Budo Bums in Adelaide, May 2007

Recently the Andrew Sunter, Sydney Aikido Yuishinkai and Danny, Griffith Aikido, Brisbanegot together with thie sempai John Ward, Adelaide Aikido Yuishinkai to attend a seminar by Minoru Oshima Sensei. Arriving late on Friday night we

 were greeted by strange stuff falling from the sky, we later learned this was water - something of a rarity in Brisbane and many eastern cities at the moment.

Oshima sensei began his aikido with Tohei Sensei and established the Kenshinkan dojo in Osaka for the Ki Society in the early 1970s. He then joined Maruyama sensei in promoting aikido in Hawaii and continental USA. He established Kodokai Aikido in 1980. We were later to learn that he was involved with John Denver's "windstar" project for many years. Today he has established Kodokai aikido. he seminar itself showed clear links to Ki style aikido which Oshima Sensei has developed and personalised. One of sensei's big focuses was on stretching rather than twisting the body which we were able to experience through waza and aikido technique. 

The Aikido scene in Adelaide is a great example of what 'Aikido without Boundaries' can be. We are still uncertain about who actually hosted the seminar, it was such a group effort. It was put together primarily by Joe Pellin with assistance from John Ward. Training was held in the Adelaide Aikido-ka dojo of Gianni Zandel Sensei. 

Joe Pellin was able to arrange the seminar through his long-time friendship with Yoshitake Hashimoto Sensei, a high school English teacher and the Kodokai Aikdo representative in Mie Prefecture. Joe and Yoshi-sensei met when Yoshi-sensei travelled to Adelaide as an exchange English teacher. The event was well supported by theAdelaide Aikikai UK, and Aikido Kenkyukai as well. With so many different lineages on the mat one might be tempted to think trainign could be come a little complicated, but very rarely have we felt at home and welcomed with such a fantastic co-operative training atmosphere as provide at this seminar. See Oshima Sensei in action, uke Patrick Crogan Sensei .