The Spirit of Aikido

Book Review

The Spirit of Aikido

by Kisshomaru Ueshiba

In this book, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, the previous doshu of aikido, presents some of the principles and philosophy of aikido, in a clear and concise way.

On the other hand, I don't feel that the book plunges very deeply into the aikido mysteries, nor am I always convinced by his explanations. For example, I have some objections to his views on Taoism and the thoughts of Lao Tzu. Well, I would, having written books about it myself.

Still, old doshu's book is pleasant to read and it's interesting to see into the mind of the person who was so instrumental in spreading aikido over the world. He lived in the shadow of his father, the founder of aikido, but I was always impressed by his own aikido skills as well as his persistence with a job he had happened to inherit.

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My other reviews

I've reviewed some other books about aikido and related topics.

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My Own Aikido Books

Aikido Principles

Basic Concepts of the Peaceful Martial Art. The principles, philosophy, and basic ideas of aikido. It's not about the aikido techniques, but the thoughts and ideas behind them. You could call it a book on aikido theory. It was my first book, initially in Swedish. It has also been published in German and Czech. The first edition of the English version had the title Aikido — The Peaceful Martial Art. It's still around, but I recommend this edition called Aikido Principles.

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Attacks in Aikido

How to do kogeki, the attack techniques. All the attack techniques in aikido explained, and how to do them correctly. This is an often neglected field in aikido training. We focus on the aikido defense techniques but forget to learn the attacks properly — but then the development of our aikido skills will suffer. So, I wrote this book. As far as I know, it's the only one on the subject.

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Aikibatto

Sword and staff exercises for aikido students. I developed a comprised system of sword and staff exercises (aikiken and aikijo), initially for my own students to get familiar with these things. Other aikido students seemed to appreciate it, so I made this book. The exercises are explained in detail, with practical and spiritual aspects of the sword arts, how to teach them, equipment for training, and more.

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Qi — Increase Your Life Energy

Ki, the life energy, is a very important aspect of aikido. This is evident already in the name of this martial art. It's the same as the Chinese concept qi (also spelled chi or ch'i). Although essential in many ways, far from all aikido students know how to deal with it and integrate it in their training. Therefore, I wrote this book explaining ki, with several simple basic exercises on how to awaken, increase, and use the life energy.

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My Aikido Books

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Aikido Principles

Basic Concepts of the Peaceful Martial Art. The basic principles, philosophy and traditional budo concepts in aikido.
More about the book here.

Attacks in Aikido

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.

Aikibatto

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.