Iwama Ryu

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Iwama Ryu is a now defunct informal aikido organization, comprised of one group of the students of Morihiro Saito doing the type of aikido normally referred to as Iwama aikido or Iwama-style. The terms Iwama Ryu and Iwama-style aikido are often used erroneously as one and the same. Iwama Ryu really refers only to black belt ranks that were awarded by Saito sensei.

Most of the Iwama aikido practitioners were never within the Iwama Ryu, and the distribution of Iwama Ryu was more abundant in some countries, such as the Scandinavian countries, where almost all Iwama aikido was within the Iwama Ryu. The existence of this organisation was reflected in the organisation of aikido in some countries, such as Sweden, where there were three committees for the different types of aikido within the Budo Federation - Iwama Ryu, ki-aikido, and Aikikai. Despite this, Iwama Ryu was never officially declared an organisation independent of the Aikikai, and it can be regarded as a rather informal network held together by the fact that Saito sensei gave out his own dan ranks - Iwama Ryu ranks - rather than ranks from the Aikikai Hombu. Specific weapons ranks and weapon transmission scrolls were also given within the Iwama Ryu. The highest Iwama Ryu ranks given was 7th dan, and it was given to Ulf Evenås and Paolo Corallini who both also held title of shihan in this style, with the right to give Iwama Ryu dan ranks. Other top instructors included Tony Sargeant 6th dan, Daniel Toutain 6th dan, David Alexander 6th Dan, and Wolfgang Baumgartner 6th dan.

The Iwama Ryu was created partly as a consequence of the Japanese aikido teacher and Swedish resident Takeji Tomita ending his relationship with his teacher Morihiro Saito. Upon the split Tomita stayed in the Aikikai, while the Scandinavian students who wished to follow Saito instead gathered in Iwama Ryu. With Saito's death in 2002, some of the Iwama Ryu clubs joined an organization called Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shurenkai, formed by Morihiro Saito's son Hitohiro Saito while others, among them Evenås and Corallini and their students, rejoined the Aikikai.

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