Thank you very much to the many people that participated in Nagoya seminar.

Hitohira Saito Shihan was glad that the representatives of affiliated dojos and new students participated in it.

At present there are 38 affiliated (organizations) who are learning aikido all over the world and who are members of Dento Iwama Ryu Aikido, " Iwama Shinshin Aikishurenkai."

It is our wish to keep on spreading Aikido through Japan and throughout the world.

We are deeply grateful to the people who participated this seminar.

The Secretariat

From April 20th to the 22nd - 2012, Saito Jukucho will be teaching an international seminar in Spain. This will be Saito Sensei's first seminar in Spain and it will be in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is a very famous city for the apostle St. James is believed to be buried here. Since the 9th century that thousands of people go on pilgrimages to this city (the Way of St. James). The old part o the city is also considered an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Well worth the visit.

The group of Aikidoka from Santiago is led by José Veiga a long time student of Morihiro Saito Shihan and also of Hitohira Saito Shihan. This will definitely be a wonderful seminar and we believe that everybody should attend without fail.

Please refer to the Facebook event: I Seminario Internacional Aikido Dento Iwama Ryu
or check Santiago's page: Asociación Galega de Aikido Dentou Iwama Ryu
Come and join us! You will definitely enjoy this seminar taught by the world's top authority on traditional Aikido, Hitohira Saito Jukucho.

Hitohira Saito Jukucho taught a successful seminar in Bratislava, the capital and the main city of the Slovak Republic, located on the banks of the Danube River.
There were 13 countries that participated in this interesting seminar: Check Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom (England and Scotland).

According to Tittarelli Sensei, whom we thank for providing us with this information, this was a very interesting seminar. For taijutsu, Sensei taught kokyu nage, irimi nage, kote gaeshi, koshi nage, shiho nage, sumi otoshi, ikkyo kara rokyo made.
For bukiwaza, Sensei taught the Aikiken suburi, happo giri ( basic and also roku and shichi no suburi no katachi"..) and the kumi tachi. For Aikijo Sensei taught Jo suburi, the 13 no kata, 31 no kata, 31no jo awase, the kumi jo (1, 2, 3, 4-1, 4-2, 5, 6, 7, 8) and some interesting variations.
During this seminar there were two special keiko: one with "ninin dori, sannin dori and yonin dori" and the second with "ken tai jo" with many variations.

Indeed we can see that this was an extremely interesting seminar. The need to go to as many seminars as possible and learn directly from the ultimate and last source of traditional Aikido is here apparent. If we do not make an effort to participate in these seminars, we will not learn what Sensei has to teach. By this seminar we can clearly see that there is a world of information on Aikido inside Sensei to which no one has yet had full access. Please find some time to participate in as many seminars as possible from now on. You will not regret it!

During this seminar Stefan Kurilla Sensei, long time student of Morihiro Soke and Hitohira Jukucho, was promoted to Rokudan. Congratulations Kurilla Sensei! All the Slovakia Aikido is to be congratulated on this occasion!

• FEBRUARY 9~15 : Philippines
• MARCH 23~25 : Reno- USA
• APRIL 20~22 : Santiago de Compostela-Spain
• MAY 18~20 : Ivanov-Russia
• JUNE 22~24 : Pordenone, North Italy
• JULY 27~ : Philippines
• AUGUSTO ~6 : Philippines
• OCTOBER 4~6 : Sicily - South Italy
• OCTBOER 12~14 : Montevideo - Uruguay
• NOVEMBER 2~4 : Rennes -France

After 30 hours of traveling from Narita and stopping in Los Angeles and Lima-Peru, Sensei finally arrived in Santiago de Chile. From then on was a 15 minute flight across the Andes to the desert City of Mendoza. Upon arrival, Fabián Bochaca and Fernando Licciardi, long time collaborators of Ariel Perez in Mendoza - and the organizers of the seminar - were waiting together with José Silva, brother Mario Silva, Sergio Bengoa and Esteban Hamada.
From the airport Sensei went to stay at a thermal hotel just outside Mendoza. Next day was reserved for relaxing in this superb environment with water falls and natural hot water, in the middle of the first andes mountains.

This was the first time Saito Sensei ever set foot in Argentina. Sensei had already been in neighbor Chile but this was the furthest Sensei ever flew from Narita.
On friday, the tatami was already full of people who came from Buenos Aires, La Plata, Uruguay, several cities from Chile, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
During the seminar Sensei taught with great detail and patiently corrected all students one by one. Even though there were lots of beginners which naturally absorbed most of Sensei's attention, many yudansha were constantly corrected and so the general mood of the seminar was that everybody was really learning, not just practicing.

During the seminar Sensei was also very busy examining many students for shodan, for nidan and for sandan. Even though not all succeed to pass for their next level, it was a pleasure to see how everyone's spirit was so high and with a strong will to learn.
It was a great lesson that every one who watched the examinations learned from Sensei. It became clear that the requirements for passing an Iwama Shin Shin Aikishurenkai examination are very hard to fulfill.
All were very happy for the great amount of information that they got from watching Sensei grade, specially for there all people from shodan, nindan and sandan. In other words, we were all able to understand the requirements for each level.

The traditional seminar party was very entertaining for we had about 25 minutes of Argentinean folklore music and dance.

Next year we are counting on traveling again to south America, but this time to the city of Montevideo, Uruguay. Please come and join us for another seminar directed by Saito Shihan.

You can see some pictures of this event on the facebook of Aikido Iwama Mendoza

Saito Shihan arrived in Portugal on late at night on the 31 of August. At the airport there were about 20 people waiting to welcome Sensei. Outside it rained heavily but still these people waited until Sensei came out from the baggage claim. It is always a great pleasure when we Portuguese see our master Saito coming out of that door.
The following day Sensei was already in Santo André in a country house. In order to relax from the long trip, we took Sensei on a short sight seeing trip, around the country side.
The seminar started on the 2 of September, in the afternoon. To our surprise there were almost 100 people on the tatami waiting for Sensei.
However on saturday the number greatly increased and we had some difficulties training in doors so many training sessions were outside the dojo.
People came from Portugal, neighboring Spain, Italy, France, England, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Morocco, Chile and USA.
The seminar was absolutely spectacular as we had the chance to learn in utmost detail all the ken and jo suburi, and the sections of the 31 kata kumijo and 13 kata awase. Even the great numbers of beginners could easily follow Sensei's teachings.
On the special keiko, a training session reserved for higher learning, Sensei taught us several form of drawing the sword, according to Aiki principles. All the participants were delirious with this information which gave all of us new material to study and to think about.
At the party every body introduced themselves and José Veiga sang "Besa me Mucho" and Ivo Ricardo sang the famous "Sen no kaze ni natte". We were sad to see Sensei go so soon and all of us are now eagerly waiting for Sensei's next seminar in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, which will be programed by José Veiga.

At Portugal Aikishurendojo's facebook, you can see some of the pictures of this seminar.

From the 24th to the 26th of June, Hitohira Saito Jukucho was in Modena, land of the Ferrari in Italy, to teach a spectacular seminar.
More than 200 people participated, from 40 different countries. Famous teachers from all over the world were also present to learn from Hitohira Saito Jukucho.
This seminar was organized by Mr. Fabio Luppi and his students from Modena, who belong to Italy Iwama Shin Shin Aikishurenkai. Everybody is welcome to see the pictures of this fantastic seminar at http://www.aikidomodena.it/.
Sensei was hosted at Mr. Fabio Luppi's home where he could quietly rest with the company of the Luppi family and Mr. Alessandro Tittarelli from Ancona and Mr. Tristão da Cunha form Portugal.
All the participants trained with vigor and seriously despite the tremendous heat that was felt on these days.
On the free time Sensei and all the participants had the opportunity to visit Ferrari shops and museums as well as to taste the most famous Balsamic Vinegar from Modena in exquisite dishes.

Modena Aikido is deeply thankful to Sensei for coming from so far away to teach. Everybody enjoyed and learned a lot from this seminar.