The 10th International Aikido Federation

Part I - In Tanabe

The 10th International Aikido Federation (IAF) congress was held in Tanabe, Japan from 5 October to 13 October. Tanabe, a small town in Wakayama prefecture in the south-west of Japan, is the birthplace of O-Sensei. The town was chosen for the occasion as this year marks the 40th year since O-sensei passed away.

Steve Kennedy, our Chairman, and Edmund Wan, Vice-Chairman and General Secretary represented Hong Kong at the congress. Other members of the Hong Kong contingent include Raymond Lau (our webmaster), Eric Leung, Lau Koon-pong, Michael Mayr, Maverick Siu, Jerald Tai, Johnson Lee and Kevin Mui. Below is the story about the very hustling week they had in a quiet, little town.



"We arrived in Tanabe on Saturday, 4 October. The next day, 5 October, after we had done with the official registration we strolled casually in the town and visited a number of interesting spots.

The whole IAF programme unfolded rapidly thereafter. On the morning of Monday, 6 October, a memorial service was held at Koshanji, the temple where the Uyeshiba family graves were located.











The first meeting of the congress was held in the afternoon. Two training sessions were available for others who did not have to go to the meeting. A welcome party was arranged for overseas delegates in the evening.

For the next four days, the daily programme was more or less the same - meetings in the morning, and three training sessions a day (two in the morning and one in the afternoon) given by high ranking shihans of 7th or 8th dan. For those who could attend the trainings, the experience was, without doubt, extremely valuable. Despite such a hectic programme, we managed to make a couple of excursions to explore the scenic countryside and local cuisine.

The congress was concluded on the morning of Friday, 10 October. A new Directing Committee came into place. Peter Goldsbury, the current Chairman, was re-elected for another term of four years. The Secretary General, H. Somemiya, our long-time mentor, chose to retire from the IAF. New faces were added to the Directing Committee, the Technical Council and the Senior Council as well. Steve was elected as a member of the Auditing Committee together with representatives from Mexico and Monaco.

The highlight of the week was the aikido demonstration (embu) held at Kumano Hongu, an ancient temple in Kumano. It was a warm and sunny day. We gave our demonstration in the open, on a stage of roughly 40 tatami in size covered by a canopy. We had a long wait that afternoon for about two hours under the sun waiting for the demonstration. Waka Sensei, Doshu' s son, gave the first demonstration. He was followed by Shihans in the Kwansai (western part) areas.








The second part of the demonstration was given by IAF delegates. We had originally planned to give a group demonstration which everybody from Hong Kong could take part. We were, however, advised to cut down the number, partly because of the small size of the stage and party because of the short duration of each demonstration -- one-and-a-half minute only for each team. So, eventually we sent only our yudansha. This was the most interesting part of the whole demonstration as one could have the rare opportunity to watch different presentation of Aikido from different places of the world. The last part of the demonstration was given by Tada Sensei and Doshu. As usual, their performance was extremely impressive.



The finale was the seminar given by Doshu on Sunday morning, 12 October. The whole dojo was packed with people. It was reported that nearly 1,300 people attended the seminar. Doshu taught only very basic pins and throws. Throws were not fully executed as there was actually no room for ukemi!









Towards the evening, a farewell party was held for all. New friends were made and old friendship re-kindled. Name-cards and hugs were exchanged among loads of beer, wine and sake. We presented a souvenir to Doshu to mark the successful conclusion of the congress and took a group photograph with him.
The party ended at around 10 p.m., though many people opted to carry on their own sayonara parties well into the night....!










The next IAF will be held in 2012, this time in a new sports centre in Tokyo. Make sure you will be ready for the next visit!!"











Part II - In Sanda

"On Monday, 13 October we bid farewell to Tanabe. Maverick and his friend Carrie, and Kevin left the team for their way back to Hong Kong. The rest of us made our way to Sanda to visit Horii Sensei. Horii Sensei was very kind to carry our luggage in his small van. It was a great help because it was really a headache to carry our heavy cases up and down the many staircases in Japanese railway stations, many of which were not equipped with escalators!







After a long train ride, we finally checked into the hotel at around 4 p.m. accompanied by Mrs. Horii who met us at the station. Since there was no training that evening, we took a rest and then went out to have dinner with Horii sensei, his wife and some of his students.











It was raining all day the next day. We went sightseeing lazily in the town during the day. In the evening, we went to Horii Sensei's home dojo to practice. The dojo was on the ground floor of a two-storey building where Horii Sensei and his family lived.


The next morning after breakfast, some of us went to visit Kobe nearby, some went to a hot spring and had a taste of the famous Sanda beef. In the evening, Horii Sensei took us to his branch dojo in Amagasaki. The dojo was located inside the district's civic centre. It was a big and very well equipped centre built for various kinds of cultural and sportive events.


After class, Horii Sensei and his students held a welcome party for us at an i-saka-ya (Japanese pub) nearby. The gathering was also a farewell party for one of his students who would be transferred to Nagoya shortly. It was a great party with all sorts of delicious food and lots of beer and sake.










The next day, 16 October was the last-but-one day of our brief visit to Sanda. During day time, we did our best to enrich our memory of this short but enjoyable trip. In the evening, we trained again at the home dojo. Horii Sensei gave a special session on bokken training and its relation to taijutsu. It was a very, very interesting and rewarding experience!

To thank Horii Sensei for his hospitality and teaching in the past four days, we invited him and Mrs. Horii to have dinner with us. They gratefully accepted our invitation and we went to the same restaurant that we had been to the first night. The restaurant had just launched a seasonally promotion of Sashimi. We had many dishes of Sashimi at unbelievably reasonable price. After dinner, Horii Sensei invited us to his flat to have some whisky with him. He showed us a special video of Chiba Sensei's seminar while we indulged ourselves with a bottle of Dewar. It was well after mid-night when we finally said good night to the Horii family.

The next morning, the team broke up and head for different directions. Steve left for Tokyo while Raymond for Kyoto. The rest headed home. We said sayonara to Sanda with many fond memories."

Part III - The Epilogue

"We flew back to Hong Kong by Cathay Pacific. It was a very pleasant flight. We were in good hands, no doubt. Jerald suddenly informed the team that the captain of the flight sounded like someone we knew. We ventured to check the name with the crew. On the way out, a very charming stewardess invited us to meet the captain in his cabin. When the door was open, it was Shane Bentley there grinning at us. We were in good hands, no doubt!"