Japan Experience Demonstrations. 27 April 2025

Takemusu Aikido Society performed today at the Experience Japan Festival in Phoenix Park, where we presented the structure of Aikido through a 20-minute demonstration. It was important for us to show that Aikido starts from the sword, so we began with Aiki-ken, demonstrating basic suburi exercises and the first five Kumitachi. This introduced the core principles of distance, timing, and body movement.

We then moved into Tai-jutsu (empty-handed techniques), focusing on the progression of throwing techniques — starting from Shihonage, moving through one technique to another, developing towards Kokyunage. During this part of the demonstration, a young boy threw a well-built adult, illustrating that correctly applied Aikido techniques can be used by everyone, regardless of size.

Afterwards, we introduced Aiki-jo, demonstrating basic Jo suburi, the 6 no Jo Kata, the 13 no Jo Kata, and their paired forms. We concluded the Jo section with five Kumi-jo.

At the end, we demonstrated that the same principles apply whether facing an empty-handed opponent, a sword, or a staff — through Tai-jutsu (empty hand against empty hand), Tachidori (empty hand against sword), and Jodori (empty hand against staff).

We finished with Ken Tai Jo, combining sword and staff techniques.

From sword, to body, to staff — and back again — in one continuous flow.

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