FROM EDITION 15 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SUMMER 2026 Definitions Before entering the main discussion, it may be helpful to offer a brief orientation to SHU HA RI, a classical model of learning found across budo, tea ceremony, poetry, calligraphy and other traditional Japanese arts. It is often presented as a three-stage ladder of transmission, and can be understood as a direction of travel in the learning process: a movement from form, through variation, to

FROM EDITION 14 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2025 Stage 1 Firstly, for us, tai jutsu, bokken work, and jo work are all one unified system of body movement. These aspects of our practice are not separate, disparate systems, but one coordinated whole. In this system we seek to teach our body to bend, to flex, to move in spirals, to move in very specific ways. The body is the tool, the real weapon; the forms we practice in Aikido are there to teach us how

FROM EDITION 14 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2025 In the past I have written about how useful I find it to reflect on how to learn effectively. This can very much help in not just making the training fun but also assuring good progress and development. One of the topics I often come back to is the difference between whether you are practicing the forms in the curriculum or if you are using them. This might seem like only a slight wording difference, howev

FROM EDITION 13 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SUMMER 2025 How long should we be training each area? I.e. do you focus on ikkyo for several weeks or months and then move onto other things such as ushiro waza or do you leave that for events and seminars? In my own regular Dojo teaching, I essentially follow the system that Sensei taught when I was in Iwama and that makes sense to me. In Iwama roughly 80% of the regular training was done within a small group of basi

FROM EDITION 13 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SUMMER 2025 Introduction The ancient martial traditions of Japan focused on practical approaches to combat (armed and unarmed). Your skill was defined by your ability to best an opponent (or opponents), and to survive, whether on the battlefield, or in a civilian encounter. ‘Grades’, and associated markings, such as our modern belt system had little, or no, relevance. In Japan, by the end of the Edo (also known as To

FROM EDITION 12 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – JANUARY 2025 How do we find the angle for the finishing cut in the last move...

FROM EDITION 12 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – JANUARY 2025 Keikogi (稽古着) (keiko meaning 'practice' and gi meaning 'dress' or...

FROM EDITION 12 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – JANUARY 2025 The vision of an organisation such as Traditional Aikido Europe...

FROM EDITION 11 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SPRING 2024 Lewis Bernaldo de Quirós Sensei trained full time under the late...

FROM EDITION 11 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SPRING 2024 Introduction Some forms of traditional Japanese martial arts,...

FROM EDITION 11 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SPRING 2024 Last November I combined the seminar of Lewis Sensei in Magdeburg...

FROM EDITION 11 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – SPRING 2024 The Meaning of Budo The common translation for ‘Bu’ is ‘martial'...

FROM EDITION 10 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – AUTUMN 2023 Q: I am just beginning to teach Aikido. You have been actively...

FROM EDITION 10 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – AUTUMN 2023 The following considerations are not intended as instructions for...

FROM EDITION 10 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – AUTUMN 2023 At the present time, the question of weapons and their place...

December 13th 2017 and reproduced from https://aikidotradicional.eu/ 1. Please tell us something about your background? Did you train...

Reproduced from https://aikidoonline.org/ In this long form interview between Jesper L. S. Nordin, a distinguished Danish conductor, and...

FROM EDITION 9 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2023 Levels of practice in Takemusu Aikido include (broadly), kihon waza...

FROM EDITION 9 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2023 Let us look at this question in three parts: first for solo...

FROM EDITION 9 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2023 “The Study in Aikido Involves the Study of a Lifetime” Perhaps your...