Takeji Tomita
Takeji Tomita (富ç"°æ¦æ²»
Tomita Takeji), born 3 Feb 1942 in
Hamamatsu in
Shizuoka,
Japan, is a Japanese
aikido teacher who since the 1960s lives in
Sweden. He teaches in his own
dojo in
Stockholm, Aikido Dojo Stockholm, as well as in some others in Sweden and around the world. He has taught and demonstrated aikido on numerous occasions in Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Russia, Poland and the United States.
Takeji Tomita is ranked 7th
dan in the
Aikikai. He also holds an 8th dan from a Japanese budo organisation, which is not an aikido rank. Tomita belongs to the kind of aikido teacher who points out the effectiveness of techniques as the core of the art. He teaches aikido weapons -
jo and
bokken - according to
Morihiro Saito's system.
Tomita began practising aikido at university in 1961, and joined the Aikikai in
Tokyo in 1962. He trained as an
uchi-deshi under the founder of aikido,
Morihei Ueshiba, and under Morihiro Saito at the
Iwama Dojo in
Ibaraki prefecture. He is generally considered a student of Morihiro Saito's. In 1969, on the death of the founder, he relocated to Sweden and began work spreading Aikido in
Scandinavia together with - and in competition with - the instructor then formally in charge of aikido in Sweden,
Toshikazu Ichimura. He first landed in the city of
Gothenburg, where he and his Gothenburg student such as
Ulf Evenås have had large influence on the local aikido scene. He soon moved to Stocholm, and founded his
dojo, Aikido Dojo Stockholm, in 1976. Saito and Tomita split up their teacher - student relationship during the 1980s. The major part of Tomita's students then preferred to follow Saito direct rather than split off together with Tomita, which was one major reason for the creation of the organisation
Iwama Ryu.
Tomita continued on his own, and since the death of his previous techer Morihiro Saito he has distanced himself from the Aikikai. In 1992 he created his own style organisation,
Takemusu Aiki Tomita Academy (or shorter
Tomita Academy), to promote what he feels is the correct study of Japanese
budo. He has not formally left the Aikikai but most of his activities takes place outside of the Aikikai; he mainly gives
dan ranks in his own organisation rather than in Aikikai.
His wife, Kishti Tomita, has become wellknown for the Swedish audience as one of the judges in the TV show
Idol 2005.
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Homepage of Takemusu Aiki Tomita Academy
