The 14th International Aikido Federation (IAF) Summit was held from September 30th to October 6th, 2024. It was the first physical edition since 2016 and thousand of Japanese and foreign practitioners, who had been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to practice together, gathered once more on the tatami.

Over the course of seven days, more than a thousand participants from all over the world met in Yoyogi’s National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in order to take part in the general assembly, the conferences, and the classes. This year’s event is also worth reporting because it constitutes an unprecedented move forward for the IAF, and for Aikido in general, in terms of diversity in representation.

I have assisted the IAF on media matters for close to a decade now, and I was once again involved this year in a number of roles, including providing assistance with setting up Internet capability during the General Assembly, shooting videos during classes and demonstrations, and conducting interviews with several teachers. This usually leaves little time for practice, but I made sure to attend a number of classes as a practitioner whenever I was able to, in order to get the real feel of the event while immersed in the flow of practitioners.

I watch intensely as Kimura Jiro Sensei performs his technique.

Practice was at the forefront of the IAF leaders’ preoccupations, and this year, the event was scheduled in a way that allowed participants to attend all the meetings and practice sessions, with no overlap in the various schedules. To this effect, the General Assembly was held on Monday and Tuesday, and the classes started from Wednesday.

The purpose of the general assembly is to report on the past four years of operations, outline the future activities, and on the second day, to elect the new directing comity. Those elections always constitute a highlight of the event, but this year, it felt even more important than usual since the IAF delegates from around the world elected a woman, Okamoto Yoko Shihan, as its chairperson, for the first time in the organization’s existence. This significant event is consistent with the overall goal set by the previous IAF Chairmen in terms of achieving a more balanced representation of Aikido across genders and geographical origins.

Okamoto Yoko Shihan practicing with Bruce Bookman Sensei during Micheline Tissier Shihan’s class

Having a woman achieve such a degree of seniority through her technical proficiency as an instructor, while also occupying a top leadership position through her role as newly-elected IAF Chairperson, is not only unprecedented in Aikido, it also serves as an inspiring example for sport as a whole. I feel that we can all take pride as Aikidoka to be part of such a movement. As for Okamoto Sensei as a person, her technical mastery, fluency in several languages, long experience abroad, and overall very affable personality, make her a model in many more ways than one for any aikidoka, regardless of gender. She embodies all those qualities on the tatami, and quite logically, her class was cited as a favourite by many attendees. They especially noted her relentless insistence on doing techniques precisely, from a strong centre, while maintaining the connection with the partner, but in a very friendly and open manner.

Gender balance was the topic of the first of the three forum held in the evenings during the week. Those discussions were initiated in Takasaki during the previosu summit, and workgroups were constituted in order to translate those ideas into concrete reality, with many initiatives subsequently taking shape in different countries. The second forum dealt specifically with the place of youths in Aikido, and the specific opportunities that were created for young practitioners and junior instructors. The last forum dealt with the topic of applying Aikido principles in business.

Ikigai forum on gender balance issues led by Ishikawa Satomi Sensei

In his welcome message, Aikido Doshu Ueshiba Moriteru Sensei referred to O Sensei’s words when he said, “Aikido will become a silver bridge connecting Japan and the world“. Doshu stated that he believes that this dream has become a reality since now, Aikido is being practised in 140 countries. The IAF has been an important part of this success, and it has grown from its founding membership of 18 countries to 88, as of this summit. In particular, there has been a notable increase in representation from Sub-Saharan Africa, with Kenya and the Republic of Congo joining the ranks of participating nations in addition to South Africa. This surge in African participation underscores the growing interest in Aikido across the continent, with also notable effort in the Arab world, which is a welcome step towards making Aikido a truly universal art.

Reporting on the development of Aikido in the Arab World during the General Assembly

After so many meetings, it was now time for practice and the first class was given on Wednesday morning. From that point on, the Yoyogi Athletic facilities would be constantly buzzing with life, until the final closure on Sunday. Up to five classes were held each day, given by instructors from Japan and abroad, including Hombu Dojo teachers. Attendees were thus able to take part in almost 20 hours of practice in total. This year, a new female instructor was added to the roster, Sugawara Mikiko Shihan from Iwate, who is a close student of Tada Hiroshi Shihan. She has a strong international experience, having lived and worked in Switzerland for a number of years and established a dojo there.

Sugawara Mikiko Sensei

The Thursday evening class was scheduled to be instructed by Kimura Jiro Shihan, the chairman of the Osaka Buikukai. I met Kimura Shihan over six years ago, when I went to Osaka to interview him. While the interview was fascinating, I particularly remember his classes, taking countless ukemi for him. During that first encounter, I was particularly intrigued by his use of the central axis of the body and “meguri” which involves short movements of focused action while rotating the wrists.

As I swiftly meet the ground, I feel fortunate to be once again receiving Kimura Shihan’s powerful technique

Practice during Kimura Sensei’s class had a fantastic intensity that I feel has somewhat diminished elsewhere, particularly since COVID. I made sure to train with his students, and I did take quite a bit of ukemi for Sensei. In spite of the years, his technique had lost none of its incisiveness and power, it was a joy to be sent flying, sometimes barely keeping control of my own falls. The one-hour class went in the blink of an eye, just like Kimura Shihan’s techniques.

After his class, Kimura Jiro Shihan’s class took the time to take picture with me and the members of the Osaka Buikukai

The following morning, I was greeted by Micheline Tissier Shihan, she was as smiling and affable as ever, even though she was about to start her class in front of an intimidatingly large number of people. She structured her lesson on and direct way to deal with shomenuchi attack. Micheline Tissier Sensei is known for the incisiveness of her technique, and even though this is a style with which I am quite familiar, it took me some time to adapt my ukemi, especially in contrast to the previous day’s class. This made me realize the importance of attending such seminars in order to keep one’s mind open and to avoid falling in the pitfall of overly stereotypical practice.

Micheline Tissier Shihan

This is actually the reason why I encouraged my own students from Yokohama AikiDojo to attend some of those classes. Although we are a fairly international club, with frequent visitors coming from different dojos in Japan and abroad, the summit was a great opportunity for them to challenge themselves, while also making new friends. Regardless of their level, all came back delighted from the experience, having attended very different classes according to their own interests and schedules.

Like in 2016 in Takasaki, I had also arranged to conduct a number of interviews. I started off with Patricia Hendricks Shihan from the USA, who is the highest ranked foreign student of Saito Morihiro Shihan. I was surprised by her friendliness and openness in terms of experimenting on new techniques and weapons sequences. We also spoke at length about our fondness for the late Stanley Pranin, who was her first teacher and who acted as my mentor when I started publishing on the subject of Aikido.

Interview with Patricia Hendricks Shihan in process of editing

I followed up with a discussion with Tony Smibert Shihan, who is a student of the late Sugano Seiichi Sensei, the leader of the Australia Aikikai, and a member of the senior council of the IAF. Smibert Sensei has a fascinating take on Aikido because he is also a world-renown painter who has exhibited artworks and published research internationally. We spoke about the relationship between Aikido and art, as well as the way Aikido might be headed in the coming years. During his class, he mentioned that one does not study Aikido to learn it, but rather, needs to learn its techniques first in order to spend the rest of one’s life developing those basics. He mentioned that he built similarly upon basics in his arts of watercolor, but added that in Aikido, we have the advantage of having an iemoto system, with the succession of Doshu, which ensures that we keep a strong base while exploring different directions.

Tony Smibet Shihan

My last interview was with Ulf Evenås Shihan from Sweden. Evenås Sensei was a long term student of Saito Sensei, whom he served as an uchi deshi in Iwama. As an interesting contrast with what Hendricks Sensei said, he stated that he did not want to change one iota of what he had received from his teacher, adding however that he would never be able to match his level of proficiency. During his class, he insisted on the connection between the sword movements and the taijutsu techniques, as well as the use of kokyu energy and the fact of becoming one single unit with uke during practice.

Evenås Shihan introducing shihonage technique using the ken

On Saturday, I attended the class of Christian Tissier Shihan. He and I go a long way, and the reading of his books as a child made me want to follow him in his footsteps and come to live in Japan. As fate would have it, he asked me to write the historical contents of his latest book, a massive volume that goes over his past, but also highlights some of his close students and friends, including the past and newly elected IAF Chairpersons, Wilko Vriesman Shihan and Okamoto Yoko Shihan.

Christian Tissier Shihan and I took our respective families to dinner before the summit to celebrate the publication of the book we worked on together.

His class was one of the busiest, no doubt due to his popularity, but also due to the fact that it took place on Saturday and that Japanese people were able to attend. Christian explained some of the fundamentals behind his practice, putting some emphasis on posture, connection, and contact, and then applying them into techniques. As always, he made sure to keep his practice accessible to all level practitioners, and the smiles on everyone’s faces after practice were a testimony to this effort towards accessibility. I got the chance to practice with a number of his students from France, some of whom I started Aikido with, and who are now renown instructors in their own right.

I take ukemi for Christian Tissier Shihan while he demonstrates the importance of maintaining ,and moving from, a central axis

The class that followed was taught by Hombu Dojo-cho, Ueshiba Mitsuteru. Having been in Japan for fifteen years, I have been fortunate to see him grow as a teacher and as a leader, and I keep being impressed by how he has been able to so flawlessly meet the many demands of his function as the next in line as head of Aikido. In addition to his technical expertise, his total dedication to Aikido is always an inspiration for me, in particular since we are the same age.

Taking ukemi for Hombu Dojo-cho Ueshiba Mitsuteru

After Dojo-cho’s class came the time of the demonstrations, with 48 delegations representing their respective countries. They displayed a wide range of styles, skills and levels that further highlighted the tremendous development of Aikido worldwide. As I was filming, I realized how much the general level had increased recently, with every single country being in a capacity to provide well crafted demonstrations, almost effortlessly. The last demonstrations were given by IAF Shihan Okamoto Yoko, Micheline Tissier, Ulf Evenås, Tony Smibert and Christian Tissier.

Getting the camera ready while the teams are being briefed by IAF Vice-Chairman Adam Manikowski before representing their countries

The following day, the entire community of attendees gathered one last time during Doshu’s class. Although the dojo was packed, Aikido is meant to be adaptable to one’s partner’s size and level, but also the space available, and thus practice in such circumstances was still intense and rewarding. Throughout the week, many different people from many different styles attended different classes, but today, all gathered around the basics set by Doshu. This reminded me of Smibert Shihan’s words about the iemoto system. Many other martial arts do without that familial connection to the founder of their art, but I think that it is a great benefit to aikido to be able to gather around the Ueshiba family, as it personifies the feeling that many attendees had throughout the week, which is to be part of a strong, extended family that goes beyond cultures, genders or nationalities.

Ueshiba Moriteru Doshu teaching in a packed dojo

We then made our way to the Keio Plaza Hotel for the farewell party. This was the final opportunity to mingle, network and more importantly, thank all our friends who had made the trip to Japan. Former Chairman Wilko Vriesman highlighted the tremendous success of the IAF in its recent efforts to connect with the various sports agencies worldwide, and the fact that it was now more representative than ever of the diversity of the Aikido community. He wished Okamoto Sensei the best and said that he would continue to support her and the IAF from his new position as member of the technical council appointed by Doshu.

All attendees after Doshu’s class on Sunday.

In the speech she gave in response, Okamoto Sensei explained that Budo is a lifetime path that had brought her a lot, and that she saw her election as an opportunity to give back to Aikido and its extended community. The event was concluded by a speech from Dojo-cho, who stated that the Aikikai would continue their joint effort toward the expansion of Aikido, with the support of the IAF. I was fortunate to see the IAF grow tremendously over the past few years, and I’m looking forward to how much more we can accomplish over the next four years, until our next meeting in Tanabe, the birthplace of the founder, in 2028.

The newly-elected IAF officials and technical council members being introduced at the farewell party

Many thanks to the staff and teachers of the Aikikai Foundation Aikido Hombu Dojo, and the IAF staff for their help throughout the week. Most pictures in this report were provided by, Tsuno Makoto (Aikikai Foundation), Yassine Afqir (IAF), and Mihaly Dobroka (Yokohama AikiDojo). Many thanks to previous Chairmen of the IAF, Peter Goldsbury, Kei Izawa, and Wilko Vriesman for their trust and support all these years.

About the author

Guillaume Erard

Guillaume Erard is an author and educator, permanent resident of Japan. He has been training for over ten years at the Aikikai Headquarters in Tokyo, where he received the 6th Dan from Aikido Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba. He studied with some of the world’s leading Aikido instructors, including several direct students of O Sensei, and has produced a number of well regarded video interviews with them. Guillaume now heads the Yokohama AikiDojo and he regularly travels back to Europe to give lectures and seminars. Guillaume also holds the title of 5th Dan in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu and serves as Deputy Secretary for International Affairs of the Shikoku Headquarters. He is passionate about science and education, and he holds a PhD in Molecular Biology. Guillaume’s work can be accessed through his website and on his YouTube channel.