Reports

DIVIGNANO (Italy) – Centro Natura Docet

For several years, a multi-day seminar with Yoshigasaki Sensei has been held regularly in June in Divignano, in the province of Novara.
The Centro Natura Docet (Nature Teaches Us) consists of a very large gymnasium and a swimming pool and overnight accommodations in the basement. All facilities are adapted for the physically disabled.

The seminar is organized by the Dojo Ronin Novara and attracts many aikidoka from northern Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and even Great Britain.

Aikido, Harmony and Silence

At the "Natura Docet" center in Divignano, more than 100 aikidoka from Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain met on the mat this year for the annual early summer seminar. The approximately ten nationalities present confirmed, with their friendship and the exchange between different cultures, languages, and personalities, that diversity is always a great enrichment for everyone and that there are no boundaries on the mat.

Remembrance

Thanks to the silent presence of the Ki emanating from our doshu and under his excellent guidance, an intense seminar unfolds – with the utmost attention and participation of everyone. A feeling of great abundance and harmony is evoked within us.

A loving thought of solidarity leads us to remember for a moment our friend Agostino De Andreis, who recently left us to continue the path in a spiritual dimension.
The seminar here in Divignano is dedicated to him, as well as to two other friends who have passed away: Franco Pavese and Alain Noto-Campanella, who are always present in our hearts.

Support

An act of solidarity with those who need it most was demonstrated concretely with the collection of the Aikido Solidarity Fund.
Everyone was free to decide whether and how much they wanted to donate to Sister Celina Belotti's children's home in Brazil.
The young students there were adopted from afar by the Dojo Ronin Novara, and now the members of the Aikido Fund have an easy way to support them directly.
The amount collected will provide the children with two meals a day and school tuition for a while. Further collections are planned, which the Dojo Ronin will pass on to Sister Belotti.

Exams

Two veterans in Aikido, Bernhard Boll from Haigerloch-Owingen and Valdino Manna from Bologna, passed the Okuden and Joden exams, respectively.

At the end of the seminar, Michael Kunst from Stuttgart Sandan's exam attracted considerable attention. Several aikidoka with many years of practice and experience participated as Uke:
Bruno Maule, Maurizio Volpe, Silvio Perin, Bernhard Boll, Yves Opizzo, Paul Triantaphylides, Giuseppe Golin, and also promising future prospects: Moreno Maule, Fabio Bosotti, and Andrea Beduschi.