Our Aikido Lineage
Photo: United States Aikido Federation (usaikifed.com)
Lineage
Yoshimitsu Yamada Shihan (1938–2023)
Yoshimitsu Yamada was born in Tokyo on February 17, 1938. In 1955, as a teenager, he was accepted into the Hombu Dojo (Aikikai World Headquarters) uchi deshi program as a live-in apprentice, studying directly with O-Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. Besides O-Sensei, he also trained under Aikido masters including Kisshomaru Ueshiba, Koichi Tohei, Kisaburo Osawa, Kenji Tomiki, Hiroshi Tada and Seigo Yamaguchi.
An invitation to demonstrate Aikido at the 1964 World’s Fair brought Yamada Sensei to New York City, and he stayed on to become Chief Instructor of the New York Aikikai. Together with fellow direct students of O-Sensei Akira Tohei, Mitsunari Kanai and Kazuo Chiba, he established the United States Aikido Federation (USAF), the oldest Aikido organization in the United States, which he led for decades as its chairman. From the 1970s he taught seminars on nearly every continent, helping spread Aikido around the world.
Yamada Shihan held the rank of 8th Dan in the Aikikai. He passed away in New York City on January 15, 2023. Today the USAF continues under the technical direction of the USAF Technical Committee, and Las Vegas Aikikai trains in the tradition he taught.
Our logo: Sanrokukai
Sanrokukai (山麓会) is Japanese for “base of the mountain.”
We are students of Yamada Sensei. In our logo, Yamada Sensei is the mountain, and we, his students, are the base of the mountain, keeping his standards and his teachings alive in everything we practice.
Sources: USAF – History, usaikifed.com, International Aikido Federation / New York Aikikai announcement.