Dear Dojo-cho or Chief Instructor,

As you may know, September 21 is the United Nations’ ‘International Day of Peace’. Every year, hundreds of organizations and citizen groups worldwide honor that day with thousands of ‘Peace Day’ events. Since 2010, when the first International Aiki Peace Week (IAPW) was celebrated, aikido practitioners from hundreds of dojos in many countries around the world have participated, inspired by the unique embodied peacemaking legacy of O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba.

IAPW provides an opportunity to increase public awareness of aikido as an embodied art of peace. By this celebration we transcend the divisions of different schools, styles, and organizations, and our collective action gives each of our efforts far more impact than they would have in isolation.

We invite you to join us this year by offering a special event by your dojo to share aikido’s unique contribution to the emergence of a culture of peace.

All you have to do to participate is sign up online at www.aikipeaceweek.org and list the specific event you want to organise. This can be anything from teaching peace-focused aikido classes for your students to events in or out of the dojo involving other dojos or the general public that show the value of aiki principles as a way of managing conflicts and preventing violence.

Your dojo will be shown with your event on a Google world map of all participating dojos on www.aikipeaceweek.org. This will help anyone looking to find a dojo sharing aikido’s peacemaking message. It will also foster contact and cooperation of like-minded dojos.

Aiki Peace Week is organized by an international committee of aikido senseis from different styles and federations and is an independent project, initiated by Aiki Extensions. Aiki Extensions is an international nonprofit organization of aikidoka, dedicated to the application of aiki principles in situations outside the dojo. If you would like to know more about Aiki Extensions, please see the website www.aikiextensions.org.

Yours in Aiki

The members of the International Aiki Peace Week Committee

Bertram Wohak, IAPW Committee Chair, Germany

Robert Kent, President of Aiki Extensions, USA

Paul Linden, IAPW Committee, USA

Andrés Proaño, IAPW Committee, Ecuador

José Bueno, IAPW Committee, Brazil