An international aikido seminar led by female instructors from the Netherlands, Romania and Slovenia took place in Ljubljana's Dokiai dojo under the auspices of the Erasmus + project GendAi. After the seminar, an international group for gender balance in aikido including representatives of the Aikikai Association of Slovenia met.
On Saturday, March 19, 23 aikidokas from four European countries met at the Dokiai dojo in Ljubljana, where the Aikikai Association of Slovenia hosted an international aikido seminar. It was led by female instructors from three countries participating in the international GendAi project, funded by the Erasmus + program. The national Aikikai federations of Romania, which is the leading partner of the project, the Netherlands and Slovenia in cooperation with the EAF (European Aikido Federation) promote gender balance in aikido and highlight female aikido instructors. In this way, they try to attract girls and women to learn about aikido, and present aikido masters as role models to all aikidokas. Everyone can learn a lot from the differences between women and men, based mainly on their physical characteristics, which are both an advantage and a disadvantage.
The project partners met for the first time in September 2021 in Amsterdam, where a seminar could not be held due to measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Then, in November 2021, the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca hosted the second of four planned international events on gender in aikido culture – the International Gender Event, in which the international aikido seminar was conducted by leading French instructor Micheline Tissier Shihan, 6. Dan. Then, in March 2022, representatives of partner countries in the GendAi project visited Ljubljana. The international aikido seminar was led by instructors Satomi Ishikawa, 5. Dan from the Netherlands and Irina Gaspar, 4. Dan from Romania, and was attended by Staša Pisek, 3. Dan, who represents the Aikikai Association of Slovenia in the project. The last international event under the auspices of the GendAi project will once again be hosted by Romania.
