Aikido Photos
Images From My Seminars and Dojo Classes
In my early days as an aikidoka, I was mostly the one holding the camera, so of all the photos in my album from that period, few have me in them. Now that I rarely bring my own camera to the dojo, things are a bit different. Judging from the pictures others give me, it seems as if I am never out of focus.
Until the moment I created this webpage (in 1999, I believe), modesty — I'd like to believe — stopped me from any more than sporadically using photos of me in books I have written, on this website and other public channels. To my astonishment, though, several aikido friends asked me to reconsider. For the life of me, I can't figure out why.
What I did find, though, was that I enjoyed it, once I started. It got me to look through photos, which previously only had the company of each others, in dark drawers and cardboard boxes, waiting in vain to be sorted into albums I had not updated for close to a decade. But a web-album does not get covered by dust.
So, here is a growing bunch of aikido pictures, most of them with me somewhere in them, and it is my intention to have the collection continue to grow — eventually. It started as just one wewbpage, but below you find links to several. The most recent ones come first.
Stefan Stenudd
Plzen Aikido Seminar 2014
Photos from the 2014 seminar in Plzen, Czech Republic, by Renata Vondrakova. A good photographer who caught expressive and amusing moments.
Berlin Aikido Seminar 2012
Some photos from my Berlin seminar in 2012. Stephan Schröder was behind the camera.
Gubbängen Aikido Seminar 2010
Photos from the 2010 seminar in Gubbängen, a suburb to Stockholm, Sweden.
Tamura Aikido Seminar 2008
We were very fortunate to have Tamura sensei hold seminars in our dojo three times. Here are photos from his last seminar in my dojo, 2008.
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I started an aikido dojo in Brandbergen, south of Stockholm, in the late 1970s, at first within the local soccer club. In 1981 it became a separate club. Here are photos from the early 1980s. Time flies.
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(1927-2005) visited our dojo Enighet several times in the 1990s. Here are some photos taken by Ulf Lundquist at those seminars.
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The Jönköping Aikido Club celebrated its first ten years with a seminar in January 2004. These photos were taken by Ulrik Eklund, who was the founder of the club, and its head instructor until he moved to Kiruna, then to Gothenburg.
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Järfälla Aikido Club is where I started as a beginner in 1972. Here are pictures taken by Hans-Erik Lehndal at a seminar I held there in October 2003. I made some odd faces, but I assure you that it all made some kind of sense.
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Near Hradec Kralove — the city that took me forever to learn the name of, although I've had a seminar there and it has some good restaurants — is Pardubice. Leos Matousek took these photos from the seminar in Pardubice in 2003.
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At the 2003 Plzen summer seminar, I shared the teaching with Jan Hermansson, Aikikai Shihan, Swedish aikido nestor. He is very well known for his capacity and fantastic repertoir of techniques. He's got a great sense of humor, too. I took these photos at some of his classes.
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For once, I'm on the reverse side of the camera. I took these photos at my dojo Enighet, after our New Year's Eve training in 2002. Jonas Dahlqvist and Tomas Ohlsson are the ones on the other side of the camera.
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At the April 2002 weekend seminar, we did some taninzugake — several simultaneous attackers — among other things. Here are some photos, taken by Larry Kwolek, of the complex web of people which can appear in gotai taninzugake.
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In Zlin, Czech Republic, the ever-joyous Patrik Orth works hard for aikido — in his dojo as well as with his Aikido magazine, and much more. My first visit was in 2000, from which these photos are, and we practiced without tatami. For the most part, we exercised with jo and bokken, which is easy enough on the naked floor, but somehow we moved on to regular aikido. Nobody seemed to mind.
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My first seminar in Slovakia was in 1999, in the town of Lucenec — pretty much in the center of the country. Also in 2000 we had a seminar there, right after the one in Plzen, so it seems to become a tradition, and a most enjoyable one. A week full of aikido training, in the company of just as friendly as dedicated students. These photos are from the year 2000. Mostly I held the camera here, so I'm in almost none of them.
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The traditional summer seminar in Czech Republic was in the town of Plzen, where they make the beer, in the year 2000. This town is where it has been the most, competently handled by Jarda and his dojo. This time Ulf Evenås, 6 dan in both Iwama ryu and Aikikai, was also teaching, to the delight of both the seminar students and myself. These many pictures have been taken by me, except for those with me in them, which were taken by Ulf.
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For several years I have been holding seminars at the Tanden Aikido in Berlin, a club where my ol' aikido pal Mikael Eriksson is instructing since its start (and before that). These pictures — mainly from iaido classes — are taken by Frank Weingärtner of that dojo, in the June seminar of 2000.
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Gisela Döhler is a sophisticated artist, who made a number of drawings at our aikido classes, catching wonderfully the movement and flow of aikido. These drawings are exhibited at the Enighet dojo website. She also took some photos, once again focusing on the flow that is so characteristic of aikido, wherefore the unfocused nature of the pictures make us look a bit like ghosts.
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Here are pictures from Swedish national aikido seminars — the upper one in January 1999 by super-professional photographer Magnus Hartman, who is an instructor at the very dojo where I started doing aikido, the other in the Easter of 1998 by present Swedish aikido Chairman Jöran Fagerlund.
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Since 1991 I go regularly to have seminars in the Czech Republic, where everybody practices so hard I get a sweat already by watching them. Czech aikido, having started not that long ago, is developing with an impressive pace. Larry Kwolek, living in Prague, took these photos in Plzen 1998.
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These photos were taken by the gifted photographer and charming instructor Dick Lindström, Kaizen Aikido dojo in Vännäs, far up north in Sweden, when I had a seminar there. It was in the winter, so we did not mind being indoors.
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For a few years Enighet aikido had outdoor seminars on the picturesqe island Ven, in between Sweden and Denmark. We mainly exercised with jo, bokken and iaido kata — well, an occasional normal aikido throw, too. Those were festive events, so we might want to repeat them someday. Photos by dojo member Ulf Lundquist.
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I was born and raised in Stockholm, which is also where I started 1972 with aikido at the Järfälla Budo dojo, but in 1991 I moved to Malmö in south Sweden. Later that year we started the aikido training at the huge martial arts dojo Enighet. These photos are taken by dojo member Ulf Lundquist, the upper two with Håkan Karlsson, who lives in the US right now, and the third with Fredrik Grenson.
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More will come.
My Aikido Books
Click the images to see the books at Amazon (paid link).
Basic Concepts of the Peaceful Martial Art. The basic principles, philosophy and traditional budo concepts in aikido.
More about the book here.
How to do kogeki, the attack techniques. All the attack techniques in aikido explained, and how to do them correctly.
More about the book here.
Aikiken Sword Exercises for Aikido. The aikibatto exercises, practical and spiritual aspects of the sword arts, advice on equipment for training.
More about the book here.
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Aikido Menu
AIKIDO PRACTICE
AIKIDO THEORY
My Other Websites
Myths in general and myths of creation in particular.
The wisdom of Taoism and the Tao Te Ching, its ancient source.
An encyclopedia of life energy concepts around the world.
Qi (also spelled chi or ki) explained, with exercises to increase it.
The ancient Chinese system of divination and free online reading.
Tarot card meanings in divination and a free online spread.
The complete horoscope chart and how to read it.
Stefan Stenudd
About me
I'm a Swedish author of fiction and non-fiction books in both English and Swedish. I'm also an artist, a historian of ideas, and a 7 dan Aikikai Shihan aikido instructor. Click the header to read my full bio.
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Aikido Principles
Attacks in Aikido
Aikibatto