I think if you look you'll find that Ueshiba Morihei also used the Yoshida mon.

The story goes that he was the person who actually introduced Morihei to Sokaku Takeda around 1915 in Hokkaido. Yoshida Kotaro Sensei introduced Morihei to Sokaku. The other side line is our line from Yoshida Kotaro Sensei to his son Yoshida Kenji Sensei, and then Angier Sensei to Kuroda Sensei. Yoshida Sensei was sempai to Ueshiba Sensei in Daito ryu and founded Aikido which B.J. Yoshida Kotaro is at the center of both lines. The sixth one has been added and that is of Kuroda Tetsuzan Sensei with whom I am currently studying. So we've got five Shodan photos which is pretty unusual. Carlisle who James just mentioned is here and then Don Angier who is the teacher of James on the right. In the center position is Yoshida Kotaro who is the father of Don Angier's teacher whose name was Yoshida Kenji, and then you've got Ueshiba Morihei the founder of aikido, B.J. So you've got an interesting series of photos up there. Sensei�s picture up over the Kamidana that is it up there. Out of respect and recognition for his work, I put B.J. When he died, they ran into a bit of trouble keeping the dojo and it worked out that I could take the dojo over and they could still have their classes and everything here and keep most of the stuff the way it was. for all those years and this had been his dojo for probably nine or ten years. in the early 70's and studied with him for awhile, he is the one who pointed me in the direction of Yanagi-ryu under John Clodig Sensei with whom I trained for a couple of years and then began training with John Clodig Sensei's teacher Don Angier Sensei who is the Soke who inherited by direct succession Yanagi ryu. From being a marine Pacific campaign veteran who was wounded very badly and survived, to his ability as a healer and a martial artist. taught aikido and was a very, very interesting guy in all kinds of ways. Well, in the early 70's I met a man named B.J. Could you just give us a brief synopsis of how it came to be that you're here today? James, what's the name of your dojo here?Īnd this dojo has an interesting background in that it began as an aikido dojo. Stanley Pranin: I'm here with James Williams and several of his students in his dojo in Encinitas, California. The following interview of James Williams was conducted by Stanley Pranin at his dojo in Encinitas, California on November 1, 2004.

Odd looking iaido stance