Budo: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido

This book is a very good introduction to Morihei Ueshiba and Aikidō.I have read this book many years ago and felt the need to read it again.I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Japanese culture and martial arts.

The more you know about Aikido and what it really is, the better you will be at it. This book provides some of the most fundamental teachings of O'Sensei in words and pictures. Albeit, it is probably not ideal for the novice practitioner. Most of the sequences consist of 3 pictures. And, while educational, we have had a good laugh about a few of them: Frame 1- uke attacks. Frame 2- tori blocks, Frame 3- uke is on the ground across the dojo :). We are not quite sure how he got there.But, it has provided hours of exploration and experimentation. If you have some Aikido experience, you can generally work out the technique which is always very subtle and very elegant. I believe even the most practiced aikidoka (especially the most experienced aikidoka?) could learn from this text.

Book came in great shape. It is something I purchased for my son who has been practicing Aikido for about 7 years. It is a nice combination of history and technique. I recommend for anyone who practices or who is interested in learning about Aikido.

I really liked the book as someone who tried Aikido and quit because of other commitments I had, it shows Ueshiba having abilities from other maritial arts combining them together. Pre WW2 Aikido was more aggressive with use of Atemi waza ( my opinion) today's Aikido in some circles do not use atemi. He even says in a real fight Aikido is 70% atemi, even still, it was a nice read.

The history and teachings are very informational if your interested in how master O'sensie started budo, bujutsu, aikido. His teachings of the warrior path and spirit and the arts is very enlightening. Love the book i find the teaching and spirituality more then what was expected, if your a martial artist interested in the history of budo/aikido i have found so far no other book as informational.

This is book is great!!

This book is a must have for Aikidokas as it provides O'sensei's definition of Aikido Techniques. Any book written after this one is only a supposition of what O'sensei "tried to say or to do"I share the contents of this book with my fellow Aikidokas and we're amazed of the "logic" these techniques have at the moment of performing them.This was one of my best purchases through Amazon.Mac.

I liked it. I like reading about Aikido.

`Budo' is another John Stevens translation of Morihei Ueshibas essays, poems and ideas on Aikido. This has an introduction by Kisshomaru Ueshiba giving a brief synopsis of O Senseis life and makes for informative reading. More than anything else this book is a collection of photos of O Sensei from various times in his life. They show him performing various techniques (a great many suwari-waza) which make for fascinating viewing. Many of the later photos aren't annotated or described, apart from a label of the technique being employed, so this isn't meant to be instructional, but rather historical. This makes for a good record of O Sensei performing various Aikido techniques if nothing else. The writings of O Sensei in this book are brief but insightful and this is a book for adept Aikido practitioners who want to add to their Aikido bookshelf. This isn't the first Aikido book I'd recommend, but it is certainly one to come to once you have been training for a while and after you have explored other texts on the topic.Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

A brilliant book when O'Sensei was teaching and promulgating a martial budo, practical, efficient and effective Aikido. the book was written in a different era so the reader needs to take account of that; however that said it is a useful piece of history on paper. A book cannot teach you Aikido but it is a very useful supporting tool! highly recommended.

love it

Gold dust

Everything that I was expecting