Aikido Dojo - Auckland - About us and Dojo history.

Koshinkai Dojo. Newly refurbished and ready for training

The Koshinkai Aikido Dojo is located in Grey Lynn, on the fringe of the Auckland CBD. 
Over the past 6 months the Dojo has been refurbished with new paint, timber flooring and high quality imported training mats.

             Aikido training at Koshinkai Dojo is conducted in a 
              positive, friendly and co-operative environment.

At Koshinkai Dojo the hierarchical system of grading found in most martial arts training dojos is de-emphasised and priority is given to non-competitive, creative training with equal respect accorded to all students irrespective of age or experience.
The name Koshinkai was chosen mainly because of the aesthetics of the kanji characters, although their meaning suggests a positive and ‘enlightening’ atmosphere in the dojo. The characters are described below:

Ko (also pronounced Hikari) = “Light”. This was one of Osensei Ueshiba’s favourite characters and implies a divine light or spirit.

Shin (also pronounced Kokoro) = “Spirit” or “Mind” .

Kai = Association or group.

Koshinkai Dojo is therefore an association devoted to unveiling the Divine Light of the Spirit. The “o” in Ko is a ‘long vowel’ so it pronounced like ‘kaw’ or ‘cor’ .

History

The dojo was established in 1988 after David & Hisae Lynch returned from 15 years in Japan and built a Japanese-designed dojo (“Aikido Lynch Dojo”) behind their house in Epsom. A Japanese garden was later created to provide the perfect atmosphere in which to learn.

However, ten years later, the Lynches sold their property and the dojo was demolished to make room for the new owner's house.

Classes moved to the Parnell Community Centre for the next couple of years until, in August 2000, the present premises in Grey Lynn were leased and a full schedule of daily classes was resumed. After several working-bees to refurbish and erect signage and so on, the dojo was officially opened on 21 March 2001.

The Aikido Koshinkai Dojo was established in July 2006 as a name change ( from Aikido Lynch Dojo) to reflect the fact that the Lynch Family was no longer fully involved in running the dojo, since David and Hisae Lynch had moved to The Coromandel and their son, Kenny had moved to Wellington. (All three had previously been involved in instructing.)

The dojo is registered as a non-profit incorporated society and is administered by a committee.

David Lynch remains Chief Instructor and visits the dojo regularly, thus maintaining a link that dates back to his introduction of aikido to New Zealand after his first sojourn in Japan in the 1960s. The first dojo was a branch of the Yoshinkai Japan, but this was changed to the Aikido Lynch Dojo after David’s second sojourn in Japan, for 15 years between 1973 and 1988, when he trained at various different schools.

David’s experience in different dojos in Japan during his long stay there is reflected in the open approach to training in the Koshinkai, where the emphasis is on the spirit of the art rather than differences in form.