Federations

Established by Charles ABELÉ, a student of Hirokazu Kobayashi sensei, this school promotes and developes aikido and aikitaiso.

The Aikido Institut was established in Zürich on September 20, 1984 by Roland Spitzbarth. He had just returned from an extended stay in California and Japan and wanted to start his own group in Zürich apart from the personal and political differences that were rampant in the Swiss Aikido scene at that time. At the inauguration ceremony present were Masatomi Ikeda from Zürich and Kaz Nishida from Los Angeles. Early helpers were Andreas Raymann who found the house where we built the dojo, Robert Carletti who loaned us the money for the mats and Kurt Bartholet who helped with the construction as well as with the teaching during the first few years. Visiting Aikido friends invited for weekend training seminars include Pat Hendricks, Bruce Klickstein, Tony Sargeant, Lewis de Quiros, Miles Kessler and Paolo Corallini.
The Aikido Institut has always steered an independent course, providing training of top-level traditional Aikido for hundreds of students over the years. It has continuously been affiliated to the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo through the personal contacts and the lineage of its main teacher Roland Spitzbarth. It has successfully conducted large international seminar with Morihiro Saito Sensei in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1999, his son Hitohiro 1999 and 2000 as well as Robert Nadeau 1997, 1998 and 2000.

Further milestones are the opening of Aikido Institut City 1997, the closing of the old Höngg dojo 1998 and the opening of Aikido Uster and Aikido Bodensee in 1999. The Höngg dojo reopened in 2001 in a more central location under the name aiki-dojo.ch. In 2005 Aikido Birsfelden joined the group.

The Aikido Institut teaches traditional Aikido including the complete weapons program of Saito Sensei with a strong emphasis on precision and clarity as well as the application of the art in daily life and its emotional and psychological impact.

Affiliated dojos are responsible for their own programs. They are free to join other federations, for example aiki-dojo.ch is also a member of CAA and therefore the Aikikai.

The AIG is a group in which participate different dojos having reciprocal exchanges and the common goal of supporting aikido development independently of any federation’s domain. Aikido Zürich and Aikido Luzern with their common teacher Kurt Bartholet started this in the eighties. Today, the previously varius dojos headed by former students or friends are now involved. The aikido style varies between Iwama ryu and Honbu (Aikikai) following sensei Endo or sensei Frank Doran from California. People meet from time to time, organize special training sessions for teachers, visit and train in each other dojos, do seminars and form together examination-committees.

Aikido Switzerland has been established in 2011 by Michele Quaranta, a student of Masatomi Ikeda, following a spinoff of few dojos from ACSA (see above). It is open to all aikido styles and indipendent from any Shihan.
Aikido Switzerland is an association of dojos organized around the idea to explore, promote and distribute the knowledge of the Aikido.
Aikido Switzerland is organized as an umbrella organization, with different dojo-groups inside. Every group is an organization for itself. It has to respect the common regulations of the association which are based on the international regulations edited by the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo.
There is no unique aikido style that characterizes the association. It is based on the mutual respect toward personal differences and expressions of Ai, Ki and Do. Aikido Switzerland encourages and supports the exchanges between the different groups and dojos of the association.

Some aikido professors have decided to create a group in order to share their experience - several decades - of practice, teaching and understanding of structures that govern the Aikido practice.
A single professor alone is nothing: many qualified practitioners are involved in this process.

Established by Gozo Shioda, the IYAF (International Yoshinkai Aikido Federation) is a volunteer organization which links together over 100 Yoshinkan Aikido dojos worldwide. Based at the Honbu dojo in Tokyo, Japan, the IYAF coordinates the certification of Yoshinkan practitioners ranked Shodan and above.
The IYAF assists with tours by Honbu dojo instructors and is the focal point for foreign correspondance to the honbu dojo.
In addition, the IYAF assists the honbu dojo with the Kokusai Senshusei Instructor's Course. Later in 2008 the IYAF changed into AYF (Aikido Yoshinkan Foundation)

Jean-Pierre Le Pierres, founded the Fédération Aïkitai-Jutsu Ryu Abe in order to promote the teaching of Aïkitai-Jutsu.
In the beginning this federation was called Aïkido Ryu Abe, later Aïkitai-Jutsu Ryu Abe.
The practice style of Aiki Master Tadashi Abe, forerunner and pioneer of French and European Aikido, sent to Europe in 1952, is then called Aïkitai-Jutsu and wanted a martial and realistic practice.
Aïkitai-Jutsu is seen as the synthesis of the work of O Sensei and Tadashi Abe. In the spirit of Tadashi Abe’s practice, its attacks and techniques must be realistic and do not mix the educational side and the application side, therefore Aïkitai Jutsu is also called a "hard" style.
This discipline unlike other budo do not teach spiritual aspects leaving the choice to each practitioner its study, nor it considers the sports aspects. This discipline place itself as bujutsu.

In the Sixties where in Europe aikido was almost unknown even in Switzerland there was no aikido dojo. Some individuals tried to build up some contacts with different masters like Nakazono and Tamura senseis, and seminars have been managed. In 1969 ACSA has been founded as the the first Aikido Association in Switzerland. Nakazono and Tamura sensei had a vital role for the first development of aikido in Switzerland and the relationship with such important masters was consolidated since more than 5 years.

ACSA was developing year after year, increasing the amount of its sections. The short interludes of the Japanese senseis Tamura and Nakazono were not considered up-to-date anymore. Furthermore neither the commitment for several months of Nakazono Sensei Junior (4th dan), one of the best trainers ever had, managed to change this matter of facts.
Nonetheless some members built up strong relationships with the Japanese senseis.
As a result, in 1977 ACSA decided to build up its own Shihans program in Switzerland.
Until then many very different training styles had been practiced in the existing dojos. Some were deeply influenced by Tamura Sensei or by Noquet Sensei, others tried to maintain Nakazono Sensei’s inheritance.

And finally the moment came! Ikeda Sensei started to teach as an official trainer in Switzerland. He was introduced during a seminar. Everybody was impressed and enthusiastic. Everyone noticed, besides his extraordinary height, his steadfastness and his posture. Resistance to his movements was useless, otherwise one would hurt oneself! It was immediately possible to notice a systematic training structure.
Hopefully the catastrophic conditions prior to Ikeda’s efforts had been forgotten. ACSA was blessed by the presence of a Japanese sensei. As a result, different positions regarding this sensei and his approach were taken: going from hard critics to strong collaboration, whereas critics were the less.
Having a Japanese sensei paid in such a situation.

The clear structure of his training really was fruitful. Aikido has never been taught and practiced so seriously and intensively as during that first period of ten years with Ikeda Sensei! There were regular international seminars, regular weekend trainings with 50 to 100 participants, an increasing amount of members and of initiatives in the dojos. When you say growth in aikido, it goes without saying that there was a qualitative expansion rather than pure quantitative. Suddenly Ikeda Aikido was not to be smiled at anymore, but appreciated by the other Budo disciplines.

The goal of AIATJ is to promote the development and traditional Japanese principles of Aikido following the spirit of its founder O sensei Morihei Ueshiba and the teachings of Gérard Blaize