Several dojos participated in this important event, such as the dojos from Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and several others from very far away.
Also present at this ceremony, there were more than 30 practitioners and important masters - both uchideshi and sotodeshi - from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Venezuela. In all it was a very happy lively meeting of friends from all over.

ISSASKI 2013 Seminar Review
The Indonesian Shin Shin Aiki Shurenkai 2013 Seminar marks a major milestone in Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shurenkai development in Indonesia.
The event which took place in Alam Sutra Sports Center, Tangerang - West Java (February 2nd to 3rd) act both as the first seminar conducted by Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shurenkai Indonesia and Saito Sensei's first seminar in Indonesia.

HOW WAS IT& HOW MANY PEOPLE?

According to our record, a staggering number of 110 active participants during the two-day open Koushukai have been achieved. It was an unforgettable moment where aikidoka(s) from various region all-around Indonesia and other neighboring countries gather on the training mat to learn directly from Hitohira Saito Soke.

TECHNIQUES THAT SENSEI TAUGHT (1st Seminar Day)
Saito Sensei spent the 1st day of seminar teaching us the basics of Aikido, such as attitude towards trainings, how to put our heart toward training, kamae, Tai no henko, Morotetori kokyunage, and morotetori kokyu nage henka, katatori kokyunage, katate tori shihonage, katate tori shihonage henka.

TECHNIQUES THAT SENSEI TAUGHT (2ndSeminar Day)
The 2nd seminar day initially started again with a review of the basic lessons taught from the 1st seminar day. However, the overall 2nd seminar day was spent mostly in teaching the basics of BukiWaza, such as Ken & Jo Suburi.

The key message as communicated by Saito Sensei during the 2 days seminar was to always be aware of the relationship between TachiWaza and BukiWaza.
Everyone is impressed how Saito sensei sincerely tought us with details, like a diamond, perfections is in details.
Arigatou Sensei, Honto ni Arigatou!
Ferial Lukman, Erick S. Lauw, David Chrissandy
Administrator of Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shurenkai Indonesia FB Page.

The celebration party after the enbukai started at 11:00h and lasted until 17:00h. At the beginning of the party, Sensei also made a speech.

After the party, as it is tradition at the Iwama dojo, there was a second party at the Shin dojo and then a third party at Waka Sensei's restaurant, the Yamabiko.
The Kagami Biraki is one of the most important events of the year in Iwama and as such it was very nice to see some many people from so many and distant parts of Japan and of the world.

Congratulations to Sensei on this important event and congratulations to everybody who worked very hard such as Mrs. Saito and family, Okoshi sensei and of course all Iwama students and uchideshi.
We hope that next year the event will be even bigger with more participants.
Meanwhile, do not forget the Iwama Shin Shin Aikishurenkai annual demonstration this coming June. Please keep attention and reserve some time to participate in this important future event both attending the demonstration and participating in it.
Let us all go there!

Pictures from:
Facebook Busenkai

Facebook Eric Grousiliat

Facebook Lee Attey

Facebook Tittarelli

We would like to thank very much to the above gentlemen for permission to post some photographs about this event.

From the 2nd to the 4th of November, Hitohira Saito Kaicho was teaching a seminar in southeastern France, in Chartres de Bretagne. The place was quite with nice accommodations and good infrastructures that satisfied everyone. 
 There were many north European countries represented in this seminar : France, Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom... The southern part of Europe was less represented since Sensei had taught a bukiwaza seminar in Sicilia few weeks before that. But still, the tatami was filled with people and good will to train under Sensei's directions.

Also, we were lucky enough to have Charles Durand as a translator for the seminar, a French long time friend of Olivier, from of Yoyogi Uehara dojo in Tokyo. With his experience of the Japanese culture he could grasp all the subtle things sensei meant and made them clear for all the French speaker.


During this seminar sensei was eager to teach and explain many technics, from basic to more advanced ones like during a hanmi handachiwaza special keiko.

During the Bukiwaza keiko Sensei taught Aikiken suburi, happo giri (basic and also roku and shichi no suburi no katachi), go no awase and kumitachi with some interesting variations that ended up with sensei smiling and demonstrating a few henka we couldn't reproduce. For the Aikijo, sensei taught the suburis, 31 no jo alone and with a partner (complete) and some kumijos.

All along those bukiwaza keiko, sensei underlined the relation between the Iwama shin shin aiki shuren-kai logo, the square or the triangle to the forms of our aikido, showing us the importance of a good body structure that implies balance and stability.


The taijutsu keikos were oriented by the type of attack (ushiro waza, morotedori ) or the type of technique (kokyunage). Sensei showed us a wide variety of techniques and took time to explain each one several times if we needed him to as he went among us, correcting everyone.

During those classes, he made clear the importance of the kiai, saying that real training starts with the kiai. He also underlined the importance of the spiral in aikido, relating it to the movement of our blood inside of us or the stars around the earth.


The mood on the tatami was to exchange, many sempai were training with white belts from any level in a mutual will to improve. This is the spirit that we have to keep in these seminars where we have the opportunity to receive the teachings of Sensei in our own countries.


The seminar ended as usual with questions that sensei took time to answer as well as he could. We had the chance to hear about Morihiro Saito sensei's life after the war, both working in the railway company where he spent several way working in a row to be able to spend more time in the field and training with O sensei.
Sensei also told us about the power of kotodama in the kiai and the way it affects the partner, as an invitation to train or as something to stop him, making us able to act first. 


Once again this seminar was a great opportunity to recieve sensei's teaching in our home country around several subjects, from the basis to more advance forms, with all the indications we need to keep in mind every time we train. As sensei said during the seminar, we can only train a few times on each techniques during those short seminars, and he invited all of us to come to Iwama to train under his teaching for more.

Account by Victor Detrez
Organization by Olivier Eberhardt

On June 2nd the annual demonstration of the Foundation Iwama Shin Shin Aikishurenkai was held in Tomobe.
Last year, due to the damage that the location suffered because of the earthquake, the demonstration was canceled.
This year there was a large participation of both aikidoka and spectators. Several masters throughout Japan participated in this "Embukai" (demo) together with foreign teachers and practitioners.
Through our friends' Facebook in Japan we can see some pictures of the demonstration: from Osaka Aikishurendojo came the ever present loyal and polite master Kajiwara, from Sendai Aikishurendojo came Master Okubo, and from Uchihara Iwama Shin Shin Aikijuku Fuzoku dojo - Doshinkan, the master Okoshi - one of the most important of the Foundation, also demonstrated.

Also participating were the joyful Teruo Sensei of Oota, Otaka Sensei from the Uehara Aikishurendojo, Sensei Sembokuya from Tokyo (the official webmaster and editor of books Sensei) was also there, the sincere Takamo Sensei from the Shibu dojo in Nagoya, and several other masters and Japanese participants such as the cheerful Kumazawa-san and the friendly and kind ladies Saito, Narita and Nahoko, amongst others.

On the part of foreigner aikidoka, we saw the participation of several sotodeshi foreigners living in Iwama and in Tokyo, as well as uchideshi from different countries. Amongst them were the kind Attey Lee, who gave us many of the photographs; the very strong Wayne, soto deshi and one of the senior students training daily at the Tanrenkan, Charles Durand, a French national residing for years in Tokyo; the uchideshi Jose Silva, an Uruguayan but now is the heading the dojo in Sao Paulo; William Doublet who is a Frenchman that has been some months as uchideshi and others.
Of course, all the Saito family was present and, as usual, enthusiastically participating in this event. Everyone really liked this enbukai as we see through the videos and photographs posted in the net.

After the enbukai there was a party to celebrate this event attended by many of the Aikidoka from Iwama and from outside.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated in this important annual event.
Thank you very much to the organizers of this event. We know it is a lot of work. We also thank all the volunteers who gave their free time to come and help for the production of this event.
Everyone, please try to participate again next year in June!

PS: Please visit Facebook for more pics.

We would like to thank Lee Attey, Johan Brooks and William Doublet for access to their photographs.

On the 18, 19 and May 20, a seminar was held commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Aikido Dojo of Ivanovo. The training taught by Hitohira Saito Soke, was well attended by 130 practitioners from 33 different dojos in Russia. Many practitioners did 4000 km and 6000 km to get to this seminar and to celebrate this occasion. From abroad also attended Shihan Alessandro Tittarelli from Italy and Mehmet Dogu shihan (with 4 more students), from Turkey. Our Soke arrived on Thursday afternoon by plane, an improvement of the 7 hours drive from Moscow which happened in the previous years.

On the morning of Friday Sensei and his entourage enjoyed a special massage and a spa bath. In afternoon they all visited the food market of the city and began training at 17:00.

There were 8 normal keikos and 2 special keiko. For the taijutsu practice sensei taught different techniques of morote dori, shomenuchi, and yokomenuchi ushiro waza. There were also practices of tankendori and tachidori.

For the practice of bukiwaza there were many outdoor workouts because the weather was fine. Suburi the aiki ken, ken awase and happogiri were practiced on this occasion. Saito Senei also taught the Aikijo suburi, the 31 kata and kumijo (only the first 3 for lack of time). In the first special keiko sensei taught kumitachi and kumitachi in henka. In the second special keiko Sensei taught the Kentaijo and the kentaijo no henka.

On Saturday afternoon, Sergey Botov organized a party to celebrate the visit of Sensei and the 20th anniversary of Ivanovo Aikido Club. The party started at 16:00 and ended at 22:00 and Sensei remained during the entire party. Sensei went to Moscow where he still had time to visit great food market, the "Belaya Dacha."

Congratulations to the Takemusu Aiki Dento Iwama Ryu Ivanovo practitioners and especially to their Sensei Sergey Botov!

Iwama Shinshin-aiki Shurenkai Aikido international demonstration 2012

Thank you so much for supporting and cooperating with Non profit Organization Iwama Shinshin-Aiki Shurenkai.

We planed 4th Aikido international demonstration last year, but cancelled it because of the Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami. Our plan for the 4th Demonstration this year is as follows.

We are looking forward to lots of people coming to our demonstration.

Date :June/2/2012 Saturday from 12:30 to 16:00
Place:The municipal public hall of Kasama city
http://www.city.kasama.lg.jp/life_guide/kou_shisetsu/map/index.html
Sponsor:Non Profit Organization Iwama Shinshin-Aiki Shurenkai

Admission free

Map

An article posted on the Wikihow How to Enter an Iwama Ryu Dojo explains in a simple way the steps to enter an Iwama Ryu dojo. This article is accompanied by some photographs of Dento Iwama Ryu and finishes by advising the practitioner to become an uchideshi of Saito Sensei in Iwama. Really, without this last step, to understand Aikido is a bit difficult. The experience of living, training and learning with the master in his own house is extremely enriching and important.
In this web site please refer to the above section "Information" to find out more on how to become an uchideshi here in Iwama, under Saito Shihan.