Saito Hitohiro Sensei (b. 12 February 1957) continues to promote Iwama aikido throughout the world, to the delight of practioners of the art. This page continues with the informal attitude of this website.
From the February, 2002 Denver, Colorado, USA seminar
Hitohiro Sensei’s Iwama dojo
Hitohiro Sensei’s own dojo website for his organization, the Shinshin-Aiki Shurenkai The multi-lingual website includes information on affiliated dojos in Japan and worldwide, the Iwama training schedule and fees, and his grading requirements. The non-profit organization shows another aspect of Hitohiro and aikido in the larger community.
Photo: Patricia Yarrow, Denver, Colorado
Party in Iwama
1986. Party in Iwama. Hitohiro in a great jacket, with Carlos Nogueira (Aikido-Iwama-Brasil) and Takao Fukuda from nearby Hitachi.
Photo: Carlos Nogueira
Hot Air Balloon
1987. Hitohiro and Derek Minus and the ‘hot-air balloon’ kami pre-flight purification. 🙂
Photo: Derek Minus
Outdoor Dining
1987. Hitohiro and Saito Sensei in Iwama. Informal outdoor dining.
Photo: Derek Minus
Sayonara Nikyo
1989. Hitohiro, Teruo San, and Patricia Guerri from France, “who was handling the whisky bottle like a true expert!” and Hitohiro give Joerg Beile the infamous “Sayonara Nikkyo” in the dojo kitchen.
Photo: Alan Roberts, probably
Summer
1989, summer. Joerg writes: “At the time going to the waterfall was mainly for taking a cold shower and only later people were doing it mostly for spiritual enlightenment. The advantage of the first approach: it was working every time! The guy on the right is Alan Roberts, one of the pioneers of the second approach.” Person in the back is unidentified.
Photo: unnamed photographer
Daruma
September 1991. Hitohiro Sensei paints a daruma figure on the back of Joerg Beile’s t-shirt. The two on the left are Torbjoern and Anders, from Sweden, and sporting the classic summer dojo “bar ber” hairstyle. This is in his former restaurant, the “Yoshida Teshoku,” and now the home of uchi deshi visiting Iwama to train with him.
Photo: Joerg Beile
Hitohiro in front of the Aiki Jinja
1998
Photo: Sonoko Tanaka for Aikido Journal
Hitohiro Sensei is featured on the following links:
1997 Aikido Journal interview
Hitohiro’s statment regarding the uchi deshi program, July 2002