On September 6-8 2019, Moriteru Ueshiba, the grandson of O-Sensei and the current Doshu (hereditary head of the Aikikai Foundation) taught a seminar in San Mateo, California. Our parent organization, the California Aikido Association (CAA) hosted the seminar. Ueshiba Sensei taught four training sessions, over the course of three days. The San Mateo Event Center was set up with 11,000 square feet of mat. Over 750 Aikidoka, from all over the world, attended.
Liz, Paul and I had an opportunity to attend all three days. We arrived at SFO around 3 PM and hopped a shuttle to the hotel. We grabbed a bite to eat and then Uber’ed over to the Event Center to check in and attend the Friday class at 6 PM.
There were probably 500-600 Aikidoka on the mat on Friday. This was the biggest seminar I’ve ever been to. We stretched for about 15 minutes and then Doshu started class. He started with an introduction of his uke, and otomo, Terumasa Hino Sensei (5th Dan). After the introduction, he lectured for about 10 minutes on the focus of the weekend. He emphasized both fundamental technique and the development and use of Kokyu-Ryoku (“Breath Power”). After demonstration of a few techniques, he asked us to practice.
We ran into people all weekend. One of the people I was happy to see was Mark Larson Sensei (Minnesota Aiki Shuren Dojo). We also ran into Aviv Goldsmith Sensei (Aikido of Fredricksburg), but unfortunately I didn’t have a camera handy. I was super happy to see him as well!
Aikido of Arlington was well represented at the seminar, and it’s always great to see Yvonne Sensei. Photo-bomb by Craig Fife (6th Dan – CAA President). 🙂
We joined folks from Hikari Dojo for dinner at La Fonda de San Mateo. “La Fonda” is a wonderful family-owned Mexican restaurant. The food and drinks were fantastic. We ended up being a party of about 30 people. Service was super fast and spot on! If I’m ever back in San Mateo, this restaurant is on my list to visit again.
We grabbed breakfast on Saturday morning at the hotel. The hotel restaurant offered a “Doshu Discount”. Following breakfast, we Uber’ed over to the event center and got ready for class to start at 10 AM. The number of attendees on Saturday was closer to 750+, and Doshu repeated most of his Friday lecture again. The morning and afternoon sessions went by too quickly!
On Saturday evening, the CAA held a banquet in Doshu’s honor at the San Mateo Elk’s Lodge. The facility was just beautiful. Paul and I attended the banquet, and we sat with Yvonne Thelwell Sensei and a group of folks from Hikari Dojo. Everyone had a good time.
We had an opportunity to have our picture taken with Doshu during the banquet. Shown to the left is Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba, Mrs. Ueshiba, Patricia Hendricks Shihan and the collection of Hendricks Sensei’s students that were in attendance at the banquet.
On Sunday, we met for breakfast again at the hotel restaurant. Following breakfast we drove over for the last session, which ran until 11:30. We hung around for a few hours and helped the CAA Operations Team tear the mats down and get them ready to ship. Thanks to Charn Pennewaert of Aikido Shin Do Kan for producing the YouTube video of seminar highlights embedded below. This was the first seminar, in four years, where Doshu taught all of the sessions. We were all honored to have had the opportunity to participate. The CAA did an amazing job of managing the seminar from start to finish! Doshu did a fantastic job teaching…
Featured Image Credit: Aikido Journal
