Resources
Training materials, examination guidelines, application forms, and other digital resources are available here for download.
Forms
The papers you sign onceDetails, activity and fee. Hand it in signed at the dojo or by email.
FormES CA EN JA
To appear in the dojo's photographs and videos. Withdrawable at any time.
FormES CA EN JA
Signed by a parent or guardian. Required under the age of 14.
FormES CA
Only if you choose to pay the fee by bank transfer.
FormES CA
Grading programme
From 5th to 1st kyūThe first one. Ikkyo to yonkyo in suwari waza, six standing attacks and the first four suburi.
On the site18 techniques · 8 attacks
Ushiro ryote-dori arrives, irimi-nage in suwari waza, and the bokken goes up to six suburi.
On the site26 techniques · 9 attacks
The kokyu-nage arrive, the jō starts asking for uchiotoshi, and randori begins from futari-dori.
On the site36 techniques · 9 attacks
Gokyo, koshi-nage and juji-nage appear, and randori goes up to three people.
On the site47 techniques · 11 attacks
The programme is recut and widened: hiji-kime-osae and gokyo across every attack, ju-waza and the jō sansho.
On the site74 techniques · 15 attacks
The five lists as one. Each technique appears once, in the colour of the grade where it is first asked for.
On the site112 techniques · 5 grades
Practice videos
Exercises, ukemi and recorded classesThe whole warm-up, in the order it is done in class.
VideoJASource: Aikido Sanshinkai
Exercises for standing on one foot and finding your centre. Done alone and in very little room.
VideoJASource: Aikido Sanshinkai
The backward fall in stages: from sitting, from a squat and standing.
VideoJASource: Aikido Sanshinkai
The forward roll: the hardest one at the start and the one you use most.
VideoJASource: Aikido Sanshinkai
Exercises for keeping the body and the habit when there is nobody to practise with.
VideoENSource: International Aikido Federation
A year at Aikido Kyoto from the inside: what was dropped, what was changed and what was kept.
VideoENSource: International Aikido Federation
A full class from June 2020, with Lisi Baldwin as uke. It can be followed start to finish.
VideoENSource: International Aikido Federation
Weapons
Jō, bokken and tantōThe 36 numbered techniques in three columns — kesa, tsuki, shōmen — with the kanji and the starting hand position.
PDFESSource: Birankai
Footwork, postures, suburi, kiri-otoshi and kiri-gaeshi, the five kumi-tachi and ki-musubi-no-tachi.
PDFESSource: Birankai
Handling, attacks, the 36 techniques, kumi-jō and kumi-gata with the sanshō, jō-waza and jō-dori.
PDFESSource: Birankai
The eight cuts one after another in a single take. For going over the order before a grading.
VideoSource: Aikido Zanshin Dojo
Each suburi on its own, plus two full run-throughs. Twelve videos, so the one giving you trouble is not buried inside another.
Video12 videosSource: Aikido Zanshin Dojo
Three videos to start from: the jō in two parts and the sword in one. It explains where the forms in the guides above come from.
VideoEN3 videosSource: Julian Frost
Etiquette and rules
How the mat worksThe founder's six rules as posted at Hombu Dojo, with the second Dōshu's commentary.
On the siteSource: Ueshiba, Aikido, 1974
The place, belonging, and the people: how this house runs and what it expects.
On the site
What the technique is for, how to look after your partner, and how to learn.
On the site
The order of a class, door to door. For your first fortnight.
On the site
Reading
Books and study materialThe 1938 manual, with photographs of Ō-Sensei himself.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The founder's spiritual teachings, collected by his son.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The founder's son on what is inherited and what is changed.
BookENBuy from Amazon
Principles and essential techniques, from the second Dōshu.
BookEN
The book several generations learned the syllabus from.
BookEN
The founder's biography, written by his son.
BookEN
One of Yamada Sensei's early manuals, from his New York years.
BookEN
Technique and principle, from forty years of teaching outside Japan.
BookEN
Background and basics. The series that documented Iwama Aikido.
BookEN
Four volumes about a bad-tempered boy who walks into an aikido dojo.
BookJA
The Dōjō-chō's book: the basics done precisely. Naigai, 2019.
BookJABuy from Amazon.co.jp
The DVD that goes with the Dōjō-chō's book. Naigai, 2020.
MediaJABuy from Amazon.co.jp
Hombu's reference manual, by the second and third Dōshu.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The current Dōshu on proper movement, from basic to advanced.
BookENBuy from Amazon
Tamura Sensei on etiquette, and on what is actually handed on. French only.
BookFRBuy from Amazon
Tada Sensei on ki no renma, from breathing method to meditation. Japanese edition, 2024.
BookJABuy from 世界文化社
The sequel to Best Aikido: the advanced forms, by the current Dōshu.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The founder's talks on the spiritual ground of the art, gathered by Hombu.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The philosophy of takemusu aiki, in the founder's own words.
BookENBuy from Amazon
The current Dōshu on practice, and the frame of mind it is done in. Naigai.
BookJABuy from Amazon.co.jp
The founder's biography in its Japanese edition. Shuppan Geijutsu.
BookJABuy from 出版芸術社
Hombu's Japanese reference manual, the source of Best Aikido.
BookJABuy from 出版芸術社
The two video volumes of Hombu's applied syllabus.
MediaJABuy from 出版芸術社
Ueshiba Morihei's life told in panels. Shuppan Geijutsu.
BookJABuy from 出版芸術社
Okamoto Sensei on Togo, Portland, Paris and Kyoto, and on what culture and budō look like from outside.
BookJABuy from 紀伊國屋書店
Historical archive and interviews. Decades of material, in the open.
MediaEN
Chiba Sensei left no book, but his lectures and essays are collected in Birankai's journal.
MediaEN
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