Hombu Dojo Structure

Hello all,
I've read the online discussions about Hombu dojo and how they have various instructors teaching. I've been to the home page and looked at the site.

What I find as unusual is that there are a lot of different instructors teaching. Does anyone know how that started? The history behind this? Is there any other dojo that has this structure?

Thanks,
Mark

Hmm, would you want to be the only instructor in a school with a couple of hundred students? Even a couple of dozen?

Also, this is a headquarters dojo and has many senior shihan available for instruction. The doshu has many other responsibilities as well as instruction.

Well... Mark didn't specify which ''Hombu Dojo"... as there are a number of them in Japan, but my comments will refer to the Aikikai Hombu Dojo.

I'm not sure about the history, but having trained there, I believe the different instructors represent different "lineages" in the Aikikai.

For example, Yasuno Sensei and Endo Sensei represent the Yamaguchi Sensei line. Masuda Sensei (the head instructor) was a direct student of O-Sensei, and he represents another lineage. Arikawa Sensei (before he passed away) was also a direct student of O-Sensei and represented another lineage. I think Osawa Hayato Sensei was influenced by his late father (the previous dojo cho) Osawa Kisaburo Sensei. Irie Sensei is a student of Tada Sensei.. and so on.. Thus, the Shihans teaching at Hombu Dojo collectively help to maintain some of the main styles in the Aikikai.

This is very different from other dojo organizations which are managed by one Sensei and where the other instructors propagate the particular Sensei's style.

Having said this, I am still curious about the lineages of the following Sensei:
1) Seki Shoji Sensei
2) Yokota Yoshiaki Sensei
3) Miyamoto Tsuruzo Sensei
4) Toriumi Koichi Sensei
5) Sugawara Shigeru Sensei
6) Kanazawa Takeshi Sensei
7) Kobayashi Yukimitsu Sensei

Would be grateful if somebody could enlighten me on this

All of the the above Shihans were uchideshi's of Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

Rommel Miel wrote: All of the the above Shihans were uchideshi's of Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

That's interesting. Thanks for the information.

This raises another question. I was told by a yudansha that things were getting standardized at Hombu Dojo, so there would be less of a particular 'style' as time went on... I wonder whether that's true.

p.s. When I say style, I'm referring to people like Endo Sensei, who seems to embody a 'no-strength' style.

Soon-Kian Phang wrote: That's interesting. Thanks for the information. This raises another question. I was told by a yudansha that things were getting standardized at Hombu Dojo, so there would be less of a particular 'style' as time went on... I wonder whether that's true. p.s. When I say style, I'm referring to people like Endo Sensei, who seems to embody a 'no-strength' style.

All Aikido should be "no strength"

Not 10 minutes ago I was reading a chapter in "The Art of Aikido" by Ueshiba Kisshomaru, one sentence says:-

"In Aikido, we never try to force a technique or overwhelm an opponent with physical strength"

It's something we should all embody.

rgds

Bryan

Rommel Miel wrote: All of the the above Shihans were uchideshi's of Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

That's certainly true, but on a technical level, Miyamoto Shihan has a very different style from Seki, Kanazawa, and the others who follow the Kisshomaru/Moriteru kind of movement. It appears to me that Miyamoto resembles Chiba Shihan in his movement.

Raul Rodrigo wrote: That's certainly true, but on a technical level, Miyamoto Shihan has a very different style from Seki, Kanazawa, and the others who follow the Kisshomaru/Moriteru kind of movement. It appears to me that Miyamoto resembles Chiba Shihan in his movement.

Thanks for the information... Actually I was interested in the technical lineage of the Senseis in the list. For example, Seki Sensei puts one hand on his hip. I've noticed a few yudansha at Hombu doing that as well. I'm wondering where this came from.

Soon-Kian Phang wrote: Thanks for the information... Actually I was interested in the technical lineage of the Senseis in the list. For example, Seki Sensei puts one hand on his hip. I've noticed a few yudansha at Hombu doing that as well. I'm wondering where this came from.

I've seen a few Japanese teachers do that, including most recently Koichi Shibata Shihan, a student of Shoji Nishio. It was explained to me by my then sensei this was a result of the use of the sword in kenjustsu and iaido, where the left hand holds the scabbard at the hip at the moment of the draw while the right hand does the cut. The hand on the hip has apparently been carried over into empty hand technique. I wouldn't know if Seki does this because of some influence from Nishio or from some other shihan.


best,


R

Raul Rodrigo wrote: I've seen a few Japanese teachers do that, including most recently Koichi Shibata Shihan, a student of Shoji Nishio. It was explained to me by my then sensei this was a result of the use of the sword in kenjustsu and iaido, where the left hand holds the scabbard at the hip at the moment of the draw while the right hand does the cut. The hand on the hip has apparently been carried over into empty hand technique. I wouldn't know if Seki does this because of some influence from Nishio or from some other shihan.

Thanks for clearing up that mystery.