This year’s Kagamibiraki ceremony took place at the Aikido Hombu Dojo in Shinjuku on Sunday, January 14th, 2024. This was the first fully public occurrence of the event since the COVID19 pandemic started.

The Kagamibiraki ceremony is the occasion for the Hombu Dojo members and other Aikikai affiliates to gather for the first time in the new year. The level of excitement is always high as people are queuing before the event, as this is also on that day that the year’s promotions to 5th dan and above are officially proclaimed. We are very excited to announce that our own Dojo-cho, Guillaume Erard Sensei, was promoted by Doshu to the rank of 6th dan.

Guillaume Sensei and I before the event

Guillaume Sensei and I attended the event like every year (we were responsible for the live streams during the COVID pandemic) and were able to greet many of our friends and teachers from Japan and beyond, as people made their way into the dojo. Most notably, we were able to chat with Okamoto Yoko Sensei who came to accompany her husband Christopher Mulligan and her close student Suzuki Daisaku who were about to be promoted to 7th and 5th dan, respectively.

The official event started with a New Year speech from Doshu Ueshiba Moriteru, the grandson of Aikido’s founder. Doshu paid respect to the victims of the Noto earthquake that occurred on January 1st. He then rejoiced about us being able to be together for the first time since COVID started, and shared his thought on how Aikido could contribute to a better society.

Doshu’s speech

The speech was followed with an Ono-enbu by Hombu Dojo-cho Ueshiba Mitsuteru and Doshu Sensei. As always, their mastery and flow in spite of the very small amount of space was incredible.

Dojo-cho and Doshu’s demonstration

Afterward, one representative person for each dan level, from 1st dan to 8th dan, were handed their certificate by Doshu and Hombu Dojo-cho. 

Doshu and Dojo-cho awarding the 8th dan to Takao Arisue, Harvey Konigsberg and Michael Abrams

Note that it is a tradition that the Hombu Dojo members are awarded their certificates privately from Doshu after the event. Guillaume Sensei therefore met Doshu and Dojo-cho after a Friday evening class in Doshu's office, and he was given his certificate.

Guillaume Sensei receiving his 6th dan certificate privately from Doshu a few days later

A party then followed, where the guests were able to enjoy eating some kagami-mochi prepared in the morning by the Hombu Dojo teachers, and drinking some nihonshu while mingling with friends and looking up the names of all those promoted worldwide, hopefully spotting the names of their friends in the list.

We would like to congratulate our Hombu Dojo Shidoin Uematsu Sho, for his promotion to 6th dan. Long time Hombu Dojo friends DJ Lortie, Ennio Paleari and Ludovic Cauderan were also promoted to 6th dan. Also of note, our friends from France, Fabrice Croize and Helene Doue received the 6th dan. We would also like to congratulate Lia Suzuki and Christopher Mulligan for her promotion to 7th dan. The full list of promotions is available here.

After the ceremony, we were treated to a wonderful Romanian dinner by the International Aikido Federation’s General Secretary, Mr Dorin Marchis, at his newly built Nobori restaurant located a few steps from the Hombu Dojo. The former building used to be the site of a very popular restaurant for Hombu Dojo members, and Guillaume Sensei told us that he spent many, many lively evenings there with Miyamoto Sensei and his students. Many years later, it felt to him not only appropriate, but also quite emotional to be there celebrating his promotion with us.

When I spoke to Guillaume Sensei after the event, he mentioned being very happy not only for himself, but more importantly for Yokohama AikiDojo and its members, because he reckoned that this promotion, associated with everyone’s dedication and enthusiasm, will greatly help consolidate our dojo within our immediate community as well as in the Kanagawa Prefecture as a whole.

With this new recognition for our dojo, we look forward to see everyone on the mat in 2024 with even more energy and motivation! We would also like to thank Osawa Hayato Shihan for his help and support of our dojo.