“Like the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashoman, which shows multiple perspectives of the same event, this book of interviews provides 20 unique perspectives on the life and teaching of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido. The interviews were conducted by Stanley Pranin, editor in chief of the Aikido Journal.

The interview subjects range from his son and successor Kisshomaru Ueshiba and nephew Yoichiro Inoue to Tenryu, a famous sumo wrestler, and four students who founded their own systems of Aikido: Gozo Shioda; Kenji Tomiki; Koichi Tohei and Minoru Mochizuki.

This book is a priceless opportunity to learn about the life, times and teaching of the Aikido founder. It is especially valuable in that it provides details of the critical era before the Second World War when Aikido was becoming the art it is today.”

Click here to read the review.

Click here for more details Aikido Pionners: Prewar Era and to order.

We would like to point out the available of book summaries and scans for books in our bibliography database.

Click here to see a complete list of books in our database. Among the many features added to the bibliography section is a book review capability replete with a star-rating system.

We would like to point out the available of book summaries and scans for books in our bibliography database.

Click here to see a complete list of books in our database. Among the many features added to the bibliography section is a book review capability replete with a star-rating system.

These features are viewable when clicking the “View entire list” option on the bibliography search page. Another feature is the ability to toggle between images for book entries that have more than one scan available. See here for an example. Remember you can click on any image to enlarge it.

Together with the launch of our newest DVD title “Morihiro Saito: Lost Seminars, Part 6,” we are offering a set of all six DVDs of this series for the incredible price of $149.95, a full 35% off the retail price. This set of DVDs contains literally hundreds of techniques explained in detail and demonstrated by Morihiro Saito Sensei, 9th dan, one of aikido’s most renowned instructors.

The finest in aikido instruction from Morihiro Saito, 9th dan!

We now have available yet another DVD featuring Aikido legend, Morihiro Saito Sensei, one of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba’s most skilled disciples. This outstanding DVD presents precious footage of Saito Sensei as he appeared in 1992 while conducting a seminar in San Diego, California. Like the preceeding five DVDs, this one is chock full of explanations and demonstrations from the vast repertoire of Iwama Aikido techniques.

Click here for promotional clip of new DVD!!

“Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook are the authors of two classic illustrated books that have never been out of print since their initial publications, and that are currently available worldwide in multiple foreign-language editions: Secrets of the Samurai and Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere. They are also the translators of Tacuinum Sanitatis: The Medieval Health Handbook.

They met at Columbia University, where Mr. Ratti was doing graduate work in Classical Languages and Literature and Ms. Westbrook was studying Philosophy.

“During the one-hour randori workouts at Shodokan, the following sequence of drills is typical. The person holding the knife is called the tanto (after the fact that a dagger in Japanese is called a tanto.) The unarmed person is referred to as the toshu (literally unarmed) player.”

Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.

Click here to read entire blog.

This new book (lulu.com 2008) is an interesting foray “outside the box” of conventional Aikido thinking. While Aikido is generally described as a defensive art, many from within and without have questioned its effectiveness in a realistic scenario. One reason for this is that the various attacks, and therefore the various defenses, contained in the typical Aikido syllabus are very limited in scope, especially if viewed from a realtime fighter’s perspective.