Seminar 17: Sensei Yoshmitsu Yamada 8 dan aikido aikikai St Petersbur, Russia, june 2017

Yoshimitsu Yamada (山田嘉光 born February 17, 1938)[1] is an aikido instructor. He is ranked 8th dan in the Aikikai and is the chief instructor at the dojo New York Aikikai. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Yamada became interested in aikido through his father’s cousin, Tadashi Abe, who trained at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo and was a friend of Koichi Tohei. He entered Hombu Dojo as an uchi deshi in 1955 at the age of 17. His exposure to westerners and ability to speak English made him a natural choice to teach to American soldiers. He first came to the United States in 1964 to do an aikido demonstration at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. In 1966 Yamada and his family hosted Virginia Mayhew, an aikido practitioner from New York. Although the original New York Aikikai was founded in 1961 and led by Yasuo Ohara, when Yamada moved to New York he assumed control and moved the dojo from its 18th Street local to its present location. In those days there was no other aikido teacher (with the exception of the original NY Ai