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About the Publication
What lies beneath the visible surface of Aikido?
For Paolo N. Corallini, technique cannot be separated from the principles, traditions and ideas that give it meaning. A practitioner since 1969 and a direct student of Morihiro Saito sensei, Corallini has spent decades exploring both the martial practice of Aikido and the spiritual and philosophical traditions surrounding it.
In conversation with Simone Chierchini, he retraces his encounter with Saito sensei and his experience in Iwama, offering personal memories of the man behind the renowned teacher. From there, the discussion moves into the different pedagogical approaches that developed within Aikido, their relationship with tradition and the questions facing the art today.
The Hermeticist reveals Corallini’s distinctive approach: learned, inquisitive and constantly searching beyond technique for the principles that lie beneath the visible form of Aikido.
I have lived almost 25 years, 24 hours a day with the Founder and received from him the assignment to be dōjō-cho here, so I am not free. I am no one to permit myself to change or interpret what O-sensei has told me and given me.
—Morihiro Saito sensei
Product Details
Publisher: The Ran Network
Publication date: 26 October 2021
Language: English
Print length: 108 pages
ISBN-13: 979-8753773739
Item weight: 186 g
Dimensions: 12.85 x 0.71 x 19.84 cm
Part of series: The Aiki Dialogues
Table of Contents
The Beginning of the Journey
Arriving in Iwama
The Man Behind the Teacher
What Is Takemusu Aikidō?
A New Founder?
Morihiro Saitō and Spirituality
Aiki-Dancers and Aiki-Bricks
Expressive Freedom in Aikidō
Harmony in Aikidō and its Adulterated Versions
The Future of Aikidō
Tips for Beginners
Supplement: Paolo Corallini’s Traditional Aikidō Dōjō
About the Author
Simone Chierchini is an author, editor and Aikido teacher who has been immersed in the art since 1972. A direct student of Hideki Hosokawa and Yoji Fujimoto, he also trained under leading Japanese teachers including Hiroshi Tada and has travelled internationally as both student and instructor.
Alongside his martial practice, Chierchini has devoted decades to documenting and promoting Aikido and Budo culture. Formerly editor-in-chief of the Italian Aikikai’s official magazine Aikido, in 2011 he founded Aikido Italia Network. He later established The Ran Network, an international publishing project dedicated to martial culture.
As an author and editor, he has produced numerous interviews, biographies and historical works, including volumes devoted to his teachers Hosokawa and Fujimoto, while directing The Aiki Dialogues series.
