Legacy
Aikido in the style of Kobayashi Hirokazu is taught today in Europe, South America, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, USA and Japan. Due to the activities of Kobayashi Sensei who spent usually up to 5 months every year in Europe several highly ranked Aikidoka, still teach his unique style in Europe. To be mentioned are:
- France: Andre Cognard, Etienne Leman, Adrien Halm, Jean-François Riondet, Lucienne Berenger
- Italy: Giampietro Savegnago, Paolo Salvadego, Aldo Gonzato;
- Poland: Jacek Wysocki, Robert Gembal, Marcin Ziółkowski;
- Portugal: Leopoldo Ferreira
- Germany: Walter Oelschlaeger, Jürgen Rohrmann
- Belgium: Yves Flon
- Switzerland: Jean-Marc Voegeli
- Spain: Felipe García
- India: Avijit Mitra,Debabrata Saha
- USA: Michael Jacyna
- Panama: Gabriel Vega Castro
- Colombia: Michèle Lasserre
Kobayashi Sensei was a member of the Aikikai Foundation. He never wanted to found an organisation of his own, and asked his pupils not to do so either. His idea was to teach Aikido to everybody who wanted to learn and not to gain personal profit by doing so. A few months before he died in 1998, he gave the permission to his students to found the independent organisation, Académie autonome d'aikido, which attempted to synthesise the uniqueness of his teaching, without asserting superiority over other styles. This led to the formation of Kobayashi aikido.
Kobayashi died in August 1998 after an illness.
Read more about this topic: Hirokazu Kobayashi (aikidoka)
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“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)