A Special Event

Saturday night a large group of Aikido teachers and students gathered to honor Robert Nadeau shihan's 60th year in martial arts. The event was held at the Capitol Club in downtown San Jose and the aikido community gathered from all over. Many who could not be in attendance sent their congratulations via email and even video. Senseis Frank Doran, Mary Heiny, Linda Holiday, Richard Moon, Pat Hendricks, Michael Friedl, Peter Ralls, James Friedman, and countless others gathered to honor Nadeau sensei. My apologies for leaving out anyone but my head is still spinning.

Nadeau sensei started Judo at age 15. In the early sixties he was in Japan training at Hombu dojo and was a personal student of Osensei. Nadeau sensei was apparently one of the few people Osensei would field questions from. And there were times Nadeau sensei was called into the office by Osensei for some teaching or clarification. We are not talking technique here, but the transmission of the deeper essence of aikido.

Nadeau sensei currently runs division 3 of the California Aikido Association, with schools on a local, national, and international  level...When I first started aikido in fall of 1969  he was already running the Mt View dojo. He was instrumental in the UC Santa Cruz Aikido club starting because he appeared in a demonstration the helped launch the club where I first began training. My understanding is that he was the first full time aikido instructor in the state of California. He was issued in the sixties a teaching certificate signed by both Morihei Ueshiba Osensei and his son and successor, nidai Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

Nadeau sensei is well known for his unique approach to aikido that transcends the teaching of just technique to focus on developmental aspects of the individual student from the personal to the universal level. He is to this day deeply committed to solving the mystery of Osensei's art and passing it on to us.

So congratulations!

I am also including a video I did a couple of years ago. Due to youtube's at the time 10 minute limit for videos I had to edit it. But now the full video has recently been uploaded. Get ready for.......