Abertillery Aikido Club. Bushinkai.

Onko-Chishin
Visit the past to know the new



The Hut Dojo in Hillingdon 1957

Traditional Aikido was first practiced in the Hut Dojo, which is in the garden of the Hut Public House in Hillingdon Middlesex. Abbe Kenshiro Sensei only practiced Judo in the Dojo, but did start to show Aikido to a few privileged people. The style of Aikido at that time was pre-war, as taught to Abbe Sensei by Morihei Ueshiba O'Sensei. It resembled the older Aiki-Jujutsu, before it was polished to the more modern Aikikai Aikido, we see today. Sensei Kenneth Williams was the first student of Abbe Sensei at the Hut Dojo, followed only by 7 others.

Abbe Kenshiro Sensei

Other influences of the style of Aikido we practice come from Morihiro Saito Shihan. He was one of the closer students of O'Sensei. He preferred to practice a mixture of pre-war and post-war Aikido. He was also one of only a few students to popularise the Aikiken & Aikijo system. Ken (Sword) Jo (4 foot staff) He put together the teachings of O'Sensei and created Jo and Ken Kata's.

Saito Sensei was the guardian or caretaker of the Aiki shrine in Iwama in Japan, after the founders death. During and after the second world war, Aikido was renamed Takemusu Aiki, and was also covered by a name Aiki Taiso, which was Aiki Gymnastics. This was put in place so Aikido could continue to be practised when the Americans put a prohibition on the practice of the martial arts in Japan.