Shoji Nishio

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Shoji Nishio in Århus, Denmark 1984

Shoji Nishio (December 5, 1927 – March 15, 2005), a noted aikidoka, was born in Aomori Prefecture of Japan in 1927. He joined Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1951 and began to teach around 1955. Before aikido he studied judo (4th Dan Kodokan Judo), karate (4th Dan), iaido (7th Dan Nihon Zendoku Iaido) and jodo and also Shintō Musō-ryū jōjutsu and Hozoin-ryū sōjutsu. Skills gained from them he managed to smoothly include 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 created a new school of Iaido with forms from aikido, called Aiki Toho Iaido. In 2003 Nishio Sensei received 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.