Still Mind Aikido — dojo

Comparing Aikido Styles in Westchester

Tokyo vs.
Iwama Aikido

Learn the differences between the aikido styles for the founder's two top students.

Tokyo
Aikido

In Tokyo, the founder trained people from Japan over long periods to go out into the world to spread aikido. In Iwama, Morihiro Saito Sensei drew students from other countries to be live-in students for shorter periods and sent them back out with support to continue their development. The training methods therefore needed to be different.

Aikido Founder & Son

aikido founder and son
Aikido Founder Trains his Son

Kisshomaru Ueshiba in private training with his father

Kisshomaru Ueshiba
Kisshomaru Ueshiba

After the founder's passing, Kisshomaru Ueshiba became the head of the Aikikai, the main organization for aikido worldwide.

Tokyo Aikido History

The aikido in the NY metropolitan area is primarily from the Tokyo dojo, the first dojo the Founder of Aikido started. In the mid-1940s, after World War II when martial arts were declared illegal in Japan, he left to start his second dojo in Iwama. His son Kisshomaru, a very good practitioner in his own right, took over the Tokyo dojo and the founder would visit once a month thereafter. Due to the environment, his son changed the training methods to largely focus on flowing techniques that were beautiful and good for one's health. The founder did not develop his weapons system until he moved to Iwama (a small town outside Tokyo), so none of the aikido masters from Tokyo were well studied in his weapons.

The founder's training method, and the one continued by his son was to demonstrate technique with scant explanation. It was up to the student to study the detail intensively in each class to figure out the secrets that made the techniques work. Each student developed according to their own diligence and capacity for perception. Study was challenging because the teacher would simply demonstrate according to the circumstance at the moment, continually changing techniques. The student had to try to understand the reason for the change. Students needed to train for long periods of time to develop a solid understanding, which was quite possible as the uchi-deshi (live-in students), were largely from Japan.

Aikido Classes in Westchester, NY: Availability

Westchester County is unique in the NY metropolitan area in that both Iwama Style Aikido and the Tokyo style are available. Typically a student will find one system resonates more with them than the other.

Iwama
Aikido

Morihiro Saito

Morihiro Saito Aikido Weapons
Morihiro Saito Aikido Weapons

Initially training weapon vs weapon ends with a successful strike or thrust in the kata; more advanced they integrate with empty hand technique and end with a throw.

Iwama Style

Morihiro Saito, who look over the founder's Iwama dojo, was trained by the founder exclusively, unlike the later uchi-deshi from Tokyo who learned more from his son. He explained many times that while there are many good aikido teachers where one can learn a great deal, due to his 23 years as a live-in student with the founder (the longest of any student), he was obligated to keep the founder's exact system alive, and so he was not free to change things. With his great depth of understanding, Saito Sensei broke down the techniques with step by step instructions. This approach was good for the foreigners who came to this small town for shorter and sometimes successive periods of study. Following this step by step approach to teaching, Saito Sensei was able to teach to a larger audience. The steps begin with basics under resistance from a static position. He then moves on to blending, and then full flowing techniques after a strong foundation in basics is built. The founder was known not to teach flowing technique, as used in the Tokyo style from the beginning, until the student became a 3rd degree black belt. A strong foundation in basics was essential. Saito Sensei also is the only aikido master who learned the complete weapons system of the founder and broke it into steps to study as well.

The training methods and focus in weapons are very different between the Tokyo and Iwama systems. As a result, a student will typically have a stronger affinity for on system over the other.

FAQ

How is Tokyo (Aikikai) Aikido different from Iwama Aikido?

The Founder of Aikido left Koichi Tohei in charge of his Tokyo dojo when he retired to Iwama. He eliminated the kata system of learning, focusing on repeated training in motion akin to sports, and he never learned the founder's weapons system as it was developed in Iwama. Meanwhile, Iwama style retained the founder's exact training methods with heavy emphasis on basics in static form to ensure the techniques worked under pressure, and include his weapons system as well. The full article above explores these differences in greater depth.

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