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Who's Who in
Kinomichi

Masamichi Noro

Kinomichi (氣之道, Kinomichi?) is a martial art in the tradition of budo, developed from the Japanese art aikido by Masamichi Noro and founded in Paris, France, in 1979. Masamichi Noro was one of the live-in students (uchideshi) of Morihei Ueshiba the founder of Aikido. Designated "Delegate for Europe and Africa" by Morihei Ueshiba, Noro debarked in Marseille on September 3, 1961, preceding Nakazono and Tamura in the communal construction of a European and African aikido. In France, Kinomichi is affiliated with the Fédération Française d’Aïkido, Aïkibudo et Affinitaires (FFAAA) and maintains warm relations with the Aikikai Foundation and its leader, Moriteru Ueshiba, the grandson of aikido’s founder.

In the same way that Morihei Ueshiba created aikido from the Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu of Sokaku Takeda, Masamichi Noro extended his research to the creation of Kinomichi, founded on the technique, principles and philosophy of aikido. This natural process in the world of the Japanese budos does not constitute a denial or an objection to what came before but, rather, the natural expression and evolution of a living art - the opening of a new path and new possibility.

For Masamichi Noro, the most essential elements of training are peace and its realization. Beginning from and adhering to these two elements places Man, like a link, between Earth and Sky. This union, holding in harmony the Way of the Sky, the Way of the Earth and the Way of Man, releases an ascending energy (ki in Japanese, qi in Chinese), from the ground upward, from the feet, through the grasp and beyond. The generation of energy takes its source from the ground and the intent, flows through the energy centers in the body, including the hara located in the abdomen, and is modulated by the heart of the practitioner.