Shihan Donald Moriyama at Aikido Agatsu Dojo
June 8 - 10, 2001

Contributed by Greg Jennings*

June 8-10, I attended a seminar with Donald S. Moriyama Sensei, 7th dan, hosted by Aikido Agatsu Dojo in New Jersey. Moriyama Sensei is Chief Instructor of Pearl City Aikido in Hawaii, and student of Shihan Morihiro Saito.

We trained Friday evening and the mornings and afternoons of Saturday and Sunday. We covered mainly taijutsu, with some tantodori, tachidori and jodori on Sunday afternoon.

Moriyama Sensei's classes are very fast paced and energetic. I was wringing wet after every class despite being accustomed to training in hot, muggy conditions in my own dojo in Montgomery, Alabama.

Moriyama Sensei emphasized taking uke's balance at first touch and utilized many subtle hand and hip movements to do so. All in all, Moriyama Sensei's technique was a combination of simplicity of movement and subtle sophistication of timing and position. I've never experienced anything quite like it.

Moriyama Sensei also went into great depth concerning nage's integration of mind and body and the psychological aspects of aikido technique. The latter is something that I personally feel is missing from the repertoire of many aikidoka. By the end of the weekend, I was as intellectually wrung out as I was physically.

As if the seminar itself weren't interesting enough, I was fortunate to spend extensive time outside the seminar with Moriyama Sensei, due to his being my instructor's instructor. He was very open with me and his sense of humor was very engaging. I got the sense that Moriyama Sensei is concerned about the future of aikido and wanted to make sure that I got a little peek into his vision of what it should be.

If you like hard, sincere training, realistic attacks and uke that move only when you move them, consider training with Moriyama Sensei.

*Greg trains with sensei Ron Myers at Capital City Aikido http://www.capitalcityaikido.com/