    The other influence on what we practice were the Hombu Shihan that were invited and the many other Japanese instructors that were invited. These represented generations of Aikidoka, and at the risk of offending by not mentioning some of these Aikido grand masters: Yamaguchi Sensei, Okumura Sensei, Saito Sensei, and younger generations such as Fujita Sensei, Endo Sensei, Yasuno Sensei, Yokota Sensei, and the current generation like Kobayashi Sensei, Irie Sensei, Hori Sensei, and so on.
    But the next development (not necessarily in chronicle order) was that a generation of Western instructors became so mature they became influential instructors. Without a doubt Christian Tissier is the most famous in this role, but this generation of Aikido is now so established that it’s impossible to name them all. Each group of dojos that cooperate have one or more of these Shihan that they study.
    So, if you ask what we practice, I would argue that we study the personal understanding and teaching philosophy of all these Aikido masters, who all played their own part.
    But as I now practice 35 years and teach for 25, I can search my own soul and ask myself what I teach my students, because that is what they train. And in that respect I would have to accept that I mainly teach basics. I observe my students and see that there is more than enough challenge in that to keep them occupies as Aikidoka. What I teach as basics is an amalgamate of the input received from all these teachers that I have mentioned above.
    My observation on-line is that there is new generation of Aikidoka that move in different directions. They study the effectiveness of Aikido, the application on the street, how Aikido stands up to other martial arts and combat sports. They ask valid questions, and the challenge is how they should be answered.
    When you train or teach, you quickly realize that Aikido is not a quick fix to win a fight. It’s however based in extremely effective and devastating Ju Jitsu techniques, and when you observe other fighting styles, you see that they have adopted many Aikido techniques and principles. But what it is that we train, is difficult to answer in this perspective.
    In a world that is torn by conflict and alienation, we need forces that unite and harmonize. In this respect Aikido is effective, because any male or female can practice, young and old can practice together, on the mat career or reputation don’t count. We are all equal and practice together.
    So, we should probably keep doing what we are doing. Daily practice, study the techniques of O’Sensei through the channels that are offered by Hombu, Shihan and dedicated students that became instructors. Remember that peace and coexistence is more valuable than winning a fight or a conflict. Accept that study, exploration and challenge are part of what will come your way. Don’t let it distract you from studying principles, both technical and moral.

  • Josh Gold rightfully argues Covid has impacted our Aikido community, and that this is a time of contemplation. Fortunately we have many Aikidoka who don’t start contemplation only when there is adversity. But the invitation to contribute does resonate.
    The question what the essence is of what we are practicing is one that resonates for all Aikidoka. It is so multi-faceted that it justifies a book on its own. I’ll shed some light on the mere multitude of angles.
    Having been in the board of the IAF, we have often asked the question what we practice and what the future of Aikido should be. The first and foremost perspective we took in that forum was that the answer to the question is the prerogative of the Ueshiba family and the Aikikai so Hombu. But the answer to the question itself usually entailed the following elements:
    – Aikido is what it is, as it was handed down to us by O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. We do not wish to change the heritage
    – Aikido is daily practice, it’s not mastered or understood in any other manner
    – Aikido contributes to world peace. This is achieved by daily practice
    Having trained with a number of Hombu Shihan, I believe that with some authority I can state that what we practice is subject to personal interpretation. When I started Aikido (1985) in the Netherlands, the main body of instructors were the Japanese Shihan in Europe. Most countries that had an established base for Aikido had a person in charge. In France this was Tamura Sensei, in Germany Asai Sensei, in Switserland Ikeda Sensei, in Italy Tada Sensei together with Fujimoto Sensei and Hosokawa Sensei, in Britain Chiba Sensei and later Kanetsuka Sensei, in Spain Kitaura Sensei, and so on. Each of these instructors was responsible for a country and their students followed them diligently.
    The other influence on what we practice were the Hombu Shihan that were invited and the many other Japanese instructors that were invited. These represented generations of Aikidoka, and at the risk of offending by not mentioning some of these Aikido grand masters: Yamaguchi Sensei, Okumura Sensei, Saito Sensei, and younger generations such as Fujita Sensei, Endo Sensei, Yasuno Sensei, Yokota Sensei, and the current generation like Kobayashi Sensei, Irie Sensei, Hori Sensei, and so on.
    But the next development (not necessarily in chronicle order) was that a generation of Western instructors became so mature they became influential instructors. Without a doubt Christian Tissies is the most famous in this role, but this generation of Aikido is now so established that it’s impossible to name them all. Each group of dojos that cooperate have one or more of these Shihan that they study.
    So, if you ask what we practice, I would argue that we study the personal understanding and teaching philosophy of all these Aikido masters, who all played their own part.
    But as I now practice 35 years and teach for 25, I can search my own soul and ask myself what I teach my students, because that is what they train. And in that respect I would have to accept that I mainly teach basics. I observe my students and see that there is more than enough challenge in that to keep them occupies as Aikidoka. What I teach as basics is an amalgamate of the input received from all these teachers that I have mentioned above.
    My observation on-line is that there is new generation of Aikidoka that move in different directions. They study the effectiveness of Aikido, the application on the street, how Aikido stands up to other martial arts and combat sports. They ask valid questions, and the challenge is how they should be answered.
    When you train or teach, you quickly realize that Aikido is not a quick fix to win a fight. It’s however based in extremely effective and devastating Ju Jitsu techniques, and when you observe other fighting styles, you see that they have adopted many Aikido techniques and principles. But what it is that we train, is difficult to answer in this perspective.
    In a world that is torn by conflict and alienation, we need forces that unite and harmonize. In this respect Aikido is effective, because any male or female can practice, young and old can practice together, on the mat career or reputation don’t count. We are all equal and practice together.
    So, we should probably keep doing what we are doing. Daily practice, study the techniques of O’Sensei through the channels that are offered by Hombu, Shihan and dedicated students that became instructors. Remember that peace and coexistence is more valuable than winning a fight or a conflict. Accept that study, exploration and challenge are part of what will come your way. Don’t let it distract you from studying principles, both technical and moral.

  • Hi Josh

    An interesting perspective and sadly all I’m going to focus on is a statement in the first paragraph which was much of the world is entering winter and facing the most dangerous phase yet of the pandemic”.

    I was disappointed to see the typical tunnel vision that comes with you Yanks that the world only exists in the northern hemisphere. Some of us in another hemisphere are experiencing summer now.

    Also, it was my understanding that COVID did not proliferate as well in the cold. It’s not usually the virus that kills people but the co-morbidities. Personally, I think the virus is going to be a constant threat until a vaccine is available. My dojo is currently having a break but we will be open in a couple of weeks maintaining a number of precautions.

    Otherwise, you are doing a good job and I look forward to further insights and discussions.

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