It was yesterday when the Aikido Grading Tests took place at the Hombu Dojo, the last ones of this year, this is why it was so crowded. I think there were about 60 people in total, 30 of whom took the tests. During the test is not allowed to take pictures and/or video, so all the pictures that you will see in this article were took before the “battle” started.
No, I took no test… It was just curiosity what lead me to see how the ceremony is held. I got to the Hombu Dojo at 12h and the tests started at 13h. The lower grades first, so it started with the 5-kyu, and then 4-kyu… until the top, 4-dan.
The whole ceremony took about 3 hours and was interesting, however at the end was a bit “too much”. Three hours of seiza sitting made me think that it were the public who took the test and not the keikogi dressed people.
In this address is a table with all the techniques classified by grade: Aikikai Grading System
This is the street where the Hombu Dojo is, a 10 minute walk from my apartment:
Here is again, the facade of the Hombu Dojo, now under better light conditions
The entrance (I’m the guy reflected on the crystal)
The front door statement, which I think there is no need to explain as it is fully understandable…
Time for a quick post just to communicate you the honor that I had today at the Hombu Dojo of practising the whooooole lesson with the oldest Uchi Deshi in the dojo, a dutch called Gunter. Really good man, the truth is that today’s lesson was really entertaining. I’m sure I’ll meet him again there as he is a Uchi Deshi, a student of Aikido that lives in the Dojo (literally) and is always there to serve his Master.
I’m really sorry for these last posts talking only about Aikido, I promise that the next one will be about a different topic and I’ll include some pictures as well. I haven’t told you about my trip to Nikko past weekend.
Today it was my first lesson with the Doshu of Aikikai. Doshu is the name of the headmaster of the Dojo. If you remember the article I wrote some days ago about the Hombu Dojo (I think you don’t) or if you love Aikido and you think yourselves as Aikiholics, you’ll know that the current Doshu is Moriteru Ueshiba, this man:
Moriteru Ueshiba
It was an interesting lesson today, because of this man considered as a leyend in Aikido, like his predecessors: Kisshomaru Ueshiba y O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido. Another reason why today’s was an interesting lesson is that the mate I practiced with was an old woman (in her 60’s) whom… I must say, she kicked my ass! Not only followed my rythm but she made me sweat a lot. In my defense I must say she ended completely red of tiredness. However, it surprised me a lot was to see how fit people keep in the Dojo, specially old people that practices every day.
When I went out of the Dojo I saw a lot of people with cameras, which made me thought that there is no problem on taking pictures during the lessons (My japanese speaking skills are not well enought to ask it), so further on I’ll ask a friend to take some pictures during a lesson while I practice. I expect to have a new SLR Reflex Digital Camera as my compact one wouldn’t work well there as there are no good light and flashing people is not a good way of making friends.
Time to finish, I’d like to take this opportunity to say hello to all my Aikido-mates in Galicia even if they don’t read this blog in the English version… Hi guys!
For those of you who doesn’t know it, Hombu Dojo is the headquarters of Aikido in the world. At the Hombu Dojo are held the lessons from the direct descendents of the creator of this martial art, O-Sensei (Great Master) Morihei Ueshiba. Who currently owns the title of Doshu (”Master of the Way”) is Moriteru Ueshiba.
We can see him in action in this next video:
The truth is that this dojo is relatively hard to find as it is not located in a main street but in a residential alley. This is the address:
AIKIKAI FOUNDATION Aikido World Headquarters
17-18 Wakamatsu Cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0056 Japan
I didn’t realized of taking a picture of the street, but this is one of the front:
And this is a picture of the main gate closer:
These pictures have not the best quality as it was late and the camera performs really bad with so weak light. Other day I’ll try to take better ones. This is what I got there:
And this is the schedule for the classes I can take (except the ones for women):
I don’t know, I don’t know… there are so many lessons I don’t know which ones to choose! … That’s true, ALL OF THEM!
This is my super-carnet of super-aikidoka (hahahaha):
