合気道聖武館道場 | Washington, DC, USA
Sensei is a prolific artist in many mediums inclusive of painting, calligraphy, mobiles, statues, furniture, and many other arts. Always active and creating as an outward manifestation of Takemusu Aiki, Mitsugi Saotome uses these arts to build an environment within which to transmit beyond conception to practitioners.
For Mitsugi Saotome’s seventieth birthday, Aikido Schools of Ueshiba (ASU) coordinated an effort to assemble a quilt with patches showing our honor and appreciation for Sensei, the organization, and each other. Our dojo, as the ASU Headquarters dojo, is proud to display and care for this quilt.
The largest functional art piece in the dojo is the Tea Kettle Mobile located in the entrance. Not to miss.
A very powerful calligraphy resonates with symbolism from Morihei Ueshiba, passed onto uchi-deshi. Sensei brushed this calligraphy with heavy strokes of the brush and illustrates it with hand gestures which convey further meaning to practitioners.
A cultural reference from antiquity representing a Flying Dragon in the Sky; a Cloud Dragon. This is a special calligraphy and has become a theme in ASU Dojo around the world. This calligraphy is auspiciously located to the rear left of the dojo near the Guest Quarters’ shoji screens and was penned by Mitsugi Saotome Shihan.