Tomiki Kenji

Tomiki Kenji ( Japanese 富 木 謙 治 ; * March 15, 1900 in Kakunodate (today: Semboku ), Akita Prefecture ; † December 25, 1979 ) was a Japanese Aikidō teacher and founder of the Shodokan style, which is therefore often called "Tomiki- Aikidō "is called.

Tomiki was a student of the judo founder Kanō Jigorō and later belonged to the first generation of students of the Aikidō founder Ueshiba Morihei . In 1929 he represented Miyagi Prefecture in the first judo competition held before the emperor, which became the annual All Japan Tournament the following year .

From 1936 until the end of World War II, Tomiki lived in Manchukuo , where he taught Aikibudo (the old name for Aikidō). In 1938 he became an assistant professor at Kenkoku University in Manchukuo. In 1942 he obtained the 8th Dan in Aikido. After he returned from three years of captivity in the Soviet Union , he taught both Aikido and Judo at Waseda University for many years . Here Tomiki developed his concepts regarding kata , training methods and a certain form of freestyle fight ( Randori ), which put him in contradiction to many other aikido styles. In 1964 he was awarded the 8th Dan in Judo by the Kodokan .

In 1974 he founded the Japan Aikido Association (JAA) to promote his theories. As early as 1967 he founded the Honbu Dōjō in Osaka and called his style Shodokan-Aikidō.

Through numerous trips abroad, he spread Shodokan Aikidō in the USA, Australia and Europe.

Web links

• Japan Aikido Association (JAA)
• biography

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Tomiki is the family name, Kenji the first name.