Aikido: The Way of Harmony Paperback – Illustrated, July 29, 2016

Aikido ,The Way of Harmony,This was the very first book on aikido I bought after starting training in aikido in the year 1996.The book is written by John Stevens sensei under the supervision of Shirata sensei.Shirata sensei was one of the earliest uchideshi studying under O sensei, he was also a member of the Oomoto movement, the neo Shinto movement where O sensei was member of. Having been close to O sensei from the early beginnings of aikido and having followed the development of aikido until the later stages, Shirata sensei possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the art.John Stevens sensei is a 7th dan in classical aikido, student of Shirata sensei as well as a professor of Buddhist studies and author or translator of over thirty books on Buddhism, Zen, Aikido and Asian culture.The book starts with an introduction containing the biography of O sensei as well as a biography of Shirata Rinjiro and two chapters on the philosophy behind aikido.The next part is about the techniques. After two short chapters on aikido breath meditation and kamae the book moves into the techniques. The techniques are categorized according to the pillars of aikido; shiho, irimi, kaiten, kokyu, osae and ushiro. Of each technique several variations are shown and explained, also the analogy with the sword technique is shown.The book ends with a glossary of the various terms used throughout the book. Interesting to this is that the kanji for each term is also shown.I highly recommend this book to any aikido practitioner interested in the development and history of the system, the history of the founder and the people interested in aikido in generalIn short; indispensable to any aikido practitioner’s library!

My Husband was super thrilled to receive this book on his birthday. The condition of the book was excellent and he is excited to read it.

THE IS A VERY GOOD BOOK WITH A VERY THOROUGH INTRODUCTION TO AIKIDO. IT HAS GOOD PHOTOS AND EXPLANATION OF THE TECHNIQUES.

Awesome book! Great history & description of techniques.

This book is an old favorite of mine. I used to have a copy back in the 1980s. I could not find my original copy, so I ordered a softcover copy of the book from Amazon. I am extremely disappointed in the quality of the printing of this copy. The photographs are so washed out that I can barely make out any detail. I am not sure if this is typical of the current printing or one-off accident.

NO

Great!

Good book.