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Every year in May, the Aikikai in Japan hosts the All Japan Aikido Demonstration at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The event brings together many of the top Shihan in Japan, as well as representatives from dojos all over Japan. My main dojo in Hamamatsu does not participate in the event, but I attended this year as a spectator, and to support my friend who was performing as an uke for Inagaki Shihan. Inagaki Shihan, if you don't remember was the teacher from Iwama I mentioned in my Shoshin article. Incidentally I missed Inagaki Shihan and my friend Enzo completely because I had gone to use the restroom just before they began, and returned just as they were bowing off the mat.
This year's demonstration was held on May 23rd. I awoke that sunny Saturday morning to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo with my friend Carl. There are two kinds of Shinkansen trains that stop in Hamamatsu. The Kodama, which is the slower of the two takes about two hours to get to Tokyo travelling at approximately 200 miles per hour. The Hikari, the faster train, takes about ninety minutes. We arrived in Tokyo just after 10:00 but by the time we navigated from Tokyo Central Station, to the Budokan and had something to eat at a nearby konbini(convenience store) the time was nearly 11:30. At that time spectators and performing Aikidoka were just arriving at the Budokan. When we arrived at the Budokan, we met up with the intructors and members of the Ibaraki Shibu dojo in Iwama, which Carl was a former member of at the time. Currently, as I write this posting he has returned to Iwama and now trains at that dojo again. I knew nearly everyone there from the Ibaraki Shibu Dojo, as I have spent around fifteen days training there over the course of multiple trips while in Japan. This was my first time seeing the Iwama dojo crowd since my one week stay in March.
After an hour of milling around, the event, which was televised by NHK television, finally started with a number of speeches. The speeches included contributions from Doshu, and a member of Japanese Parliament who once trained in Aikido under O Sensei. During the course of the semonstration there were stand out performances from many Shihan, which for me, included Horii sensei from Kobe, Wada Sensei from Nagoya(The current dojo cho of the dojo that Chiba Sensei started in Nagoya when he finished his term as a Hombu uchideshi), and a sensei from Osaka who's name I didn't catch. For the most part though, the event was dominated by group demonstrations where whole dojos performed together. These group demonstrations were a lot like watching a seminar from the side without participating...interesting but they just made me want to suit up and jump on the mat.
In total, the event included about four hours of Aikidido demonstrations with demonstrations by many dojos. The end of the event was reserved for the Hombu dojo, it's Shihan and Doshu. While the majority of the Shihan demonstrations seemed to last around one or two minutes the demonstrations from the higher ranked Hombu Shihan like Endo Shihan and Tada Shihan ran longer. The final slot was reserved for Doshu, whose demonstration ran longer than ten minutes and included a large variety of waza from suwariwaza, and hanmi handachi to Jo and Bokken taking.
The scene in the Budokan parking lot after the demonstration had concluded was really quite remarkable. As the mass of demonstrators and spectators seperated and each individual group piled onto their busses and opened celebratory beers, the sounds of numerous "Kampai!!"(cheers) could be heard throughout the lot. The feeling of a job well done was palpable. As the Ibaraki group began to pull away, one of the Sensei from the Ibaraki Shibu Dojo handed three beers down to myself, Carl and our friend Giles and called "Kampaii!!" If at all possible, I hope to participate in the event at least once before I leave Japan, but if not, I am just happy to have been a part of it in some small way.
Every year in May, the Aikikai in Japan hosts the All Japan Aikido Demonstration at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The event brings together many of the top Shihan in Japan, as well as representatives from dojos all over Japan. My main dojo in Hamamatsu does not participate in the event, but I attended this year as a spectator, and to support my friend who was performing as an uke for Inagaki Shihan. Inagaki Shihan, if you don't remember was the teacher from Iwama I mentioned in my Shoshin article. Incidentally I missed Inagaki Shihan and my friend Enzo completely because I had gone to use the restroom just before they began, and returned just as they were bowing off the mat.
This year's demonstration was held on May 23rd. I awoke that sunny Saturday morning to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo with my friend Carl. There are two kinds of Shinkansen trains that stop in Hamamatsu. The Kodama, which is the slower of the two takes about two hours to get to Tokyo travelling at approximately 200 miles per hour. The Hikari, the faster train, takes about ninety minutes. We arrived in Tokyo just after 10:00 but by the time we navigated from Tokyo Central Station, to the Budokan and had something to eat at a nearby konbini(convenience store) the time was nearly 11:30. At that time spectators and performing Aikidoka were just arriving at the Budokan. When we arrived at the Budokan, we met up with the intructors and members of the Ibaraki Shibu dojo in Iwama, which Carl was a former member of at the time. Currently, as I write this posting he has returned to Iwama and now trains at that dojo again. I knew nearly everyone there from the Ibaraki Shibu Dojo, as I have spent around fifteen days training there over the course of multiple trips while in Japan. This was my first time seeing the Iwama dojo crowd since my one week stay in March.
After an hour of milling around, the event, which was televised by NHK television, finally started with a number of speeches. The speeches included contributions from Doshu, and a member of Japanese Parliament who once trained in Aikido under O Sensei. During the course of the semonstration there were stand out performances from many Shihan, which for me, included Horii sensei from Kobe, Wada Sensei from Nagoya(The current dojo cho of the dojo that Chiba Sensei started in Nagoya when he finished his term as a Hombu uchideshi), and a sensei from Osaka who's name I didn't catch. For the most part though, the event was dominated by group demonstrations where whole dojos performed together. These group demonstrations were a lot like watching a seminar from the side without participating...interesting but they just made me want to suit up and jump on the mat.
In total, the event included about four hours of Aikidido demonstrations with demonstrations by many dojos. The end of the event was reserved for the Hombu dojo, it's Shihan and Doshu. While the majority of the Shihan demonstrations seemed to last around one or two minutes the demonstrations from the higher ranked Hombu Shihan like Endo Shihan and Tada Shihan ran longer. The final slot was reserved for Doshu, whose demonstration ran longer than ten minutes and included a large variety of waza from suwariwaza, and hanmi handachi to Jo and Bokken taking.
The scene in the Budokan parking lot after the demonstration had concluded was really quite remarkable. As the mass of demonstrators and spectators seperated and each individual group piled onto their busses and opened celebratory beers, the sounds of numerous "Kampai!!"(cheers) could be heard throughout the lot. The feeling of a job well done was palpable. As the Ibaraki group began to pull away, one of the Sensei from the Ibaraki Shibu Dojo handed three beers down to myself, Carl and our friend Giles and called "Kampaii!!" If at all possible, I hope to participate in the event at least once before I leave Japan, but if not, I am just happy to have been a part of it in some small way.
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