By 1980, Yamamoto
Sensei was an established avant-garde calligrapher. However, he felt
he had hit the wall, until he discovered the aesthetic form that he
had been searching for in his young daughter's beginning brush stroke
of the i-ro-ha characters within the Japanese alphabet,
48 in all. Although he could not verbally describe what was that he
discovered, he knew that he had gained an insight. This became a
turning point for him and sparked his life long pursuit to capture the
beauty of the IROHA characters. For more than twenty years, Yamamoto
Sensei has been pursuing his unique interpretation of calligraphy
through IROHA, and even after thousands of drawings, he never tires of
the same subject matter. He explains that the more he pursues, the
more he discovers new level of depth and challenge.
Yamamto Sensei does not hesitate to credit Aikido as the most
influential element in his calligraphy work. He sees a close
connection between the Kokyu of Aikido and the Kokyu of
calligraphy. Sensei is the 7th Dan and trains regularly at Aikikai
Hombu Dojo in Tokyo. Even at the age of 65 years young, Yamamoto
Sensei manages to train daily at the 6:30 A.M. early morning
class. While he travels to Europe often, this is his first
Aikido-related visit to the United States.
Short Bio of Yamamoto Sensei
- Born in 1937, Sensei is 65 years young and trains on a daily basis at Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, Japan.
- In January of 1998, Sensei was granted the 7th Dan rank. He also has previous training in karate.
- Through close ties with political and cultural associations, he provided five years of Aikido instruction to the government.s parliamentary members as well as to several civil groups and universities in Japan.
- Sensei actively travels abroad to Europe and Latin America - Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Uruguay for the purpose of providing Aikido instruction.
- His hobby includes the study of Kototama, Japanese literature and mythology.
- Although Yamamoto Sensei devotes a significant amount of time to Aikido, by profession, he is a calligraphy artist. Sensei's artwork is well known in Japan not only because of its appraised value, but more importantly, because of his passion in sharing the Iroha spirit and its connection to Ha-Do (wave motion and ki energy) found in his artwork.
