| Interview with Olivier Gaurin: A Journey on the Way of Disgrace |
 Olivier Gaurin is one of the most well-known French Aikido practitioners. His atypical path and his ease with words have made him one of the prominent voices of our martial art in France. Olivier Gaurin has been living in Japan for many years and he got the chance to practice with some of the greatest masters such as Seigo Yamaguchi and Kisshomaru Ueshiba Sensei. He speaks Japanese fluently and has a deep understanding of the Japanese culture, which he enthusiastically shares with other practitioners through a series of books that he wrote about the practice of Aikido. I met with Olivier Gaurin on a summer evening at his Tokyo apartment and we discussed during several hours about his martial journey and his views on Aikido while sharing a homemade pizza cooked by the "Captain" himself.
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| Documentary on Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu Takumakai |
 Thanks to the impressive investigative work carried out by Stanley Pranin, the influence of Daito-ryuAiki-jujutsu in the development of Aikido is now fairly well know and understood. This has led some Aikido practitioners to focus their attention towards learning the Daito-ryu techniques in order to complete what they might regard as a certain lack in nowadays' Aikido teaching. Among these, Olivier Gaurin, a long time student at the AikikaiHombu Dojo and author of several books on Aikido decided to continue in Mr Pranin's footsteps, to learn the ancient techniques and to promote them to the Aikido public. I had been aware of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu for many years through the work of Stanley Pranin but it is Olivier Gaurin who introduced me to the Daito-ryu teachers of the Takumakai school and it wasn't long before we both decided to document our experience, which eventually came under the form of the following documentary.
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| Introduction to Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu |
 The more I spend time in Tokyo, the more I realize that the world of Aikido is indeed very small. The beauty of this is that it is during random encounters and acquaintances that one end up making the most crucial experiences for one's personal development. Such an acquaintance happened once again on the tatami of the AikikaiHombu Dojo in May 2008 while I was staying in Tokyo and practising Aikido intensively. Today, I would like to take you for a journey through time, to the discovery of a discipline which is the ancestor of Aikido. Those of you a bit more erudite on the subject know of course that I am talking about the Daito-ryuAiki-jujutsu. |
 Olivier Gaurin is a scholar of Aikido, author of several books on Aikido[1],[6],[9] as well as fictions set in medieval Japan[7],[8],[2],[3] and historical accounts[5],[4]. Concerned about a drift of our art towards the sport, he reminds us about the cultural aspects that are an intrinsic part of Aikido. Having lived in Japan for over 20 years, he has immersed himself into the ancestral culture of his country of adoption and shares his thoughts on how 21st century Aikidoka should apprehend their practice.
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