How Times have Changed in Almost 70 years of UK Aikido

" No matter your pretence, you are what you are, nothing more. " Kenshiro Abbe Sensei.

I have studied at length with many high ranking Japanese teachers / Legends. Most memorable were Kenshiro Abbe - Mutsuro Nakazono - Kazuo Chiba . ( Tada - Kobayashi - Noro - K Williams -Ichimura - Tamura - Harada - Karate - T Otani - Kendo) Jei Nakazono.

I think back to a time when there were only five dan grades for Aikido in the whole of the UK, I was proud to be one of them.
I seriously never thought there would become a time when teachers would grade themselves or much more pathetic to be graded by their own students.
I can imagine when I was a child and all the kids in my class at school getting together to promote the teacher to `` Professor ` we would have got, and deserved a thrashing with the cane.

There are so many now calling themselves 7th or 8th dans and I believe some higher still. I have to ask the obvious question, do they really compare themselves to Kenshiro Abbe Sensei and Chiba Sensei to name a few ??
Site Admin: Henry Ellis

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Click here ->  British Aikido History Site  

The Amazon books ` Kenshiro Abbe Sensei ` - `British Aikido History` - The Founding of Jujitsu - Judo - Aikido in the UK` The books are written by Henry Ellis - Derek Eastman two of the last of the surviving direct students of Kenshiro Abbe from the 1950s. - Co-author Abdul Rashid. 

If you are interested in the factual history of British Traditional Aikido as documented by a direct student of  Kenshiro Abbe Sensei and Ken Williams Sensei from 1955. Please visit the British Aikido History site, take a look at the Amazon book " British Aikido History "  a great book with many photos of past and present teachers both British and Japanese. 

Read the recently resurfaced Mutsuro Nakazono letter from 1966. This letter was received by Ken Williams Sensei at a time of great upheaval in British Traditional Aikido, and the break up of the `British Aikido Council` BAC . This was just months before the arrival of TK Chiba Sensei. 


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