Shioda Masahiro Sensei

The other weekend there I took my daughter to Tokyo for a trip to see a band play and to let her go shopping. Luckily I was able to take some time to make a visit to a very special dojo that I have wanted to visit for quite some time. This is the Grandson of the incredible Master Gozo Shioda Gozo, Masahiro Shioda. He is no longer part of the main Yoshinkan group and he and his father have established the Shioda Aikido Group. It was amazing to meet someone so close to the founder of our style of Aikido and train with him and his students.

I had to rush from my plane when it landed in Haneda as I only had 1 hour to make it to the dojo to grab an hour of training before I had to meet up again with my daughter to take her around Tokyo.

I was covered in sweat when I arrived as Tokyo was considerably hotter than Hokkaido - I’m not used to big city heat! The dojo is quite small, but nice and friendly when I arrived. I had contacted Morikawa san at the dojo ahead of time to ask permission to join their training. They were incredibly welcoming and despite the short lesson, I learned so much. The actual class was not a usual class, but instead a more advanced class with higher grade students. We looked at entering and taking the balance from a shomen suki attack. We looks at how to apply a variation of irimi nage without using strength but manipulating uke’s balance in a very subtle way. The class finished with a jiyuwaza using the techniques and skills Shioda sensei had covered in the class.

I am very much looking forward to returning to the dojo on my next visit to Tokyo and cultivating this relationship with Shioda sensei and his group. My dream is to one day invite him to Hokkaido to our dojo for a training seminar.