Welcome to my new English blog!

I often travel to other countries to teach Aikido and, increasingly, students from all around the world are coming to study Aikido here in Japan. This shows that Aikido has become truly international and that the ultimate goal of Aikido - peace between people of all nations and cultures - is getting closer. Through this blog, I hope to be able to communicate with aikidoka from all around the world.

Next, I would like to congratulate James Fish from Fairbanks, Alaska on passing his shodan test. I first met James at the 2005 Gasshku-by-the-Sea in California and the following year he came out and spent a week training at Ryu Dojo. He also tested for ikkyu then. Last week, James was in Urayasu for the second time - this time to test for his black belt. He tested on Saturday 20th in front of about 25 Ryu Dojo members. That night we held a farewell party for James and I was happy to announce that he had passed.

James has gone back to Fairbanks, where he has already started a Yoshinkan Aikido club and where he now hopes to establish his own dojo. While he was here, James asked me to name his dojo for him. This was a difficult question so I asked James what kind of name he wished for his dojo. He told me that, according to the Chinese Horoscope, he was born in the Year of the Dragon and so I decided on Shoryukan, which means House of the Ascending Dragon. Everyone at Ryu Dojo wishes James the best of luck and we hope to see him here again soon.


From next month, I will be posting the first monthly instalment of the English translation of a 6-part series I have been writing for a Japanese magazine called Hiden. This series is based on my own training from a book I was given by the son of one of Ueshiba Morihei Sensei's uchi deshi, who trained with him before World War II. The book is called Budo Renshu and was written by O-Sensei in 1934. Shioda Sensei began studying Aikido with Ueshiba Sensei in 1933 and so the book contains illustrations and explanations of the techniques that Shioda Sensei would have learned from Ueshiba Sensei.

I hope that everyone will find this series interesting and helpful to their Aikido training!