Yoshinobu Takeda is an 8 Dan Aikido Aikikai Shihan. He had a chance to learn from the O-Sensei and Seigo Yamaguchi was his main teacher.
Takeda Sensei started training at Hombu Dojo in 1960. Except for his main teacher and the Founder of the Aikido, Yoshinobu learned from the Kisshomaru Ueshiba, Hiroshi Tada, Sadateru Arikawa and Nobuyoshi Tamura. He was later recognized as one of the most talented students of the late Seigo Yamaguchi along with the Christian Tissier, Seishiro Endo and Yasuno Masatoshi.
Yoshinobu Takeda was urged by his teacher to start his own Dojo and founded the Aikido Kenkyukai International (AKI). “Kenkyukai” translates as a “research group”. The organization has a number of the Dojos in Japan and Takeda Dojo as the main one in the Yokohama, Japan. AKI affiliated clubs can be found in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, South America and throughout Australia.
The human spirit has the wondrous capacity to extend a hundred million light years beyond the limits of space… Let us try to purify our minds in practice. If you can focus clearly only for an instant, in that moment you will know yourself with the mind of the Universe.
Yoshinobu’s son, Daiyu Takeda is a 6 Dan Aikido Aikikai active teacher. He is already seen regularly outside of Japan during the seminars and camps in countries like Switzerland, Australia, the USA, Chile. He totally pushes his father’s direction and is a successor of a style.
Here’s a link to the Aikido Kenkyukai International website, and the Aikido Takeda Dojo Facebook page.