AI (pronounced "I") is translated as harmony, KI (pronounced "key") is the life force or spiritual energy, and KI (pronounced "doe") means Path or Way (the same as TAO). Aikido can thus be translated as "the Way of Harmonizing "ki" or the Way of Harmony.



Yamaguchi Shihan was a direct student of the Founder of Aikido, Ueshiba Morihei O Sensei. He held the rank of ninth dan and instructed at Tokyo Hombu Dojo for many years as well as at his private dojo and at Meiji University. Yamaguchi Shihan died in 1996.



Takeda Shihan's main dojo is in Yokohama; his senior students have established dojos throughout Australia, as well as in New Zealand, the U.S., Germany, and British Columbia Canada.

Kootenay Aikido Kenkyukai ( Kootenay Aikido Study Association) is a branch of Aikido KenkyuKai International, which is under the direction of Yoshinobu Takeda Shihan (grand master), 7th dan.





Jean-René Leduc was born in 1956 in St. Clet, Quebec, the youngest of four children. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico studying Spanish and Italian.

In 1979 he attended the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and in 1980 began his macrobiotic and Japanese cultural studies at the Kushi Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was there that he met William Gleason sensei and started to practice Aikido at what is now Shobu Aikido of Boston. Gleason sensei not only introduced the art of Aikido to Jean-René; his in-depth study of Japanese language and culture inspired his students with a love for all things Japanese. Gleason sensei is the author of The Spiritual Foundations of Aikido. Jean-René embarked on Japanese language studies at the Harvard Extension School in 1985, later continuing at the Naganuma and Ichibei schools in Tokyo.

In 1986 Gleason sensei invited Takeda Yoshinobu sensei to Brooklin, after which Jean-René left North America for a five-year stay in Japan. He underwent intensive training with Takeda sensei, whose dojo is located on the outskirts of Yokohama. Takeda Shihan holds the rank of seventh dan and has raised many high-ranking students who have established their own dojos, in Japan and elsewhere. Jean-René had the privilege of practicing with those senior students, and also the remarkable opportunity of training under Yamaguchi Seigo Shihan.

In 1992 Jean-René relocated to the Kootenays of British Columbia, and opened several dojos. The main dojo is in Nelson. Dojos operate under the auspices of Takeda Shihan and Aikido Kenkyukai International. At the beginning of 2003, Kootenay Aikido Kenkyukai's membership comprised 25 adults and an equal number of children. Jean-René holds the rank of fifth dan from Tokyo Hombu Dojo.

In the spring of 2002 Roland Werner, who had been training for 10 years under Jean-René sensei, began the construction of a large, traditional-style dojo near the village of Slocan in the magnificent Slocan Valley. The facility is used by local practitioners as well as international visitors. Roland and his wife, Marcia, also an Aikido student, and their daughter Lily are wholly committed to the Art of Peace.