In a time of conflict around the world, it was heartening to see so much love and community support this weekend for Lorraine DiAnne Shihan at Valley Aikido. Kristina Varjan Shihan, Barbara Britton Shihan and Gina Zarrilli Sensei all spoke in support of victims of terrorism and the power of sincere practice to bridge divides.
On the packed mat Saturday at Valley Aikido were Aikidoka from across the region and from multiple Aikido organizations. Guest of honor Lorraine DiAnne Shihan held court near the mat and at the party afterward, telling tales of Japan and her many encounters with the foundational teachers of American Aikido. Thanks to the hard work of Julia Freedgood Sensei and the wonderful members of Valley Aikido, the event was a financial success.
Birankai dojos represented were Bucks County Aikido, Connecticut Aikikai, Fire Horse Aikido, Green River Aikido and Long Mountain Aikido, along with Birankai friend Needham/Newton Aikido Club. Great to see everyone and thanks for your support of this great event!
We were incredibly lucky at Fire Horse Aikido to have Lorraine Dianne Shihan teach at our opening in 2010, as seen in the video above. Dianne Shihan’s powerful technique and loyal students have been an inspiration to me since I first began my serious Aikido study.
Now we have a chance this coming weekend to pay tribute to this pioneering Aikido practitioner in Northampton, Mass., at a special seminar with three top instructors. Kristina Varjan Shihan, Barbara Britton Shihan and Gina Zarrilli Shidoin will bring their dynamic, diverse styles to the mat at Valley Aikido, thanks to the organization skills of Julia Freegood Sensei.
Below is some video to get you motivated to board planes, trains and automobiles to make it to this special, historic event!
Frank Apodaca Sensei taught a weekend seminar at Multnomah Aikikai in Portland, Ore., October 23-25, 2015.
It’s been a week since the Apodoca Sensei seminar was held here at Multnomah Aikikai, and I am still overwhelmed with this event. I don’t know if it was the massive numbers of aikidoka that showed up, the instructors from across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, or the laser-sharp focus of Sensei Apodoca’s classes.
I met and trained with old friends, made new ones, and got to train with some of our newest members of Multnomah Aikikai. I was proud of the hospitality and spirit I feel is representative of our school. And I think it was noticed by visitors who came from across town and from across the region.
This event was a particularly poignant marker for two reasons. Sensei Apodoca has been training for 30 years now, and it’s been 15 years since he was chief instructor (his first teaching residency) at Multnomah Aikikai. Students and instructors were excited to welcome him back.
A huge amount of information was presented over the course of the three days. It’s amazing how logically Sensei Apodoca can break down techniques in Aikido down into the most basic components. If we couldn’t understand hips and how to successfully apply them with our techniques at the end of seminar, maybe we weren’t paying attention.
Apodoca Sensei said his mission was to challenge our assumptions and to get us to think about the fundamentals in a different way. Brute strength and muscle are no substitute for proper mechanics and martial efficiency. And in Aikido that means utilizing the hips.
He also talked about the concept of “no attachment.” Without a preconceived idea of how an encounter will or should go, you can be free in the moment, and open to possibilities. I believe this idea in particular serves us well both on and off the mat.
The weapons classes focused on getting off the line and the need to be light and swift on your feet while utilizing your hips to drive the bokken or jo. I sometimes get lost concentrating on my upper body (OK, well most of the time) while completely forgetting to control my lower body, specifically the hips and legs. Sensei’s weapons classes helped me, especially on the third day of the seminar as we progressed to more dynamic body art exercises.
Apodaca Sensei showed us a lot of demonstrations of how you can work through your tension by slowing down and being mindful of how we are engaging our bodies. For instance, his demonstration of ushiro ryotedori ikkyo, where he highlighted the issues of over-reaching for elbow control vs. using the hips to effortlessly engage the desired point of contact.
The entire weekend seminar was full of nonstop action, fun and practical tips on how we can enhance our techniques and adjust our approach to practice so as to harvest the most benefits. Excellent training at this seminar event! The work was simple enough that all could participate, but also deep enough to offer training insights and remedies to bad habits.
In addition, our very own Jon Paul Oliva tested over a two-day period in both body arts and weapons and passed his fukushidoin certification test! I think I see a party in the future!
Thanks to Senseis Fleshler and Van Amburgh for inviting Apodaca Sensei and thanks to all the teachers and students who came from all over the Pacific Northwest to support this event.
Editor’s note: Thanks to Sam Brimhall of Multnomah Aikikai for the great video footage!
Group photo from Apodaca Sensei seminar at Multnomah Aikikai, October 2015.
Buy your plane tickets now: Master Aikido instructors Kristina Varjan Shihan, Barbara Britton Shihan and Gina Zarrilli Sensei are giving a special seminar next month at Valley Aikido in Northampton, Mass.
The event, Nov. 14-15, is a tribute to and fundraiser for Lorraine DiAnne Shihan, a pioneering instructor in the Northeast. DiAnne Shihan and the three guest instructors all have deep ties to the Aikido styles of Yamada Sensei, Kanai Sensei and Chiba Sensei and this promises to be a landmark event!
More info on the seminar at Valleyaikido.org.
Newly posted video at BiranOnline includes clips from Varjan Shihan at 2015 and 2013 Birankai Summer Camps, along with clips from Zarrilli Sensei’s 2014 seminar at Boston Aikikai. More clips to come and see you on the mat in Northampton.
L. Klein
The link below is of Britton Shihan at 2012 USAF Summer Camp.
A dynamic 1984 clip of DiAnne Shihan and David Halprin Shihan.
We’re lucky in Birankai to have opportunities to train with two world-class instructors visiting from Japan in the next few months: Didier Boyet Shihan and Yoko Okamoto Shihan.
These are prime opportunities to learn from Boyet Shihan, who has spent 40 years training with the top teachers at Hombu Dojo and across the world and brings both intensity and technical precision to the mat.
Later in October, Yoko Okamoto Shihan of Aikido Kyoto will be giving a seminar Oct. 23-25 at Aikido Daiwa in Los Angeles. Don’t miss this chance to train with Okamoto Shihan, who joined us this summer at camp in Tacoma to train and take part in memorial events for Chiba Sensei. She also led an outstanding Birankai summer camp in 2014 and has hosted a series of Birankai members for intensive training at her dojo.
Check out more newly posted videos of Boyet Shihan and Okamoto Shihan at the BiranOnline channel on Youtube.
Dynamic seminars with Birankai Aikido instructors this weekends on both coasts: Mike Flynn Shihan, George Lyons Shihan and Robert Savoca Sensei at Bucks County Aikido in Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Lynn Shihan and Deena Drake Sensei at Aikido of Santa Barbara in California, with USAF friends Peter and Penny Bernath Shihan(s).
Lots of sweat was shed by all on a hot weekend on both coasts, on and off the mat!
Our intrepid Birankai paparazzi have uploaded some nice 2015 Summer Camp photos to SmugMug for viewing and purchase. Visit the SmugMug site here to browse and buy high-quality copies.
Paper prints start at $2 for a 4-by-6-inch quality photo and go to poster size. You can also get mugs, tote bags, buttons — even playing cards with your favorite Birankai personalities! (Future raffle prize, anyone?)
Any profits on photo sales will benefit Birankai and go toward activities like future summer camps.
If you’ve got good photos of camp please let me know ASAP and I’ll send you the upload link for SmugMug. On and off-the-mat shots are welcome.
Thanks for your support and enjoy memories of 2015 camp.
I’m finally back home from 2015 Birankai Summer Camp and a great visit to Seattle and Seattle Aikikai, home of dynamic chief instructor Malory Graham. Excellent time was had by all.
Here are some newly posted videos from camp; more to come. We’re also putting together photos from camp and memorial events for Chiba Sensei – please contact me ASAP if you have any photos, letters or thoughts to contribute. Email me at liese.klein@gmail.com.
Thanks to everyone for making camp happen and looking forward to seeing everyone on the mat tomorrow at USAF Summer Camp!
Thanks to all who made the outstanding 2015 Birankai North America Summer Camp happen: Neilu Naini, Kano Chiba and the Chiba family, Miyamoto Sensei, Didier Boyet, all the great Birankai shihan and other teachers, our welcome guests from the USAF and other dojos, and all the Birankai members who trained their hearts our this past week.
Get some rest and see you on a mat somewhere again soon!
Someone commented today that I put exclamation points after everything in these posts, so I’ll be very calm and dignified today. Great day of training! Party tonight! Craft beer and buffet!
On sale at the store this year at Birankai Summer Camp are beautiful leather tsubas, hand guards that can be custom-fitted to your bokken. Part of the cost of each tsuba benefits the endowment fund — Read Omohundro crafted each of them by hand with the Birankai logo.
Get the tsubas here at camp while you can, or wait until they go on sale in a few months on the new, improved Birankai website!
Tests and lots of “Bikram Aikido” today at Birankai NA Camp, where temperatures in the dojo were quite toasty. Thanks to reminders from the medical team, no one suffered ill effects from the heat, and the training remained strong, even into a long evening of testing. Congrats to all candidates for their efforts.
And big thanks to Neilu Naini, Derek Shaw and the crack 2015 Summer Camp team, who have kept everyone housed and hydrated, the mat clean, and the excellent food and beer flowing so far at camp. Thanks for your hard work!
In line to pay our respects to Chiba Sensei at the kamiza, at the end of the chanting service.At the chapel for the Celebration of Chiba Sensei’s life.Singing and dancing at the reception afterward.
The weather’s nice and mild but the training was smoking at the University of Puget Sound for Day 2 of Birankai NA Camp. Lots of visitors and lots of good energy from our usual crew. See you tomorrow!
(See more videos at the BiranOnline YouTube channel — I’m not doing every single class this year but will try to get as much as I can online.)
We’ve got these great new Birankai patches for everyone to affix to their gis. The design is the moon-star mon (crest), the emblem of the Chiba samurai clan.
“We honor our founder, T.K. Chiba, by using his family crest or mon as the Birankai symbol. It should be worn or displayed with great respect,” said A.G. Peterson, president of Birankai North America
The new Birankai embroidered patch will be available for sale at Summer Camp. Proceeds from patch sales will go to the Birankai General Fund, which supports various programs including scholarships, the website and the video library.
Wear the Birankai patch on the right sleeve of your gi or sewn onto weapons bags and gi bags. The image should be oriented with the small circle in the “10 o’clock” position.
When applying to your gi sleeve, apply to the right sleeve, a bit below your shoulder but well above the elbow. Put on your gi jacket and have a friend pin the patch to your gi in the correct position. Remove the jacket and iron-on or sew on. We recommend sewing on, however you may wish to do both for strongest adhesion.
Iron-on instructions:
Pre-heat iron for 5 minutes on high setting. Do not use steam.
Iron area of the garment where the emblem will be placed for 25 seconds.
Place emblem in desired location.
Place lightweight press cloth over the emblem. Using a back-and-forth motion, press firmly with iron for 25 seconds. DO NOT apply hot iron directly to the emblem embroidery.
Turn the garment inside out. Using a back-and-forth motion, iron the back side of the emblem for 45-60 seconds while pressing firmly.
Turn the garment right side out. Place press cloth over the emblem. Iron edges of the emblem to ensure they are properly sealed. DO NOT apply hot iron directly to the emblem embroidery.
Summer Camp is almost here! In a little more than a week we’ll all be gathered in the tropical heat of Tacoma, Wash. You heard that right – the entire Northwest has been baking in a heat wave that I’m hoping will be waning by the time we arrive. Either way, great for purification…
A few final words from Camp Director Neilu Naini:
Getting there: Make sure you know how you’re getting to the University of Puget Sound (it’s in Tacoma, not Seattle) and that your travel plans have been confirmed with the camp staff. Visit the travel page for more info.
T-shirts: You can still buy T-shirts and hoodies at the online store and a limited selection will be available at camp. Click here for the selection.
Volunteer: We need lots of help to make this camp happen, especially because we’re expecting guests from around the world for the celebration of Chiba Sensei’s life. Make sure to sign up as soon as you arrive at camp to help with setup, cleaning and other tasks.
Kazuo Chiba, a pioneering teacher who helped spread the Japanese martial art of Aikido across the world, died June 5, 2015 in San Diego, California. Chiba Sensei, 75, suffered from kidney cancer. He died peacefully at home surrounded by family and students.
T.K. Chiba and M. Kanai in 1954.
Born on Feb. 5, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, Chiba Sensei showed an early interest in martial arts and began serious training in judo and karate in his teens. But he became dissatisfied with both arts and starting seeking a more comprehensive fighting system.
“A budo practitioner, I thought, should be able to respond under any circumstances, whether using sword against sword, whatever,” Chiba Sensei said in a 1995 Aikido Journal interview.
An encounter in a bookstore changed his life: “I picked up a book about Aikido. Inside there was a small photo of [Aikido founder] O-Sensei,” Chiba Sensei said. “When I saw it, I knew immediately that I had found my teacher. I knew nothing about the actual techniques of Aikido, but that didn’t seem important and I just thought to myself: ‘This is it! This looks like a man who understands my concerns.’”
Chiba Sensei went to Aikido headquarters in Tokyo and pestered O-Sensei and senior students until he was accepted as a live-in trainee, at the age of 18. Over the next seven years he practiced Aikido for hours every day and traveled with the founder across Japan to demonstrate and promote the art.
In 1960, then a third-degree black belt, Chiba Sensei was dispatched to the city of Nagoya to establish one of the first branch dojos [schools] under the auspices of Aikido headquarters. In 1962, he also began teaching at the Hombu dojo, and within three years had completed his training and earned promotion to fifth-degree black belt.
In March of 1966, Chiba Sensei became one of the first teachers sent abroad from Japan to spread the fledgling art of Aikido. Wed to his wife, Mitsuko, only months before his departure, he was sent alone to England to establish the art in a period many Britons were
Chiba Sensei in 1967 in Cardiff, Wales.
still actively hostile to the Japanese. “I did not appreciate the food served by my host family – the usual fare being meat and vegetables boiled to mash, except on Fridays when we were served fried fish with salt and vinegar. I could not stop dreaming of soy sauce,” Chiba Sensei wrote in a memoir published in the Birankai Aikido journal.
Culture shock and the political complexities of Britain’s martial arts world made his first years abroad very difficult. After that bumpy start, he established a successful dojo in London and also traveled extensively to teach in Europe, helping to promote Aikido in Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Morocco, Spain and Switzerland. In 1970 he was promoted to sixth-degree black belt and awarded the title of shihan, or master instructor.
In 1975, Chiba Sensei returned to Japan to serve as secretary of the international department at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. At that time he also began studying Iaido – the art of drawing and cutting with the Japanese sword – with Takeshi Mitsuzuka, a disciple of legendary swordsman Hakudo Nakayama. He also intensified his study of Zen Buddhism and Misogi-no-kokyu-ho, a Shinto practice of purification through breathing.
Chiba Sensei and Mrs. Chiba in San Diego, 1981.
At the invitation of the United States Aikido Federation, Chiba Sensei and his family moved to San Diego in 1981 and established the San Diego Aikikai dojo. Thousands of Aikido practitioners from around the world came to study with Chiba Sensei in California and take part in live-in trainee and other teacher-preparation programs. He also established the Birankai Aikido organization, with dozens of affiliated dojos in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.
In 2008, after 50 years in Aikido, Chiba Sensei retired from active teaching.
Chiba Sensei and his wife, Mitsuko Chiba.
Chiba Sensei is survived by his wife, Mitsuko; his children Kano and Kotetsu; his
grandchildren James Yamato, Titus Taisuke, Ryusuke, Shou, Kai and Zen, and his brother, Nobuyoshi Chiba of Japan. He will be greatly missed by his family and thousands of students and admirers across the world.
On behalf of Birankai International, with deep sorrow, Birankai North America announces the death today, June 5th, 2015, of our founder and teacher T. K. Chiba Shihan.
Martial artists here and around the world salute his life as they mourn his passing. During more than 50 years of training and teaching, Sensei inspired, forged and changed the lives of generations of students.
United in gratitude for the great gift he gave us, we offer our condolences to his family.
