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  • Interview with Aikido Shihan Nobuyuki Watanabe, Part 2

    Interview with Aikido Shihan Nobuyuki Watanabe, Part 2

     Nobuyuki Watanabe SenseiNobuyuki Watanabe sensei (渡辺信之) at Aikikai Hombu Dojo

    Nobuyuki Watanabe is a senior instructor at Aikikai Hombu Dojo and a Japanese bonesetter (接骨 / Sekkotsu – a form of joint manipulation similar to chiropractics). He was instrumental in making Isogai Dynamic Therapy (a chiropractic method of treatment to compensate for functional leg length differences) known in Germany, where he frequently travels to instruct in Aikido.

    His famous “no touch” Aikido demonstrations at the annual All Japan Aikido Demonstration (全日本合氣道演武大会) are highly controversial, but always elicit an enthusiastic response from the crowd. The late Sadateru Arikawa used to watch those demonstrations each year with a scowl on his face!

    This is the second part of a two part translation of an interview with Nobuyuki Watanabe sensei. You may wish to read Part 1 of this interview before reading this section.

    This interview originally appeared in the August 2007 issue of Gekkan Hiden (月刊秘伝 / “Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan. It was also published in a collection of interviews with students of the Founder published in Japanese as 開祖の横顔 (“Profiles of the Founder”) in 2009.

    There was a short introduction to this work in the article “Morihei Ueshiba – Profiles of the Founder“. I previously posted an English translation of interviews from that collection with Nobuyoshi Tamura sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Isoyama sensei (Part 1 | Part 2) and Shigenobu Okumura sensei (Part 1 | Part 2).  (more…)

  • Interview with Aikido Shihan Nobuyuki Watanabe, Part 1

    Interview with Aikido Shihan Nobuyuki Watanabe, Part 1

     Nobuyuki WatanabeNobuyuki Watanabe sensei at the 42nd annual All Japan Aikido Demonstration

    Nobuyuki Watanabe was born in Miyazaki Prefecture on July 25th, in Showa year 5 (1930). He began Aikido in 1952, at the age of 22, and is a senior instructor at Aikikai Hombu Dojo. He is famous for his controversial “no touch” Aikido demonstrations at the annual All Japan Aikido Demonstration (全日本合氣道演武大会), which some people love – and some people hate, shown here at the 44th All Japan Aikido Demonstration in 2003:

    You may also be interested to read Ellis Amdur’s thoughts on training with Watanabe sensei in “It Had To Be Felt #9: Watanabe Nobuyuki: How the Mighty Have Fallen“.

    This interview was published in a collection of interviews with students of the Founder published in Japanese as 開祖の横顔 (“Profiles of the Founder”) in 2009. It originally appeared in the August 2007 issue of Gekkan Hiden (月刊秘伝 / “Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan.

    There was a short introduction to this work in the article “Morihei Ueshiba – Profiles of the Founder“. I previously posted an English translation of interviews from that collection with Nobuyoshi Tamura sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Isoyama sensei (Part 1 | Part 2) and Shigenobu Okumura sensei (Part 1 | Part 2). (more…)

  • Morihei Ueshiba – Profiles of the Founder

    Morihei Ueshiba – Profiles of the Founder

    Morihei Ueshiba - Profiles of the Founder

    Profiles of the Founder, BAB Japan 2009

    開祖の横顔 – 14 interviews with direct students of O-Sensei

    開祖の横顔 (Profiles of the Founder) was published in Japanese in 2009 by the publisher of Gekkan Hiden (“Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan.

    It contains 14 interviews with direct students of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba. None of these, to my knowledge, have been translated into English, but some of them are quite interesting.

    I’m not going to translate any large portion of the interviews, but I’ll pick out a few interesting sections here (note: I haven’t included the Japanese because, unlike Morihei Ueshiba’s own explanations, the speech of his students in these interviews was very straightforward).  (more…)