Aikido’s History and Background with Ellis Amdur

With the question of what “authentic” Aikido being coming up again on the Aikido Facebook group, bringing about considerable discussion, it’s well worth sitting down for the almost 2 hours and listening to Ellis Amdur talk not just about the history of Aikido, as well as Daito Ryu Aiki Jujitsu, but also hearing how it relates to the background of the founders, including Jigoro Kano, the founder of modern Judo, and culture in Japan at the time.

The talk covers so much ground, including why a competition version of Aikido exists, so-called Shodokan, or Tomiki Aikido, as well as the various offshots of Aikido, such as Yoshinkan, Korindo and the Ki Society.