News

On Saturday 11th of May, our dojo held a very special event in order to celebrate some recent milestones, with a special class and an evening social.

With the end of the academic year soon approaching came the last session of our Elementary School Aikido Class. In order to celebrate all the learning and personal growth that the students went through during those many weeks of dedicated training, we hosted our yearly examination session.

On Saturday, 13th of April, Yokohama AikiDojo held its yearly kids class kyu grade examinations and we are delighted to announce that every of the sixteen children passed their test!

Christian Tissier Shihan is arguably the most senior and the most well-known non-Japanese aikidoka in activity today. Since returning from his apprenticeship in Japan, he has authored many technical books about aikido. 

The eleventh edition of the yearly Kanagawa Prefecture Aikido Federation Seminar took place on Sunday, February 25th, at the Kamakura Budokan. This year, it was placed under the direction of Irie Yoshinobu Shihan, an instructor of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo.

This year’s Kagamibiraki ceremony took place at the Aikido Hombu Dojo in Shinjuku on Sunday, January 14th, 2024. This was the first fully public occurrence of the event since the COVID19 pandemic started.

Even though we were nearing the end of the year, many volunteers from various dojos participated in the winter edition of the Aikido Kanagawa Federation Joint Training Session, an event that gathers practitioners from across the Kanagawa Prefecture and beyond.

As we ushered in the winter break, Yokohama AikiDojo marked its third year of existence with the annual Bonenkai celebration on Saturday, December 16th, 2023. Once again, Saint Maur International School generously provided the Cougar Café, a spacious venue located just above our regular practice room.

We hope that everyone is getting excited about the coming Winter Season. We certainly are! We will be going on break so make sure to note the following dates in your calendar.

We reported previously about the first edition of the Aikido & Japanese Budo Festival (合気道と日本武道文化祭・夏) that was held in August 2021. While Guillaume was not able to participate due to his seminars in Europe last year, he was back on the roster this year and a group of Yokohama AikiDojo members went to Adachi-ku to support him.

The 19th Kanagawa Prefecture Aikido Demonstration was held on Saturday, July 29th, 2023 and because of renovation works held at the Kanagawa Prefecture Budokan, which is the usual location of the event, it was hosted this year at the Yokohama Budokan, very close to our dojo.

The summer is always a busy time for Yokohama AikiDojo instructors because on top of keeping the dojo open through the hottest days of the year, they are also in quite a high demand to teach summer seminars abroad.