BUDO TRAINING IN AIKIDO

We would like to begin by thanking Doshu Ueshiba Kisshomaru and the Aikikai Foundation for making this family treasure available for publication. We also wish to express our appreciation to those teachers who gave their invaluable help in explaining difficult passages.
Due to the historical nature of this work certain difficulties arose, especially in deciding to what degree we should try to produce clear and precise English. Any precise translation could easily become a personal translation, limiting the contents and range of the translator's individual
understanding at this particular point in his or her training. Therefore, after consulting some of the highest Sensei in Aikido and other arts it was decided to strive for a translation that would both preserve the simplicity of the original expression and at the same time leave open to the reader
at least the possibility of coming up with the broad set of ideas and associations indicated in the Japanese.
This book appeared in 1933 and is the first published account of O-Sensei's art. Although not actually written down by him, it is a transcription of lectures and explanations which was later reviewed by the founder and approved as a teacher's manual. The political and historical context of the times
should be kept in mind. No attempt has been made to edit the text.