Join us for our annual Hatsugeiko training to welcome in the new year!

This year we will be starting with Japanese calligraphy with Yuka at 9am. She will teach a few basics, and then we will do kakizome (書き初め, literally "first writing") to set down our good intents for the new year. Please come with a concept in mind for a word/character you’d like to write (Yuka and Aaron will help you translate your ideas into Japanese, or feel free to research your own).

From there, we will clean up and do a brief meditation followed by the Ki Musubi Kumitachi paired bokken kata. We will then finish out the day with open-handed training.

All are welcome and there is no extra fee for training or calligraphy.

See you in the new year!

Join us for our 11th annual dojo trip to Diana's Baths to perform waterfall misogi (purification practice). Enjoy a short hike out to the falls, have lunch on the rocks, and get ready to step under a frigid mountain stream!

Friends and family are welcome. We will meet at the Exit 9 Park and Ride in Dover at 9am and carpool up from there. If you want to head up on your own, we will meet at the Diana’s Bath’s parking lot at 11am before walking to the falls.

Join us for this special weapons seminar to help Portsmouth Aikido students learn William Gleason Sensei’s weapons. If you will be taking a black belt test in the near future, you will need to be familiar with these jo and bokken forms including the Kashima Kihon Dachi, Aikiken Series, Kumijo Series, and Kashima Uradachi Series (not all forms will be covered at the seminar).

The event will be held at the MAGMA Movement Arts studio at 11 Pleasant Street in Gloucester, MA. Classes will run from 9am to noon, break for lunch, and return for two more hours in the afternoon. The cost is $50, payable by cash or check made out to William Gleason. If you have a Kashima sword and/or your own jo, be sure to bring them.

Weapons are an extension of our open-handed aikido training, and this year we’re doing something special to develop our skills and learn new weapons practices.

In the morning we’ll focus on kyu test weapons requirements and the ASU kumitachi and kumijo. We have tests coming up from 5th kyu to shodan, so there’s a lot of ground to cover.

In the afternoon, we’ll do two special new practices. First, you’ll lean how to throw bo shuriken (iron spikes) at a target. This actually has a lot of crossover with our open-handed training, so it has benefits beyond the throwing practice itself.

Then we’ll be doing a new type of live-blade tameshigiri (test cutting) practice with newspaper. Cutting paper may sound easy, but because it has so little mass getting a clean cut is quite challenging and informative (and a lot of fun!).

Class will run from 9am to noon, we’ll break for lunch, and then we’ll return for more practice from 2-4pm.

People of all experience levels are welcome. The cost is $75 for the day. Bring training weapons if you have them, and everything you need will be provided for the shuriken and tameshigiri practice.

Join us for our annual Turkey Burner Friday the day after Thanksgiving. After stuffing yourself with extra calories and spending possibly-too-much time with your family, come work it all off with this core-crunching, calorie-burning Aikido extravaganza.

Everyone is welcome — no extra charge. Be there or be square!

We are excited to bring back Vu X. Ha, 6th Dan, Shihan, and Chief Instructor of Boston Aikikai.

Ha Shihan has been a practitioner of aikido since 1989 and was a close and direct student both of the late Akira Tohei Shihan and Mitsunari Kanai Shihan. His aikido is powerful and precise, and we are delighted to have him back again in-person this year.

Classes will go from 10am-noon and 2:00-4:00pm. Use the link below to register online by credit card, or pay by cash or check at the dojo.

Join us for our much-awaited seminar with David Halprin, 7th dan, Shihan and Barbara Britton, 7th Dan, Shihan. Halprin Shihan and Britton Shihan are both longtime students of the late Mitsunari Kanai Shihan, and have dedicated their practice to his memory.

Classes will go from 10am-noon and 2:00-4:00pm. Use the link below to register online by credit card, or pay by cash or check at the dojo.

Portsmouth Aikido is proud to be hosting its first seminar with Laura Pavlick, 6th Dan, Shihan, and Chief Instructor of Litchfield Hills Aikikai.

Pavlick Shihan began practicing Aikido in 1981 at the New York Aikikai under Yoshimitsu Yamada Shihan, direct student of the founder, Morihei Ueshiba. As a shodan, she was assigned to teach a regularly scheduled class at NYA while also taking several classes daily. In the early 1990s she moved to northwestern Connecticut and opened Litchfield Hills Aikikai, in Bantam, CT where she has been Chief Instructor since they opened their doors.

The seminar will run from 10am-noon and 2:00-4:00pm.

We are delighted to host Aimeé Bel, 5th Dan and Chief Instructor of Worcester Zenshinkan Dojo. Bel Sensei is a student of Ed Germanov Shihan and Mary Heiny Sensei. She has been influenced, as well, by the generous instruction of teachers like Jan Nevelius Shihan and William Gleason Shihan.

Class will be held from 10am-noon, break for lunch, then from 2-4pm.

The cost is $50, which you can pay by cash or check at the dojo or using the PayPal button below.

Join us online for this special online seminar with Claude Berthaiume Shihan and Vu Ha Shidoin, who are generously donating all proceeds to our 2020 fundraiser.

The Zoom meeting link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88200742295?pwd=N0F4NVJnL09FcmtDUHNNYStPbzgrdz09

The login password is 143251

Sliding scale with suggested donation of $20.

You can pay by cash or check, or use the PayPal link below.

Thank you!

Friends, Parents, and Members,

Join us for our 2020 New Year’s Party to be held at Blue Lattitudes Restaurant in Dover, NH.

Friends and family are welcome. The cost for the meal is $45/person, and you can purchase drinks additionally on your own.

We need a head count by Friday, Jan. 10th. If you aren’t able to pay via the PayPal button below, be sure to contact us at info@portsmouthaikido.org to reserve your space.

See you there!