Aikido
合気道A Japanese art of throws and joint locks with no sporting rivalry; the energy of an attack is redirected rather than stopped.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Aikido
About Aikido
Aikido was created by Morihei Ueshiba in the first half of the twentieth century. He started from Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, learned under Sokaku Takeda, and joined it with his own spiritual reading: the aim is not to defeat the opponent but to take over his attack and lead it to a harmless end. The name can be read as "the way of harmony with energy". Technically aikido works with circular movement and with taking the opponent's balance. Instead of blocking, the attack is accompanied and its direction extended further than the attacker intended — hence throws that look as though the defender is not making them. Alongside throws there are wrist and elbow locks and pinning on the ground. Strikes (atemi) exist but serve to break concentration, not as the main weapon. Training uses an agreed form: one attacks, the other performs the technique, and roles alternate. Work with the wooden sword (bokken), staff (jo) and knife (tanto) belongs to it, because aikido's movement derives directly from weapon work. Most schools have no competition — Ueshiba rejected it as a denial of the principle. The exception is Tomiki (Shodokan) aikido, which introduced a competitive format. The absence of resistance is aikido's largest open question and it is fair to state it: what is practised as a response to an agreed attack need not work against an attack that does not follow the script.
Styles & Branches
The harder and more precise line of aikido, founded in 1955 by Gozo Shioda. It is the only version of aikido to have entered police training in Tokyo.
The only line of aikido with competition. Kenji Tomiki was a student of both Ueshiba and Kano and brought judo's principle that technique needs a measurable test.
A Serbian modern derivative of aikido from 1993, built for police work. It takes away the ritual and adds strikes, ground work and restraint.
The aikido line of Iwama carried by Morihiro Saito. It trains empty-hand technique together with sword and staff as a single whole.
The way of energy, created in Paris in 1979 by Masamichi Noro, a direct student of Ueshiba: paired movement with no attacker or defender.
The oldest offshoot of aikido, its dojo dating from 1931. Minoru Mochizuki studied under Kano, Ueshiba and Funakoshi and reassembled budo into one whole.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.