Established in the decade from 1920 to 1930 under the name of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, Aikibudo or Aikijujutsu, Aikido was at first limited to Japan (and part of its Empire, namely Manchuria) and taught almost exclusively to members of the Ōmotokyō sect to which Ueshiba Morihei (often called Ō-Sensei), the founder of this Martial Art, belonged. After the war, although Ō-Sensei (the Aikido kaiso (開祖) or founder) had retired and was not teaching anymore, and although all the prewar students and deshi had stopped practicing or teaching, Aikido was revived by the Founder’s own son, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, and from the middle of the 1960s started to spread all over the world. Today, this Martial Art is present in more than 100 countries and is practiced by hundreds of thousands of people.
How did this happen and who was responsible for it?
Things are at the same time simpler and more complex than they look. The spreading of Aikido outside Japan did not result from a willful or a thoughtful decision, but rather from the initiative of a few young Aikido enthusiasts at the sight of an opportunity. It is now established that neither O-Sensei, nor Hombu Dojo First, it should be understood once and for all that neither Ō -Sensei nor Hombu Dojo or Kisshomaru Doshu ever officially dispatched anyone to specifically teach Aikido in Europe or anywhere. Indeed, all these teachers asked for and were granted Hombu Dojo’s agreement in their endeavor and although they did not receive any financial support, they had the moral backing of Aikido Headquarters in Japan. Many of them have now passed away but their legacy is firmly established as evidenced by the large number of Aikido players in Europe and all over the world.
*****
The Spreading of Aikido Outside Japan
The West discovered Aikido at the beginning of the 1950s when the first foreigners, including GIs in Japan or crews shooting documentaries about the country, visited to Hombu Dojo. It is also around this time (in 1953) that Koichi Tōhei, then Hombu’s chief instructor, traveled to Hawaï where he conducted his first Aikido classes. Subsequently, he visited the U.S. mainland to further develop this activity. Terry Dobson, an American who was doing volunteer work in Japan, became the first foreign uchi-deshi in the early 60s, and O-Sensei traveled to Hawaii on February 27, 1961.
In Europe, Minoru Moshizuki, a student of Jigoro Kano who studied Aikido under Founder Morihei Ueshiba in the 1930s, settled in France from 1951 to 1953 to teach Jūdō. He took this opportunity to give the first demonstrations of Aikido. Tadashi Abe, another of Ueshiba’s deshi and uncle of Yoshimitsu Yamada, arrived in France in 1952 to study at the Sorbonne University and started to conduct Aikido classes. Then, the mid-1950s, André Nocquet, one of Abe’s students, lived for several months in Japan to study Aikido before returning to France and succeed to his mentor before founding his own group.
During the decade of the 1950s, Jean-Gabriel Greslé, a pilot for Air France, and his wife Jacqueline visited Japan a number of times sometimes staying in the country for a few weeks, practicing at Hombu dojo and meeting O-Sensei. They returned to France and while pursuing their professional activities started to teach Aikido, which they still do today.
In Great Britain, Kenshiro Abe, invited to teach jūdō as early as 1955, founded the British Aikido Council, triggering the development of Aikido in the United Kingdom. He was followed by Kazuo Chiba in 1976.
During the 1960s, Aikido teaching spread over Europe thanks to Mitsuro Nakazono in France, Aritomo Murashige in Belgium and Hiroshi Tada in Italy. They were followed by former uchi-deshi of Second Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba, including Masamichi Noro and Nobuyoshi Tamura in France and other Hombu Dojo members who settle in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and various Scandinavian countries.
Yoshimitsu Yamada chose the United States, where he took control of the New York Aikikai in 1964. He was followed by Mitsunari Kanai, who established the New England Aikikai in Boston in 1966, and by Akira Tōhei, who settled in Chicago in 1972. The United States Aikido Federation was created in 1976.
By 1972, Hombu Dōjō was aware of Aikido’s spreading around the world, but it was not until 1976 that the International Aikido Federation was created and saw its first Congress in Tokyo that same year.
Europe
The first Japanese martial artist to set foot in France and to demonstrate Aikido techniques was MOCHIZUKI Minoru (1907, Japan –2003, France) who was a judo instructor taught by Kano Jigoro Sensei, the Judo founder. He also trained in Aikido for one year at Ueshiba Morihei’s Kobukan Dojo. |
 ABE Tadashi (1926, Japan –1984, Japan) was a pre-World War II student of Ō-Sensei. He moved to France in 1952 to study in Paris and lived there until 1959. He was related to the Imperial family and was Yamada Yoshimitsu’s uncle. He is credited as being the first Japanese to officially teach Aikido in the West. He befriended André Nocquet (born in 1914 in France – died in 1999 in France) whom he pushed to travel to Japan and sponsored the project.When Abe Tadashi moved back to Japan, he allegedly sold a license to teach Aikido to André Nocquet, a move that strongly irritated Hombu Dojo and resulted in legal action. Abe Tadashi Sensei has taught many of the French Aikidoka who, a few years later, welcome Tamura Nobuyoshi Shihan on his arrival in France. (For a short video featuring Abe Tadashi, go to “Aikido mit Kisshomaru Ueshiba und Tadashi Abe 1952 – YouTube”) |
 ABBE Kenshiro (1915, Japan –1985, Japan) spent 10 years in the UK from 1955 to 1965 and founded the British Judo Council in collaboration with Harada Mitsusuke (Shotokan Karate) and Abe Tadashi (Aikido). After his return to Japan, he requested Hombu Dojo to dispatch an Aikido instructor to the UK to teach the British Aikido Council. Chiba Kazuo was chosen by Hombu.(For more details about Chiba Sensei’s years in Great Britain, see Chiba Sensei under the tag “My Sensei”. |
[Note: The Japanese family name阿部 should be written “Abe” after romanization, whether for Abe Tadashi (阿部 正) or Abe Kenshiro (阿部 謙四郎). The British people might have chosen to spell it “Abbe” in the case of Abe Kenshiro to distinguish him from Abe Tadashi.]
Two other Japanese instructors have helped the development of Aikido in the 60s:
 NAKAZONO Mutsuro (1918, Japan –1994, USA) – Nakazono Sensei lived in France from 1961 to 1972 before being deported following his unwelcome comments on France nuclear testing. Close to Ō -Sensei, an authority on kototama (言霊) or sacred sounds/substance of word, acupuncture and Chinese medicine, an expert in Judo and Aikido, he was highly regarded in the budo world. He traveled the world from Mongolia to Vietnam, India, France, the U.K., and the United States and played an important part in developing Aikido in France and Great Britain. |
MURASHIGE Aritomo (1895, Japan –1964, Belgium) – Murashige Sensei, a close friend of Ō-Sensei and an accomplished swordsman and budoka, started traveling Europe in 1962 to teach Judo and occasionally Aikido. He died in a car crash in 1964. |
These instructors opened the door to two other young instructors, freshly out of Kisshomaru Doshu’s uchideshi program, who relocated to France and undertook the development of Aikido at the European level.
 NORO Masamichi (1935, Japan –2013, France) arrived in France in 1962. He had been an uchideshi at Hombu from 1955 to 1961. He started to establish himself as an Aikido teacher all over Europe but was victim of a major car accident in 1966.A few years later (officially in 1979), having recovered but still plagued by serious aftereffects from his wounds, he came up with a transformed version of Aikido which he called Kinomichi. His son is still teaching it in Paris. |
 TAMURA Nobuyoshi (1933, Japan –2010, France) – An uchideshi at Hombu Dojo from 1953, Tamura Sensei established himself in France in 1964, shortly after getting married. At first, he collaborated with Nakazono Sensei until the later departed for the US, and with Noro Sensei until his car accident, as well as with the other Aikido instructors active in France and Europe such as Mochizuki Sensei. He succeeded in building a strong organization and became a major figure in the development of Aikido outside Japan. |
Various Japanese instructors who operated in other countries of Europe and contributed in their own way to the development of Aikido must also be mentioned.
 TADA Hiroshi (1929, Japan) – A member of Hombu Dojo since 1950, he started to teach in Italy from 1964 and established the Dojo Centrale in Rome in 1967. In 1971, Fujimoto Yoji, one of his students took over the teaching in Italy while Tada returned to Japan.He still conducts regular seminars in Italy to this day, and he remains one of the most influential figures in Tokyo Aikido Headquarters. |
 CHIBA Kazuo (1940, Japan –2015, USA) – After training at Hombu Dojo as an uchideshi from 1958 to 1966 he moved to England and established the British Aikikai before moving back to Japan in 1976, then established himself in the US in 1981 where he founded a group with international ramifications under the name Birankai.Close to Tamura Sensei, he frequently traveled to France to teach during his tenure in the UK. |
 SUGANO Seichi (1939, Japan –2010, USA) – A Hombu Dojo uchideshi, he started to teach Aikido in 1967 in Australia before moving to Belgium on the request of Tamura Sensei in 1982. He relocated to New York in 1988 to assist Yamada Yoshimitsu Sensei. |
 IKEDA Masatomi (1940, 2021 Japan) – A student of Tada Sensei, he first spent some time in Italy before returning to Japan and finally moved to Switzerland in 1977 where he started teaching Aikido. |
 KITAURA Yasunari (1937, Japan – 2023, Spain) – A member of the Waseda University Aikido Club during his student years, he moved to Spain in 1967 to study at the University of Madrid. He was an art scholar specializing in El Greco’s works. |
 ASAI Katsuaki (1937, Japan) – He began studying Aikido as a child in Japan and moved to Germany in 1965 where he started to teach Aikido. |
 ICHIMURA Toshikazu (1941, Japan), a Hombu Dojo member from 1957, moved to Sweden in 1966, established a dojo in Stockholm. He has also taught in Finland and Denmark. He retired from teaching in 1986 and went back to Japan. |
 KOBAYASHI Yasuo (1936, Japan) discovered Aikido in 1954 and became an uchideshi after graduating from Meiji University. He founded his own dojo in 1969 and created an organization (Aikido Kobayashi) that has has affiliations all over the world and controls today more than 120 groups. |
The above sort of summarizes the impact and the influence of Japanese instructors in the development and the spreading of Aikido in Europe. The majority, if not all these instructors acted individually and did not have to report to Hombu Dojo or any other authority for that matter. They came to Europe for personal reasons or because they saw an opportunity. They worked extremely hard as it was not easy for any of them. Making a living in the martial business outside Japan was and remains harsh. Most of them had to face language problems, at least on their arrival, not to mention other cultural and social problems (British people were quite upset by the way the Japanese treated their prisoners during WWII and did not welcome Japanese people on their soil for a while). But they did a great job and succeeded in their endeavor.
*****
U.S.A.
As for the USA, here is what Josh Gold from Aikido Journal wrote in August 2011:
 TŌHEI Kōichi (1920, Japan – 2011, Japan) is considered the first to have introduced aikido to the U. S. when he traveled to Hawaii in February 1953 at the invitation of the Hawaii Nishi Kai. Tōhei, at that time representing the Aikikai Hombu, established numerous schools on the islands during his one-year stay. He also made a brief trip to California in May 1953 where he demonstrated aikido at an AAU-sponsored judo event in San Jose. In June of the same year, Tomiki Kenji (1900 – 1979, Japan) and a group of high-ranking judo instructors also visited the continental U. S. at the invitation of the U. S. Air Force. Some aikido techniques were shown during the seminars and demonstrations conducted on this tour. Thereafter, the Strategic Air Command sent groups of martial artists to Japan annually to study aikido, karate-do, judo, kendo, and taiho-jutsu.Tōhei Kōichi made subsequent trips to Hawaii in 1955, 1959 and 1961, each time staying for extended periods. The 1961 trip was especially memorable because Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba accompanied him on his first and only trip to Hawaii. Some of Tōhei’s senior Hawaiian students such as Isao Takahashi, Ben Sekishiro, Tokuji Hirata, Clem Yoshida, Roderick Kobayashi, and others relocated to California in the late 1950s and early 1960s when the Aikikai began to establish firm roots on the mainland. |
 The first full-time instructor dispatched by the Aikikai was YAMADA Yoshimitsu (1938, Japan – 2023, U.S.A.) who arrived in New York in 1964. Yamada was the leading figure in the Aikikai organization in the Eastern U. S. Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba made his first U. S. tour in 1964 and this stimulated increased interest in the art.
[It is interesting to note that Aikikai has never officially “dispatched” any of its members to teach abroad and during an interview conducted by Léo Tamaki in December 2012, Yamada Sensei stated that:
|
 Yamada was followed in 1966 by KANAI Mitsunari (1939, Manchuria – 2004, Canada) who began instructing in Boston, Massachusetts.
Another Aikikai instructor, MARUYAMA Shuji, also moved to the U. S. in 1966 and eventually settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later in March 1972, TŌHEI Akira was sent to Chicago to replace Isao Takahashi who had recently died. Tōhei Akira is today the major Aikikai figure in the Midwestern U. S. |
 In 1975, one of the Aikikai Hombu instructors, SAOTOME Mitsugi (1937, Japan), resigned his teaching post and moved to Florida where he taught in a private capacity. Saotome, who later relocated to Washington, D. C., was not welcomed into the United States Aikido Federation and subsequently formed his own organization called Aikido Schools of Ueshiba. After operating independently for many years, Saotome’s organization was recognized in 1988 by the Aikikai which now registers its dan rankings. This group includes some 100 dojos at the present time. |
 CHIBA Kazuo (1940, Japan – 2015, USA), who had previously taught in the U. K., relocated to San Diego, California in 1981 at the invitation of the USAF. Dans un premier temps responsable de la région de l’Ouest des États-Unis, Chiba Sensei créera ensuite son propre groupe (le Birankai) aux ramifications internationales.
|
| SUGANO Seiichi (1939, Japan – 2010 USA) joined Yamada at the New York Aikikai to share teaching duties in 1987. In 1989, another Aikikai Shihan, 6th dan |
 SHIBATA Ichiro (1950, Japan), left his teaching post at the Aikikai Hombu to become the chief instructor of Aikido of Berkeley, in Northern California. Shibata works in close collaboration with Chiba, and the two often instruct at seminars together. |
Although estimates as to the total number of aikido schools in the U. S. vary greatly, a range of 700 to 1,000 appears to be a reasonable guess. While originally organized in four regions more or less autonomous, the Eastern region under Yamada and Kanai, the Midwestern region under Tohei Akira, the Western region under Chiba Kazuo and Shibata Ichiro, and Hawaï under Yoshioka Sadao, the USAF was reconfigured under one organization in 2005 and today, controls more than 200 member dojos.