Joe Thambu was born on 24 March, 1961 in Seremban, Malaysia. Thamby Rajah, his uncle, was the first Malaysian to grade black belts in Aikido and Judo. At 11 years old he entered uncles dojo which was next door to Joes home and he was practicing almost every day. Internationally famous martial artists were frequent visitors to his uncle’s school like Kenji Shimizu, Donn F. Draeger, Junichiro Yagi and others. (more…)
Tag: biography
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Juba Nour and the Baja Aikido
Juba Nour learned the aikido under the Master Kazuo Chiba, 8th Dan Aikido Aikikai. Starting from 1983 for 4 years he has been an uchideshi, a mostly chosen uke for the demonstrations, a big part of a powerfull show made by Chiba Sensei. (more…)
Haruo Matsuoka
Does this face seem familiar to you? Haruo Matsuoka was Steven Seagals most important student for more that 20 years. He followed Steven to USA from Japan, participated in the movies, was a Chief Instructor of Steven Seagals Tenshin Dojo in Los Angeles for 8 years… (more…)
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Morito Suganuma
We’ve met Morito Suganuma Shihan earlier on the blog in a post with the warmups but he really deserves more… He was born on July 27, 1942 in Fukushima, Japan. He knew about the aikido from the early age and heard about O-Sensei few times but only at Asia University in Tokyo he was able to join a Nobuyoshi Tamura aikido class. He continued at the Hombu Dojo, where future sensei was surrounded by the greats with the Morihei Ueshiba as a head. (more…)
Hiroshi Isoyama
Hiroshi Isoyama was born in 1937 and started to move through his aikido way at the age of 12, in June 1949 at Iwama Dojo under the Morihei Ueshiba. Training under O-Sensei continued for around 20 years of his life and is a main part of Hiroshi Isoyamas knowledge about the martial arts philosophy which he still transmits to his the world. (more…)
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Katsuaki Asai
Katsuaki Asai was learning aikido under the guidance of the Morihei Ueshiba himself. He was born on 18 February, 1942 in Tokyo and joined Hombu Dojo in 1955 being just 13 years old. After 10 year of intensive trainings with O-Sensei Katsuaki was already a 4th Dan and been giving aikido lessons in Meiji University of Tokyo. (more…)
Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal is a well known actor, producer, screenwriter, musician… Ukraine Bans Steven Seagal Over ‘National Security’, Steven Seagal asked to teach Aikido to Serbia’s special police forces, Steven Seagal granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin, Is Steven Seagal actually a police officer?, Is Steven Seagal actually a martial artist? Still, there are a lot of interesting and not much known facts about his life and especially from the aikido perspective.
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Yoshimitsu Yamada
There are only few direct O-Sensei disciples left alive and Yamada Sensei is one of them. This is one reason he is so respected and demanded. The other and even bigger reason is is his high aikido skill, unique style and colossal contribution to aikido.
Ryuji Shirakawa
Ryuji Shirakawa was born on 4th September 1980 and started aikido at 15 years. Ryuji lived in Kobayashi’s Dojo as an uchideshi, traveled to Germany to learn under Katsuaki Asai Sensei, lived in Calgary Aikikai in Canada. But let’s make it fare right from the start… (more…)
Nobuo Takase
Nobuo Takase Shihan was born on February 6, 1947 in Himeji, Japan. He began studying Aikido at Kogakkan University in Ise, Japan and was learning under O-Sensei himself, Kazuo Chiba, Mitsunari Kanai, Norihiko Ichihashi and Nobuyuki Watanabe. (more…)