Review: Aikido Comes to America by Antonio Aloia

Title: Aikido Comes to America

Author: Antonio Aloia

Publisher: Tambuli Media

Publish Date: Sept 01, 2020

Format: Softcover

Pages: 180

Cover Price: $24.95/$9.99 (Kindle)

Sometimes, the title sells the book. I’ve always enjoyed the history aspect of martial arts and Aikido has such an interesting history. So I had to get this one.  I very quickly realized this was a well written book which tells more of a story than a boring accounting of dates. I enjoyed Aikido Comes to America so much, I read it in under 48 hours.

Content

Because of its relatively recent development (since 1942) Aikido has a documented development. However, most books on Aikido focus on either the philosophy or the techniques of the art. There is a normally a nominal history at the beginning of the book, but it is usually focused on either the one branch of the author’s Aikido, or is about the life of the founder, Ueshiba O-Sensei. This book, with a near academic level of sources, focuses in on the history itself. Specifically the history of how Aikido came to, and developed in the United States.  He tells the tale warts and all.  Of course it does go through a small biography of the founder, but only in reference to its eventual transmission and development in the US.

Pros

Aikido Comes to America has several really nice features for this book. First, the history is told more of as a story, rather than a collection of dates and occurrences, which it could easily have delved into. Second, it is not style specific. Aikido has a problem with style/organization competition.  Mr. Aloia does a good job of describing the development of these organizations and breaking of older organizations.

The author also holds no reserves when talking about the problems with enrollment in traditional martial arts, and maybe Aikido more specifically. Despite this, the book comes off as a positive read. It could easily delve into the negative aspects of broken relationships between people and organizations, talk about how the future of Aikido is grim. But he doesn’t do that. He acknowledges that there seems to be a problem, describes what actual data shows, and talks about possible positive outcomes, as well as how to accomplish them.

Cons

I always rate books based on readability, information presented, and usefulness to martial arts in general. I have to give Aikido Comes to America a low rating on the last front. It is very much an Aikido forward book. I think there is information that could be interesting to other martial artists, but it generally would only be useful to Aikidoka (practitioner of Aikido). Even for Aikidoka, there are no techniques, and it only briefly touches on philosophy, so it may not be for everyone.

Conclusion

3.5 Ninja Stars

Overall, I really enjoyed Aikido Comes to America. Even as someone with lots of experience in Aikido, I knew most of the big names, but not why they were important. This book puts a lot of framework around these names. It may not be a book for everyone, but I think anyone who is interested in Aikido both in its past, and looking towards the future should read this book. The author takes an insider look at why Aikido is diminishing in the United States, and manages to put a positive spin on it.  I’m going to give Aikido Comes to America 3.5 out of 5 Ninja Stars.  The premise and execution of this book are exactly on point.  I only take off marks because it is specific to Aikido, and maybe a specific group of within Aikido.

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Jaredd Wilson has been practicing Japanese martial arts since 1996, and currently trains in Nami ryu Aiki Heiho under Brian Williams Sensei, in Nashville, TN

2 Comments

  1. Your con is quite a reach. It’s a history book. It is not the place for technique demonstration. It’s an Aikido book, not meant to touch on every other art out there. Why would the author have to publish a book with other arts to make you like it? A French language books won’t have Spanish words in it.

    • I agree. But when people think “martial arts book” there a pre-conceived expectation of what that is. I just wanted everyone to know what the book is, and what it isn’t.

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