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On Saturday May 28th, the 59th All Japan Aikido Demonstration returned to the legendary Nippon Budokan after a three-year hiatus due to the renovations undertaken ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the restrictions imposed in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The All Japan Aikido Demonstration is the largest event about Aikido. Before the pandemic, the event would regularly welcome over 10,000 visitors and throughout the day, display demonstrations by over 4,000 practitioners. 

It is hard to describe our excitement when Yamamoto Hiroshi Sensei, the executive director of the Kanagawa Aikido Federation told us that Yokohama AikiDojo had been selected to represent the federation at the Budokan. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the federation’s chairman, Takeda Yoshinobu Shihan, as well as Takeda Daiyu Sensei, and Yamamoto Sensei for their constant help and support of Yokohama AikiDojo. In spite of the relatively recent foundation of our dojo (October 2020), we have already collaborated on several occasions with the Takeda Dojo and the Kanagawa Aikido Federation and they have been particularly supportive in providing us opportunities to get the word out about our practice, such as during the Universal Budo Festival 2020.

Mihaly Dobroka and I made our way to Kudanshita on a beautiful Saturday morning. We always go early in order to get center seats to enjoy the demonstrations of the day. Being both long term practitioners of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, we also met many of our friends and teachers during this fantastic day.

Guillaume and Mihaly getting the best seats in the house!

We started to feel the pressure as the time of our demonstration approached. We made our way down the Budokan and through the corridors that we have come to know like the back of our hand due to our many years of attending the event. Then the time came to step on the mat. We felt the pressure of our teachers and Doshu watching us but it went very well and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Guillaume Erard and Mihaly Dobroka from Yokohama AikiDojo, demonstrating on behalf of the Kanagawa Aikido Federation

After the demonstration, we went back to our seats and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon watching incredible displays from the world’s greatest masters of the art. The highlights of the day were of course the incredibly dynamic demonstration by Tada Hiroshi Shihan who will turn 93 years old this year, and the final demonstration by Aikido Doshu Ueshiba Moriteru, the grandson of the founder of Aikido. As always, I brought my camera and filmed several of the demonstrations so that you guys can enjoy watching them.

Playlist of some of the videos I shot during the event.

After the event, I said goodbye to Mihaly and went to catch up with my good friends Wilko Vriesman Sensei and Kei Izawa Sensei, who are respectively Chairman and vice-Chairman of the International Aikido Federation. The three of us went to my favorite yakiniku restaurant in Yotsuya and we spent the evening talking about our upcoming projects and the future of Aikido.

Enjoying beer and yakiniku in Yotsuya with Kei Izawa Sensei and Wilko Vriesman.

It was truly a wonderful day and I hope that next year, we will be able to take some of our own students with us to what will be the 60th edition of the All Japan Aikido Demonstration!