Shoji Nishio in Århus, Denmark 1984 was a Japanese aikido teacher holding the rank of 8th

dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...

shihan from the

Aikikai The Aikikai is the original school of Aikido. It is centered on the Aikikai#Aikikai Foundation, Aikikai Foundation in Japan, and its figurehead is the Aikikai#Doshu, Doshu (the family heir of the founder of Aikido). It is represented globally thr ...

Life and career

Nishio was born in Aomori Prefecture of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1927. He joined Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1951 and began to teach around 1955. Before aikido he studied judo (6th Dan Kodokan Judo),

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

(5th Dan Shindō jinen-ryū), iaido (7th Dan Nihon Zenkoku Iaido Renmei) and

jōdō , meaning "the way of the ''jō''", or is a Japanese martial art using a short staff called ''jō''. The art is similar to ''bōjutsu'', and is strongly focused upon defense against the Japanese sword. The ''jō'' is a short staff, usually a ...

and also Shintō Musō-ryū jōjutsu and Hōzōin-ryū

sōjutsu , meaning "art of the spear", is the Japanese martial art of fighting with a . Origins Although the spear had a profound role in early Japanese mythology, where the islands of Japan themselves were said to be created by salt water dripping fro ...

. Skills gained from them he managed to smoothly merge into his own specific aikido style where all techniques can be performed with the wooden sword '' bokken'' in hand as well as without weapons, and his weapon systems has few similarities to the more common system that derives from Morihiro Saito. He held the title of an Aikikai shihan and also created a new school of Iaido with forms from aikido, called Aiki Toho Iaido or Nishio-ryu Iai. In 2003 Nishio received the Budo Kyoryusho award from Japanese Budo Federation for his lifetime contribution to development and worldwide propagation of aikido. He died in March 2005 aged 77.

External links

Nishikaze Aikido Society of America - Official Nishio Organization in the U.S.

Yufukan Ukraine - Nishio Budo Centre, Official Nishio Organization in Ukraine

Bohemia Aikikai - Organization for Nishio in Czech Republic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nishio, Shoji 1927 births 2005 deaths Japanese aikidoka