Aikido Shoryukai Australia

Allan Ashard Senpai is kindly visiting the Gold Coast from Noosa and will be teaching a class at my home dojo tonight.

Anyone is welcome to join, so please let me know if you’re interested! ✋

Don’t miss this special opportunity to train with Allen Senpai!

Time: 7:00–8:30 pm

Here is a popular quotation from "The Art of Peace", translated by John Stevens:

"The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace."

Here is the original Japanese quotation, from "Aiki Shinzui" (合気神髄):

合気はまず己れから始まる。己れを磨き、己れに与えられた天命を果たせ。

Here is a direct translation of the Japanese above:

"Aiki begins with oneself. Polish yourself and fulfill the heavenly mission that has been given to you."

If you noticed - "The Art of Peace" does not exist in the original Japanese, as it does not appear in in any of the original Japanese quotations from which these quotations were drawn, since... it's not really a phrase that Morihei Ueshiba even used.

What John Stevens did was to replace the words "Aiki" and "Aikido" where they appeared in the original Japanese text with "The Art of Peace", significantly altering the nuance and context of the quotations.

Actually,this was done at the request of the publisher, for marketing purposes - hoping to profit off of the enormous commerical success of "The Art of War" by producing a "companion volume".

It worked fairly well commercially, but at the cost of altering and rearranging the original meanings and, particularly in the case of the "The Art of Peace" which consists entirely of out of context quotations, eliminating the context of the statements that would actually give them meaning.

Here are some thoughts on that from Stan Pranin:

"Recently, due to the publication of a series of books whose authorship has been attributed to Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido, I have felt compelled to weigh in on the subject of what O-Sensei actually did write during his career as a martial artist. The answer is in brief, 'almost nothing.'

..the published books containing quotations attributed to Morihei Ueshiba available in various Western languages are based on “sanitized” Japanese versions of Morihei’s words. They have been edited and simplified with an eye to presenting text accesible to modern readers, but are devoid of many of those terms and metaphors actually used by the founder of aikido which failed to match the tenor of the times."

"O-Sensei's Spiritual Writings: Where did they really come from?" by Stanley Pranin
(link in comments)

🥋Wannabe a MASTER Class🥋

We have a special morning training at my house next week🥋

Date: Sunday, 16th Aug 2026
Time: 9:30〜 12:00 followed by lunch
Cost: $18
Venue: Hope Island

Anyone is welcome to join💁‍♀️

Random Pics; Tamayuki Shimamoto Sensei Seminar
Tamayuki Sensei is now on his way home after an amazing weekend seminar here in Brisbane. Here's a few random photos.
We kicked off on Friday with informal training and a get together at Bayside Budokai, before sessions on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Thank you to everyone who supported us: our friends from Brisbane Aiki Kai and Runaway Bay, and also those who travelled from Lennox Heads, Canberra and even Singapore.
Special thanks also to Sensei for coming to share his art and teaching with us.
Stay tuned for details of next time. Can't wait!

Great training yesterday at BA with Takase Sensei. Congrats to Jacqui too!

Only two weeks to go before Tamayuki Sensei's Seminar. Link to register at the bottom of the flyer.

Joint Training Sunday 17 May
Members from the Gold Coast and Northside got together on the Bayside for practice and some kyu grading tests. We started by reflecting on Katsuyuki Shimamoto Shihan upon the first anniversary of his passing and then got to work. Thank you everyone for showing up and congratulations to those who passed their gradings.

Alex Dickinson Junior 8 Kyu
Isla Taylor Junior 6 Kyu
Billy Dickinson 5 Kyu
Katsiaryna Avekava 5 Kyu
Alex Avekava 5 Kyu
Sava Avekava 5 Kyu
Charrie Rhi 4 Kyu
Apakuki Nacagileva 4 Kyu

We also finally got the chance for an opportunity to present Jeff Nesterowich with his Aiki Kai Certificate for 2 Dan from his test last year.

Well done everyone.