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  • El grado importa – Cinturones Negros en Aikido [Spanish Version]

    El grado importa – Cinturones Negros en Aikido [Spanish Version]

    Yoshimitsu Yamada Kauai

    Yoshimitsu Yamada en Kauai Hawaii, 1966

    *This is the Spanish translation of the article “Something’s Rank – Black Belts in Aikido“, provided courtesy of Juantxo Ruiz.

    ¿De qué modo pensaba Jigoro Kano?

    El otro día estaba leyendo una entrevista con Yoshimitsu Yamada en el sitio web de Aikido Sansuikai. Este pasaje llamó mi atención:

    Bueno, el sistema de clasificación en aikido es otro dolor de cabeza. Yo personalmente no estoy de acuerdo con este sistema. Un certificado de enseñanza está bien, un cinturón negro está bien. Pero después de eso, no hay números, ni shodan, ni nidan, etc. La gente sabe quién es bueno y quién es malo. El sistema de clasificación dan crea una mente competitiva, porque la gente juzga a los demás – “oh, él es sexto dan, pero no es bueno, este tipo es mucho mejor …

    Yamada ha hecho declaraciones similares antes, lo sé, pero siempre es interesante cuando la persona responsable de distribuir grados a un gran número de personas en varios países declara públicamente que él mismo se opone al sistema de clasificación.
    (more…)

  • Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 2

    Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 2

    Yoshimitsu Yamada in Hawaii 2011Yoshimitsu Yamada at Aikido Celebration Hawaii 2011
    the 50th Anniversary of O-Sensei’s 1961 visit to Hawaii
    Pat Hendricks taking ukemi

    Yoshimitsu Yamada was sent to the United States in 1964 by the Aikikai in order to help spread and develop Aikido in America. He was followed by Mitsunari Kanai Sensei, Akira Tohei Sensei and Kazuo Chiba Sensei, whose cooperation eventually led to the formation of the United States Aikido Federation (USAF).

    In the introduction to Part 1 of this interview below I spoke a little bit about my personal connection with Yamada Sensei, but there is one more personal connection that I have not yet mentioned.

    Takeshi YamashimaTaking ukemi for Takeshi Yamashima
    Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden – 2011

    Takeshi Yamashima was a long time student of Seigo Yamaguchi, and is famous for his soft, yet powerful, style of Aikido. He has been a regular at Hombu Dojo’s morning classes for many years and instructs at a number of dojo in the Tokyo area. He also holds a license in Yagyu Shinkage-ryu Kenjutsu.

    I trained with him in Japan for three years, starting in 2000, and after returning to the United States I invited him to come to Hawaii. He has been visiting us in the Hawaiian Islands every year since 2004.

    Takeshi Yamashima’s first Aikido teacher was….Yoshimitsu Yamada. As a young Hombu Dojo uchi-deshi Yamada Sensei was dispatched to oversee the instruction at the university dojo where Yamashima Sensei started Aikido!

    This is the second of two parts of an interview that originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Gekkan Hiden (月刊秘伝 / “Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan. You may with to read Part 1 of the interview before reading this section

    This interview 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“. A number of English translations of interviews from that collection appeared have appeared previously – Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Isoyama Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Shigenobu Okumura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), and Masatake Fujita Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2).

    (more…)

  • Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 1

    Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 1

    Yoshimitsu Yamada KauaiYoshimitsu Yamada on Kauai, Hawaii in 1966
    seated between Hawaii Aikikai instructors Yukiso Yamamoto and Sadao Yoshioka

    Yoshimitsu Yamada was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1938, entered Aikikai Hombu Dojo as an uchi-deshi in 1956 and was dispatched to New York to aid the development of Aikido in the United States in 1964, the year that I was born.

    I last saw him in 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the 50th anniversary celebration of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba’s 1961 visit to Hawaii. He didn’t remember me then, but we had met previously at the New York Aikikai in 1982. Of course, he had no idea who I was then, either, but I had wandered into the New York Aikikai to ask about going to Japan to study Aikido at Aikikai Hombu Dojo. I was eighteen years old when I went to Hombu with him that fall, the same age that Yoshimitsu Yamada was when he began studying Aikido.

    At the time I had been studying Aikido with Frank Hreha and Mitsugi Saotome of the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba, with whom he had been having an ongoing, and sometimes acrimonious, dispute. I was blissfully unaware of the background drama, and he never mentioned it, instead offering to take me to Japan with him on his next trip. Despite having met me scant minutes before, he immediately set me up with his travel agent, who arranged a visa with Yamada Sensei’s mother as my guarantor.

    When we got to Japan he set me up with a room in a small Minshuku (a boarding house) in Wakamatsu-cho, and then took me to help get enrolled at the dojo. After which….I didn’t see him for many years. I eventually returned to the United States, and continued to train with Mitsugi Saotome and ASU – but I will always remember his kindness to an unknown fifth-kyu walking in off the street with extreme gratitude.

    This is the first part of an interview that originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Gekkan Hiden (月刊秘伝 / “Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan.

    This interview 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“. A number of English translations of interviews from that collection appeared have appeared previously – Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Isoyama Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Shigenobu Okumura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), and Masatake Fujita Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2).

    (more…)

  • Something’s Rank – Black Belts in Aikido

    Something’s Rank – Black Belts in Aikido

    Yoshimitsu Yamada Kauai

    Yoshimitsu Yamada in Kauai Hawaii, 1966

    What was Jigoro Kano thinking, anyway?

    The other day I was reading an interview with Yoshimitsu Yamada on the Aikido Sansuikai website. This passage happened to catch my attention:

    Well, the ranking system in aikido is another headache. I personally disagree with this system. A teaching certificate is okay, a black belt is okay. But after that, no numbers, no shodan, no nidan, etc. People know who is good and who is bad. The dan ranking system creates a competitive mind, because people judge others – “oh, he is sixth dan, but he is not good, this guy is much better…”

    Yamada has made similar statements before, I know, but it’s always interesting when the person responsible for handing out rank to a large number of people in several countries states publicly that he is himself opposed to the ranking system.  (more…)