James Doi Sensei

Aikido 6th Dan
Iaido 4th Dan

James was born in 1952 in a small southern California town called Fallbrook (known for its avocado ranches), but grew up in a southern California beach town, Capistrano Beach (near Mission San Juan Capistrano). James has a Doctorate in Chemistry from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).

In 1965, James had heard of judo and was interested, but a cousin of his, who was the basketball coach at the University of Hawai’i suggested the try Aikido instead. Aikido was a relatively martial art to Hawai’i and was not well known on the mainland.

In 1969, James went to USC (University of Southern California, in Los Angeles) and found the student Aikido club that Furuya Sensei was teaching. Later, Furuya Sensei would go on to study at Harvard and graduate a year later. Throughout James professional career, he moved around various California cities and studied with several different teachers until he moved back to Los Angeles in 1988 and continued to study with Furuya Sensei until his death in 2007.

James has stated, “I have been practicing Aikido for so long that I don’t really know what life would be like to not practice it.” Aikido has been a large part of my life that it is like a physical and psychological addiction. During the pandemic, even though I stretched and did some exercises, I could feel my body stiffen and my mind felt foggy as if my body was going through withdrawals.

Aikido is a Taoist call a “way” (a process) as opposed to Aikijujitsu, a system of unarmed combat. In its most basic form, a jujitsu system provided effective combat techniques. Hence the goal of learning Aikijujitsu is to learn techniques as tools to victory (a goal). Aikido requires learning techniques properly (ie. they are effective combat tools) but also understanding how aiki makes them work. Experiencing and understanding aiki is a “way” to “enlightenment.” It is the same as in Chado (the Way of Tea) or Kendo (the Way of the sword).

James said, “I try not to have Aikido goals other than achieving the ‘milestone’ of mastering a technique such that it is effective (ie. make it work) is not the purpose of Aikido, it is really satisfying, but it is not the point. The true point of Aikido is to refine the learning process and experiencing aiki is the ‘way.”’