Motomichi Anno Sensei, 8th Dan, is the current chief instructor at the Kumano Juku Aikido dojo in Shingu, Japan.

Over the past several years, under the sponsorship of North Bay Aikido and Linda Holiday Sensei, many aikidoka in the Bay Area have been priviliged to experience Anno Sensei’s teachings, experiences, and insights into the Art (and Heart) of Aikido.

Anno Sensei will again visit Northern California in July of 2005 as a guest instructor at the Santa Cruz Aikido Summer Retreat.  For more information check the North Bay Aikido website: http://www.northbayaikido.org/home.html

On a recent visit, I had an opportunity to ask Anno Sensei the same questions that I use for the monthly “Spotlight On” feature page of the CAA website. Although I did not record or takes notes at the time,Linda Holiday Sensei (who was translating) assures me that the following article accurately represents his replies.

- Michael Smith, 12 November 2004
Anno Sensei in Shingu, Japan, 1978. Photograph by Laurin Herr. Used by permission.


Motomichi Anno Sensei

How did you first discover Aikido?
I first became interested in studying a martial art shortly after the end of World War II. It was an unsettled time in Japan and I felt that I needed to be strong and that I needed to learn self-defense. There were few choices in the area in which I lived, the closest being a Judo school in another town. For a while I attended classes there, but as it was an hour ride by bicycle from my house to the school, I began to look for another school.
When I first came to the Kumano Juku Aikido dojo in Shingu and asked if I could join, I was told that I was too young - the minimum age was 25 and I was only 23! But, being told that I could not practice there only made me more eager to find a way to join. The head of the dojo at that time was Kubo sensei, O Sensei's first student in Shingu. Hikitsuchi sensei was also there, and had some responsibility in the dojo. I knew the older brother of Hikitsutchi sensei's wife, so I contacted him. It was through him asking Mrs. Hikitsutchi, who interceded on my behalf, that I was allowed to join the dojo.
It seems that many of the other students were aware of the fact that an exception had been made to allow me to train, and I was constantly being challenged by them with the question "Do you have what it takes to keep going in your training?"
I very much enjoyed my initial training, but challenges soon arose to test my enthusiasm. The training was very hard and as winter came there would be occasions when I would not attend classes for a period of time. And always at such times I would receive a phone call from Hikitsutchi sensei asking me "Where have you been? When will you be back in class?"

What is your most memorable Aikido experience?
O Sensei often came to teach at the Shingu dojo. I remember one day arriving very early before anyone else. I dressed and entered the dojo and began stretching and warming up.
O Sensei came out into the dojo and, on seeing me, invited me into his office. He had been reading the daily horoscope, noting that we were both born in the year of the sheep. But he then tossed the book aside, saying that it was all garbage.
O Sensei told me that he saw that I was a sincere student of Aikido. This meant a great deal to me. He also noted that the kanji character which represents the first part of my first name, "moto", has the meaning of "elemental" or "pure". O Sensei said that this was quite an appropriate name for me; that what he saw in me was a pure and open mind. When I have had a hard time in my training, the memory of those words of O Sensei encourage me. They still resonate vividly inside me today.
In the 50+ years that I have been practicing Aikido, these two experiences (O Sensei's words of praise, and Hikitsuchi sensei's exhortation to keep training) have been important influences in sustaining my continued study of the art.