Tag Archives: shihan

Schrader Sensei Awarded Ueshiba Juku Designation

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This month, Saotome Sensei awarded one of our instructors – Daryl Schrader Sensei – the Ueshiba Juku designation. Ueshiba Juku translates loosely as “academy of the Founder”; it recognizes that the recipient has shown exceptional loyalty and leadership within the art, to transmitting the teachings of O-Sensei, and is a true inheritor of the teachings of O-Sensei. It is only awarded to very senior Aikido teachers, and rank is no guarantee of award.

This is a very high honor, and declares Schrader Sensei to be one of Saotome Sensei’s successors. Congratulations, we are all very proud!

Koichi Tohei Shihan Seminar at USF Aikido, 1965

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Below features a clip (courtesy of AikidoJournal.com) of renowned Koichi Tohei Shihan teaching a seminar at the University of South Florida in 1965.  Tohei Shihan was an uchi deshi (live-in apprentice/disciple) of the Founder, Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei and himself the founder of the international Ki Society (Shin Shin Toitsu).  You can clearly see the “USF” logo on the wrestling mat he is teaching upon.  His primary uke is Yoshimitsu Yamada Shihan, the current head of the United States Aikido Federation.

The following picture shows Tohei Shihan and Yamada Shihan posing together with one of our own instructors, a very young Daryl Schrader Sensei.

Tohei Shihan passed away in May, 2011.