Chapter 15
Originally the IAF and Hombu agreed on the policy of recognizing one organization per country and one member per country. As there were no organizations to compete over recognition, there were no organizations to compete over IAF membership.
As time went by several things changed in the world. For one, travel became more easy, and cheaper. As a consequence it became more easy to invite foreign instructors. Dojos didn’t need to cooperate on a larger scale to invite teachers, they could afford to do so at an individual basis. This led to a strong increase in the demand for foreign instructors and the number of seminars being organized.
Another thing that changed, was that indivudual instructors became so popular this created its own dynamics. For instance, in Europe Tamura Sensei became so popular that he had large numbers of students in virtually every country where there was a recognized organization*. However, this happened throughout the world. A teacher like Yamada Sensei from the USA travelled all over the world to visit his students, and so did many others.
At this point in time different aspects of the Aikido world began to collide. For instance, students taking their grading would want the name of their instructor in their passport. But that would lead to the situation that the teacher was in France or the US, whereas the student was in a country where there was another recognized organization with a senior (Japanese) instructor.
This made it abundantly clear that the world of Aikido had been divided in a territorial manner by the Japanese instructors. Initially one would not go to the territory of the other without informing him or getting his approval. They would not conduct gradings in the territory of the other.
But as the territories became countries with democratic organizations, Hombu changed its regulations, and as a consequence organzations now claimed the monopoly on grading in their country.
In the late Eighties Hombu resolved the problem by allowing ‘unofficial recognition’. This was phrased so that the rule of one recognition per country was continued, but that outside of that certain Japanese instructors were allowed to instruct and give grades outside of that structure**.
Once the threshold for single recognition had been lowered, an avalanche of new organizations were established. Each of them created a relationship with an instructor, and avoided cooperation with the recognized organization exactly because it wanted freedom to choose its instructors and conduct its gradings.
During these years the initial recognized organizations were really frustrated, because they were upholding Hombu’s regulations, where Hombu was choosing the side of the increasing number of ‘rogue’ instructors and organizations.
Over time it turned out this wave could not be stopped. It swelled and became the driving force behind the growth of Aikido. The recognized organizations were struggling, and every dojo that could invite a teacher could develop without any restriction.
Over time Hombu adapted to this change in the environment by allowing multiple recognition. The new international regulations set criteria for recognition, but this did not in any way limit the number of organizations per country. In fact this became the headache for many of the recognized organizations.
The next chapter will deal with those headaches.
* Please do not take offence, a senior instructor like Tissier Sensei is now in very much the same situation.
** In several conversations it was made clear that this solution was chosen particularly to resolve the issue of Japanese instructors travelling and grading outside of the single recognition structure.
