The University of Tasmania Aikido Club
One of the oldest martial-arts clubs in Australia, with a history going back to 1954. It was originally the University Judo Club, but with the introduction of aikido in 1971, a separate club was formed for the specific teaching and practice of aikido. With Nakajima Sensei as the principel instructor and representative of Fuji Ryu Aikido in Japan, the club was directly involved in the establishment of the Fuji Ryu Aikido Federation in 1978. The club was for some years the Federation’s headquarters in Australia.
In 2006 the club established a relationship with Kobayashi Dojo in Tokyo/Japan and members of the club were accepted as uchi deshi into Kobayashi dojo.
Since 2008 the club is affiliated with the Aikido Kenkyukai International which has about 20 dojos in Australia. Aikido Kenkyukai International (AKI) is an affiliation of aikido clubs inspired by the teachings of Sensei Yoshinobu Takeda 8th dan AIKIKAI of Kamakura Japan. The main instructor since about 2010 is Suzuki Yassuyuki, Tokyo, 7th dan. Suzuki sensei was student of Takeda and Yamaguchi sensei – Takeda sensei was in turn also longterm student of Yamaguchi sensei, a Hombu shihan and student of O-sensei. AKI dojos are directly linked to Aikikai Honbu Dojo (Aikido World Headquarters) in Tokyo through Takeda Sensei.