2024 Kansas City Bridge Seminar
This seminar took place at our new dojo in Olathe, KS on July 12–14. Aikijuku Dojo was honored to host Hiroshi Ikeda Sensei from Boulder Aikikai, Ryoichi Kinoshita Sensei from Aikido Suisenkan, Larry Graham Sensei from Kansas City Aikido School, Jim Alvarez Sensei from Aikido of Livermore, Ken Baker Hanshi from Midori Yama Budokai and others for this exquisite training opportunity.
2023 Kansas City Bridge Seminar
This seminar took place at our new dojo in Olathe, KS in July. Aikijuku Dojo was honored to partner with Hiroshi Ikeda Sensei from Boulder Aikikai, Ryoichi Kinoshita Sensei from Aikido Suisenkan, Larry Graham Sensei from Kansas City Aikido School, Daniel Messisco Sensei and others for the 2023 Kansas City Aikido Bridge Seminar. We hope to serve as a hub for training in the region and look forward to having more frequent seminars to get people together and raise the level of training for all of us. To view all photos from the seminar, click here.
2022 Kyoto Seminar in Japan
This seminar took place at the famous Butokuden in Kyoto in October of 2022. The historic Butokuden, Hall of Martial Virtues was built in Kyoto near Heian Shrine to carry out the legacy of ancient traditions which was started in eighth century capital of Kyoto. It is the location in which the His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, views martial arts demonstrations. The seminar featured Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan from the Boulder Aikikai, Boulder Colorado USA and Ryoichi Kinoshita Shihan from the Suisenkan Dojo in Osaka, Japan. Ikeda Shihan is world famous and travels extensively conducting Aikido seminars within the USA and Europe as well as other parts of the world. Kinoshita Shihan served on the instructional staff at Amenotakemusu Juku Aikido Dojo under Seiseki Abe Sensei for three decades and is the chief instructor at the Suisenkan Dojo in Osaka. The seminar also featured additional Aikikai instructors from Japan as well as other countries. We enjoyed training in Kyoto for what was a wonderful event in one of the most beautiful cities in Japan! Consider joining us next year.
AikiCamp 2022
AikiCamp 2022 was held August 1st-4th at our dojo. We opened the camp with fantastic lessons in Aikido and Taiko together with our first dips into Japanese culture. With our theme of “Build” this year, we worked to lay foundations of Aikido, compassion, and self discipline that will help in the coming year and throughout life. Through Aikido, our campers are learning self disciple and appreciation, and with our Taiko drumming courses, our campers are learning teamwork. Meanwhile, our first cultural courses allowed our campers to get their first grasp of Nihongo, the Japanese language through conversational language and calligraphy workshops. Our campers learned the basics of gunpla model crafting, pocky making, sashiko sewing and mending, and made their own stories to present to their fellow campers in the traditional Japanese style of kamishibai. We worked hard on building techniques throughout the week and forming ideas that both we and our campers will be building throughout their lives. We focused on mastering our teamwork and rhythm with taiko and learned about schools and also food in Japan.
2022 Kansas City Bridge Seminar
The seminar was held May 13th – 15th 2022 at Aikijuku Dojo, 10591 Widmer Ln, Lenexa KS, featuring Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan, Ryoichi Kinoshita Shihan, and more regional Guest Instructors.
Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan is founder and chief instructor of Boulder Aikikai. He began his study of aikido in 1968 at the aikido club of Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, of which Saotome Sensei was the chief instructor. Upon graduation, he trained regularly at Honbu Dojo and at Saotome Sensei’s Remeijuki Dojo. In 1978 he followed Saotome Sensei to the U.S. and in 1980 established Boulder Aikikai. Ikeda Shihan is world famous and travels extensively conducting Aikido seminars within the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world.
Ryoichi Kinoshita Shihan began Aikido training under Abe Seiseki Shihan in 1974. At age 24, he became a live-in student of Abe Shihan. From 1996 to present day, he has been director and head instructor of Suisenkan Aikido Dojo in Suita, Japan. He instructs full-time in Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. As a longtime student of Abe Sensei, calligraphy teacher of Osensei, Kinoshita Sensei studied calligraphy as well as Aikido with Abe Sensei for 30 years.