History UsefulNotes / Aikido

* '''Seidokan''': a school founded by Roderick Kobayashi, another student of Koichi Tohei. His father was instrumental in helping to bring Tohei to Hawaii in order to introduce aikido to the United States in 1953 and started training in Hawaii under some of Tohei' students before coming to Japan to train directly under Tohei and eventually was promoted to being one of only two foreign members of the instruction staff at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo before following Tohei in establishing Ki Society. He himself left Ki Society in 1981 to establish his own school, which like Tohei's school also emphasises ki development but claimes to have a balanced practice of principle and techniques. Not to be confused with karate styles like Okinawa Seidokan or Seidokaikan karate.

* '''Real Aikido''': a style developed by Ljubomir Vračarević, a self-defence instructor from Serbia who was a black in judo, jujutsu, Aikikai and Yoshinkan aikido. It is a mixture of aikido, judo and jujutsu techniques with some modifications and includes self-defense against strikes also includes evasion and some blocking techniques as well as defense against weapons such as knife, pistol, etc. The curriculum itself is mainly based on a general aikido curriculum, with a kyu/dan system of grading. It was created for mostly for training high-profile security and bodyguards, though it was included in elementary school curriculum in Serbia as an elective subject since 2005. It is also considered the first and the only internationally recognised Serbian martial art and is also the one of the main arts that form Odbrana, a self defense, tactical and hand to hand combat system created by Vladimir Djordjevic, who himself is a Real Aikido black belt.

* '''Shudokan''': a school founded by Thamby Rajah, a Malaysian who trained under Gozo Shioda and was the first recognized black belt of aikido from Malaysia. The school's name of Shudokan was given to Thamby Rajah by Gozo Shioda. It sometimes has been misconstrued as a separate style from Yoshinkan, referred to as the "soft" version when compared to the "hard" Yoshinkan. In truth, Thamby Rajah's style is fundamentally the same as Yoshinkan, but is more reflective of the early days of Gozo's style and is also influenced by Rajah's extensive experience in Judo at the Kodokan (he trained under Haruyoshi Ichijima and Kyuzo Mifune, becoming the first Malaysian to attain the rank of Shodan in Judo), and his earlier Jujutsu training under Walter De Silva in Malaysia during the post war years.

* '''Fugakukai''': a school founded by Karl Geis, Tsunako Miyake, Takeshi Inoue, Hiroaki "Riki" Kogure, and Yoji Kondo (also known as Eric Kotani), all of whom were students of Kenji Tomiki. Under the official style name of '''Kihara''' (though since Geis' passing it has also been referred to as '''Karl Geis Ryu'''), it is an Americanized version of Tomiki's style of aikido, mostly through Geis and his students from his dojo in Houston Texas. Geis found his students to be typically older than Tomiki's university students and were generally uninterested in Shodokan's shiai (competition) aspect, even as a training tool, which led it to be dropped from its curriculum. Also the tanto randori of the Shodokan was dropped and toshu (empty hand) randori developed into the primary randori method. As Geis' students became more experienced with the new randori system, their randori experiences began informing their practice of kata, leading to greater differences between the kata practiced in Fugakukai and Shodokan. In addition to aikido, the school also teaches judo (reminiscent of the version practiced in the 1950s in the Kodokan or so it claims), and Shindo Muso-ryu jōdō. Several different schools have formed by students from the Fugakukai, though despite separating that they basically keep using its curriculum, the largest schools include the Jiyushinkai (founded by Chuck E. Clark and Steve Duncan, also known as Jiyushinkai Aikibudo), the International Aikido Alliance, the American Tomiki Aikido Association, the Zantoppakai (formerly the Zantotsukai), and the Kaze Uta Budokai (founded by Nick Lowry).

* '''Real Aikido''': a style developed by Ljubomir Vračarević, a self-defence instructor from Serbia. It is a mixture of aikido, judo and jujutsu techniques with some modifications and includes self-defense against strikes also includes evasion and some blocking techniques as well as defense against weapons such as knife, pistol, etc. The curriculum itself is mainly based on a general aikido curriculum, with a kyu/dan system of grading. It was created for mostly for training high-profile security and bodyguards, though it was included in elementary school curriculum in Serbia as an elective subject since 2005. It is also considered the first and the only internationally recognised Serbian martial art and is also the one of the main arts that form Odbrana, a self defense, tactical and hand to hand combat system created by Vladimir Djordjevic, who himself is a Real Aikido black belt.

* '''Fugakukai''': a school founded by Karl Geis, Tsunako Miyake, Takeshi Inoue, Hiroaki "Riki" Kogure, and Yoji Kondo (also known as Eric Kotani), all of whom were students of Kenji Tomiki. Under the official style name of '''Kihara''' (though since Geis' passing it has also been referred to as '''Karl Geis Ryu'''), it is an Americanized version of Tomiki's style of aikido, mostly through Geis and his students from his dojo in Houston Texas. Geis found his students to be typically older than Tomiki's university students and were generally uninterested in Shodokan's shiai (competition) aspect, even as a training tool, which led it to be dropped from its curriculum. Also the tanto randori of the Shodokan was dropped and toshu (empty hand) randori developed into the primary randori method. As Geis' students became more experienced with the new randori system, their randori experiences began informing their practice of kata, leading to greater differences between the kata practiced in Fugakukai and Shodokan. In addition to aikido, the school also teaches judo (reminiscent of the version practiced in the 1950s in the Kodokan or so it claims), and Shindo Muso-ryu jōdō. Several different schools have formed by students from the Fugakukai, though despite separating that they basically keep using its curriculum, the largest schools include the Jiyushinkai, the International Aikido Alliance, the American Tomiki Aikido Association, the Zantoppakai (formerly the Zantotsukai), and the Kaze Uta Budokai.

* '''Fugakukai''': a school founded by Karl Geis, Tsunako Miyake, Takeshi Inoue, Hiroaki "Riki" Kogure, and Yoji Kondo (also known as Eric Kotani), all of whom were students of Kenji Tomiki. Under the official style name of '''Kihara''' (though since Geis' passing it has also been referred to as '''Karl Geis Ryu'''), it is an evolution of Tomiki's style of aikido, mostly through Geis and his students in Houston Texas. Geis found his students to be typically older than Tomiki's university students and were generally uninterested in Shodokan's shiai (competition) aspect, even as a training tool, which led it to be dropped from its curriculum. Also the tanto randori of the Shodokan was dropped and toshu (empty hand) randori developed into the primary randori method. As Geis' students became more experienced with the new randori system, their randori experiences began informing their practice of kata, leading to greater differences between the kata practiced in Fugakukai and Shodokan. In addition to aikido, the school also teaches judo (reminiscent of the version practiced in the 1950s in the Kodokan or so it claims), and Shindo Muso-ryu jōdō.

* '''Keijutsukai Kokusai Renmei''': a school founded by Thomas H. Makiyama, who brought Yoshinkan to the US. As an offshoot of Yoshinkan it was created especially for police and security guards as aside from aikido, it also teaches "Keijutsu" which is a specialized method of defensive tactics for law enforcement personnel.
* '''Nippon Kan''': a school founded by Gaku Homma, a student of Ueshiba and Morihiro Saito. Established in Denver, Colorada, it focuses on combining kenjutsu (sword techniques) and jojutsu (staff techniques) with taijitsu (open hand techniques). Outside of the martial aspect, it is uniquely known for its commitment to community service in Denver with a monthly meal service and Homma also founded AHAN-the Aikido Humanitarian Active Network taking his concept of the principles of Aikido and community outreach to an international level.

* '''Kokikai''': a school founded by Shuji Maruyama, a student of Koichi Tohei. When Tohei left the Aikikai to found his own school, Maruyama followed him, but eventually separated in 1986 to found his own school. Like Tohei's school, it focuses on ki development above anything else, though unlike Tohei's school, there is apparently no set way of performing any technique as Maruyama is constantly developing his school's techniques.
* '''Seidokan''': a school founded by Roderick Kobayashi, another student of Koichi Tohei. His father was instrumental in helping to bring Tohei to Hawaii in order to introduce aikido to the United States in 1953 and started training in Hawaii under some of Tohei' students before coming to Japan to train directly under Tohei and eventually was promoted to being one of only two foreign members of the instruction staff at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo before following Tohei in establishing Ki Society. He himself left Ki Society in 1981 to establish his own school, which like Tohei's school also emphasises ki development but claimes to have a balanced practice of principle and techniques. Not to be confused with karate styles like Okinawa Seidokan or Seidokaikan karate.
* '''Yuishinkai''': a school founded by Koretoshi Maruyama (no relation to Shuji Maruyama), a student of both Morihei Ueshiba and Koichi Tohei. An active youth, he was former judo black belt, boxer, weightlifter, and even trained to be a pro wrestler at Wrestling/{{Rikidozan}}'s school before he discovered aikido in his university years. He earned his 6th Dan under Ueshiba before he left with Tohei to form Ki Society where he became a chief instructor and 8th dan under Tohei and even became President of the Ki Society in 1990 before leaving a year later due to his reservations about the direction and policies of the school. He then entered a temple in Saitama Prefecture, where he remained for a period of ten years, during which he founded his own school and eventually left the temple in 2001 to focus on his school. Like Ki Society, his school emphasises the development of ki above all else, but his school's teachings are heavily influenced by Daito Ryu Aikijutsu and Shinkage-ryū sword style and he also added material from healing arts he studied, including Seitei under Haruchika Noguchi, Soutai and Reiki under Keizo Hashimoto and also the psychology of Zen under Shogen Munou.

* '''Tapondo''': a school founded in the Philippines by Ambrosio "Monching" J. Gavileno, one of the first Filipino black belts in aikido. He combined the Aikikai style with several Filipino martial arts, both armed and unarmed, first creating a weapons art called "Modified Arnis", second a "kickboxing" style called "Bokaido", then modified his aikido training into a more combative form for street fighting, which he dubbed '''Combat Aikido''' and finally placed all of his created arts under the name Tapondo and dubbed it the "Filipino Martial Arts for Peace".

* '''Wadokai''': a school founded by Roy Yukio Suenaka, son of a Japanese Hawaiian practitioner of jujitsu and kenjitsu and later learned judo and kendo before training under Ueshiba. Also known as '''Suenaka-ha Tetsugaku-ho''', it aims for the unification of the martial and spiritual elements of aikido into what he considered "Complete Aikido".

* '''Yoseikan''': it was founded by Minoru Mochizuki, a judoka with experience in several martial arts who was sent to study aikido with Ueshiba. His background can be noted in the style of aikido he went to teach, as Mochizuki mixed it with techniques from judo and karate, and eventually decided to officially fuse all the arts he knew in a single style named '''Yoseikan Budo''', which some still consider basically aikido because it composes its core art. Some of his masters have reverted to a more traditional aikido, but they still often train in a judo-esque manner.

* '''Iwama-ryu''': it was founded by Morihiro Saito after Ueshiba's death, claiming to be closer to what Ueshiba actually taught that what other apprentices were teaching. As you can guess, this was a divisive move, with plenty of aikidoka calling them reactionaries and heretics. Iwama-ryu is more a movement than an organization, as aside from its main body, there are several masters and dojos from other aikido styles that follow it. Style-wise, they give a lot of emphasis to weapons. It is also referred to as '''Takemusu''' or '''Dentō''' ('''Traditional''') by practitioners and '''Saito-style''' by outsiders.

* '''Manseikan''': a school founded by Kanshū Sunadomari, a uchideshi of Morihei Ueshiba along with his elder brother and sister. It emphasizes kokyu ryoku (breath power) and is also known for having practitioners beginning their training sessions with a pledge that has been dubbed "The Spirit of Aikido". It also went by the name '''Aiki Manseido''' from 1999 to 2008.

* '''Shodokan''': an oddity between the Ueshida-direct descended styles in which it ''has'' a form of competition. It was created by former judoka Kenji Tomiki (so the art is often called '''Tomiki Aikido''') as a modernization of the art, and was naturally controversial among aikidokas from the very start, but it managed to become official and accepted as well. Shodokan matches are structurally one-way but fully competitive: an aikidoka tries to execute a technique while his opponent tries to resist or counter it with another technique, and they switch places at the next round.