About Aikido
Aikido is a modern martial art formally inaugurated in Japan in 1942. Its founder was Ueshiba Morihei (1883-1969), known in the Aikido world as o-sensei, or "grand master". Ueshiba in his Aikido synthesized several elements and features originally present in traditional forms of hand-to-hand combat and armed techniques popular in pre-modern Japan. Like most of the martial disciplines developed in Japan shortly before and after the seventeenth century, Aikido is first and foremost budo in Japanese or "martial ways," a concept that highlights a different spirit and a different purpose from the otherwise combat and military oriented bujutsu, "martial techniques" or "martial methods". Originally, the purpose of most budo traditions was not to create warriors or fighters learning methods to defeat an enemy, but to offer a way to develop character, cultivate one's mind, and increase the harmony between mind and body using the practice of martial training, discipline, and aesthetics. The psychological, educational, and spiritual orientations constitute the essence of budo, and they can be appreciated in all the modern forms of Japanese martial arts developed in the past two centuries including karate, judo, shorinji kempo, kyudo, and kendo. In Aikido this is particularly evident, as the impetus and force of an opponent's attack is not dealt with the application of clashing techniques and arresting movements, but are managed in such a way that are re-directed toward the attacker himself.
Therefore, even if some of the modern Japanese martial arts developed into sportive activities with tournaments, competitions, and international games, at a deeper level, they all are meant to be methods of self-cultivation, paths to self-polishing, and methods of overcoming oneself. Aikido was thus first and foremost created as a pathway to nurture harmony and cooperation with others.
