Today's Aikido was established by Takeda's outstanding pupil, Great Master Morihei Ueshiba. He combined and developed the essence of techniques from various schools of Japanese martial arts. Great Master Morihei Ueshiba widely promoted the spread of Aikido after World War II. Today Aikido as Budo, its spirit and techniques, can be applied in our society.

Prologue in Total Aikido

My father, Gozo Shioda, spent roughly eight years (spanning 1932 to 1941) as a direct student of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido. As a young man he was initiated into the secrets of Aikido of everyday life At the first postwar Japanese Martial Arts Exposition ,sponsored by the Life Extension Society in 1954, he took the prize for Demonstration and, encouraged by the support of people from the financial and political world who wanted to see this outstanding aikido spread to a larger audience ,founded the Yoshinkan dojo.
Yoshinkan, originally named by my grandfather for his dojo, is also the name that my father gave to his style of martial arts, and means to cultivate mind and spirit. This name reflects his desire that through aikido, and the mental and spiritual training that goes with it, people will be better able to play a useful role in society.
Yoshinkan Aikido has become well-known throughout the world, and people of many nationalities are training. Every year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police sends ten of its members (each one at least third dan in kendo or judo) to spend one year as special students in the Yoshinkan Headquarters Dojo in Tokyo. Training in Yoshinkan aikido gives officers the chance to develop and extend their personal and professional skills, and enables them to become aikido instructors in the Women's Police School in Tokyo.
Having mastered the essence of aikido from Ueshiba ,my father ,Gozo Shioda ,demonstrated his aikido in front of the Crown Prince of Japan, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Princess Alexandra among others, and was highly praised by them and by many others who visited his Dojo.
In 1990, my father and I established the International Yoshinkan Aikido Federation (IYAF). This International Federation has become very successful in promoting the development of Yoshinkan Aikido in countries around the world.
My father died in 1994, but it is for the purpose of spreading his legacy- these wondrous techniques and spirit- within Japan and throughout the world that this book is being published. If through it even one of its readers will gain a greater understanding of aikido, I will be happy.

Yasuhisa Shioda , August 1995

Aikido

History