Letter from the Editor: April 2021

Please excuse our brief absence.

As Executive Editor of Aikido Journal, it’s my responsibility to design our editorial calendar and oversee publishing activities. However, in addition to my role at Aikido Journal, I’m also the CEO of Budo Accelerator, a new educational nonprofit, and Chief Instructor of Ikazuchi Dojo. The last two months have been incredibly productive but left me overextended. Publishing new stories was one of the things that had to be set aside during this fairly intense period.  However, I’m now able to allocate time to this important responsibility and look forward to sharing lots of great content with you in the coming weeks. 

Here’s an overview of 4 initiatives that have kept me running at redline for the last two months:

1.) Budo Accelerator 

Chiara and Isabel, Budo Accelerator students.

Budo Accelerator, an aikido-based educational nonprofit, is now running an online leadership academy for over 50 teens across North America in partnership with a group of dojos. Budo Accelerator plans to work with 100-200 teens throughout the year, with a goal of having 1,000 students from around the world in our programs by 2022.  I’d like to sincerely thank everyone in the aikido community who have supported our efforts so far.

Learn more about Budo Accelerator’s plans and see what we’ve accomplished so far in this short overview


2.) Aikido Pioneers

Aikido Pioneers, Dojo Edition

Our hardbound limited edition of Aikido Pioneers is almost ready to print! We’ve completed our design phase and will soon be moving into production. We’ve put great effort into crafting the book and are excited to bring the project to completion. If you’d like to order a copy and have not done so yet, we will be closing orders on Tuesday April 6th, after which we will send out a backer survey to collect shipping information and the names of dojos and chief instructors who backed the Dojo Edition. 

If you’d like to secure a copy before we close orders on Tuesday April 6, you can do so here.  


3.) Portrait of a Master: T.K. Chiba

We’ve been hard at work on a new video course on Kazuo Chiba, the legendary (and sometimes controversial) master who played a major role in developing aikido internationally. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished with this course and look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks. We’d like to extend a special thanks to Birankai North America for collaborating with us on this project. 


4.) Ikazuchi Dojo

Rose Jones at Ikazuchi Dojo

The pandemic continues to challenge all of us around the globe. However, things are looking up for us in California. At my dojo, we’re retiring our Zoom classes and transitioning to indoor and outdoor partner and weapons classes. Covid cases in our region are extremely low and an increasing number of our students have been vaccinated. 

I feel as though we’re now at the tail end of a year of crisis management at Ikazuchi Dojo. Soon we will roll out “normal” classes for vaccinated students and in California, everyone age 16 and above will be eligible to get vaccinated by April 15th.  We hope our friends around the world will see similar progress in the weeks ahead. 


Closing Notes

As a final note, if you’ve reached out to me in the last two months and have not received a response yet, I’ll reconnect with you in the coming days as I get through my backlog of digital correspondence. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

I look forward to sharing lots of great content with the Aikido Journal community in the coming days. I’m excited and hopeful for our future together, and for the art of aikido. 

Best regards,

Josh Gold, Executive Editor

 

Josh Gold

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

6 comments

  • Hello Josh,

    It is so nice to read aikido news again…
    Budo Accelerator sounds really cool. Thanks a lot for making it happen.
    Actually, thanks for everything you do for aikido. All of it is much appreciated.

    Yves Chauvin, PhD Psychology and Aikido Godan.
    Assistant Instructor at 11th Street dojo in San Francisco.

    • Thank you for the kind words and support. Great to hear from you and I look forward to visiting the 11th Street Dojo soon.

  • Thank you for all your efforts in keeping the wonderful and sublime art of aikido alive and vibrant, from a long time and life time practioner of this art!! 😊

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