Shoji Seki

Shoji Seki Shihan was born on 6th March, 1950 in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.  While he was a student in a Musashi Institute of Technology in Tokyo a group of the aikidokas were giving a demonstration and in 1969 Shoji joined.

Seki Shihan liked Aikido much and soon he became an uchi-deshi and was allowed to train all days long. He found his inspiration in the faces of Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Kisaburo Osawa.

He was a 2nd Dan already when, in 1973, he was admitted as assistant instructor at Hombu Dojo. He has been dealing professionally with Aikido since then.

Today he has become one of the main instructors at Hombu Dojo. He leads general classes, classes for the beginners and is one of the closest partners of Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba. He also directs in the other Aikido clubs and universities snd gives the seminars all over the world in the countries like: Israel, Russia, USA, France, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, Poland and others.

One of the clubs Shihan visits on a regular basis outside Japan in Koinobori Dojo in Moscow, Russia. The club is dedicated to Sensei and learn Aikido from Shoji Seki exclusively.

This year Shihan is coming to Romania for the first time. Seminar is going to happen in Musubi Dojo at Cluj-Napoka city where Yukimitsu Kobayashi comes every year.

Shoji Seki Shihan has a rank of the 8 Dan from Aikikai and what he get is totally a result of his hard work and developement of his feelings into Aikido. His classes are intense with not much of the explanations but practice. He puts himself into details and moves slowly around the arsenal of the techniques just to be sure that important parts are not missed.

You can read some of his thoughts in the articles on the fans site: Body and Soul of Uke, Practice like beginner, Interview with S. Seki Shihan (Brazil 2012). Also, there’s a full-dress feedback and a post-inspiration from one of the Shihans practitioners on the AikiWeb forum.