Michele Quaranta

Michele Quaranta
Born December 24, 1953 (1953-12-24) (age 58)
Italy
Residence Switzerland
Nationality Italian
Occupation Aikido teacher
Title shidoin, 6th dan Aikikai

Michele Quaranta (born December 24, 1953) is an aikido teacher who holds the rank of 6th dan Aikikai.

Contents

Biography

Starting in 1972, he has been practicing aikido for almost 40 years continually. He holds the rank of 6th Dan in aikido. He was a student and assistant (uke) of Masatomi Ikeda sensei for 20 years and followed him to almost all his seminars.[1]

Professional profile: He was a professional football player in FC Nordstern (premier league) in the past. He was working as a professional football coach for a certain period of time, and also worked as a bank clerk. Finally he turns profesionally towards aikido. For 20 years he was continuously an assistant of M. Ikeda sensei. After the retirement of Ikeda sensei from the active aikido life in 2001, Quaranta sensei continues to teach and to spread out the aikido by the methodology inherited from M. Ikeda sensei.

Aikido schools: He founded his own dojo in Basel (Switzerland) in 1983 (www.aikidoschule-basel.ch). All over Europe there are numerous schools with over 3000 aikidokas that he mentors.

Internationally, he is known as the Technical manager and member of the technical committees of various countries which appreciate his ability and dedication to aikido. With the right to award degrees up to (including) 4th Dan in the Slovakian aikido association at the time when he was a bearer of 5th Dan and the title Shidoin, makes him the only example in the world with that permission granted by the Aikikai Hombu.

Apart from aikido he is also teaching HOJO (a discipline developed at the famous school Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage Ryu which exists from the 14th century.

Seminars: He holds aikido seminars in these countries: Switzerland, Poland, Croatia, Ireland, Slovakia, Czech, Netherlands, Ukraine, Macedonia, Egypt, Serbia, Bulgaria and G. Britain.

Hobbies: music, gastronomy and football.[2][3][4][5][6]

Teachers

The following person have been his most influential teacher:

Colleagues

Students

These are the most notable of his students in alphabetical order:

References

  1. ^ Masatomi Ikeda The wikipedia article of Masatomi Ikeda sensei.
  2. ^ [1] His biography at the Aikikai Macedonia web site.
  3. ^ [2] His biography at Aikikai Ireland web site.
  4. ^ (Czech) [3] His biography at the Aikido SKP Ostrava web site.
  5. ^ (French) [4] An interview with the master.
  6. ^ (German) [5] Another interview with the master, published on his dojo website.