Monthly Archives: March 2014

Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 1

Yoshimitsu Yamada Kauai

Yoshimitsu 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 … Continue reading Interview with Aikido Shihan Yoshimitsu Yamada, Part 1 »

Finding Aiki – and Aikido – in Hawaii

1964 Aikido Hilo

  September 1964 Aikido Seminar at Andrews Gym in Hilo Hawaii Second Row: Meyer Goo, left, seated next to Sadao Yoshioka Front Row: Koichi Tohei, Yukiso Yamamoto, Gyokuei Matsuura, Yorio Wakatake Aikido arrived in Hawaii with Koichi Tohei in 1953, its first expansion to the United States after the war.  One of the students that Koichi Tohei attracted in his trips to the Hawaiian islands … Continue reading Finding Aiki – and Aikido – in Hawaii »