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Shodokan Aikido

Kenji Tomiki was an outstanding student of Morihei Ueshiba and Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. Kano had developed a system of competitive practice (randori) in order to help students develop their Judo skill in a safe yet unpredictable scenario. As a safety precaution, Kano omitted certain kinds of technique from his Judo randori, namely striking and wrist locking techniques.

Tomiki Shihan believed that the educational principles and randori training of Judo could be applied to Aikido. Through a lifetime of study and development, Tomiki devised a set of 17 techniques which could be applied in competition (the randori no kata) including striking (atemi waza) and wrist locking (tekubi waza). He also created a series of basic practices (kihon kozo) to develop the core skills present in all Aikido techniques. These elements are the distinguishing factor between Shodokan and other styles of Aikido.

These two developments were not universally accepted into Aikido, and Tomiki was forced to give his method of training a specific name. At the same time he did not wish for his name to be attached to it so that it could continue to grow and develop beyond his own ideas. For this reason the term "Shodokan" is used, and not "Tomiki Aikido".

Tomiki Shihan left responsibility for worldwide technical development of Shodokan Aikido to Tetsuro Nariyama Shihan, who continues to develop and promote Aikido worldwide.