The Parent

For Simone Chierchini, aikidō was never something he simply chose to practise. It was already there.

Born into one of the families that helped establish aikidō in Italy, Chierchini grew up on the mat, surrounded by some of the figures who shaped the art in Europe. Yet The Parent is not a nostalgic account of a privileged martial inheritance. It is an unusually candid conversation about what happens when a tradition received from others must eventually become one's own.

In dialogue with Marco Rubatto, Chierchini reflects on teachers and students, parents and children, loyalty and independence, organisations and their politics, katageiko and technical freedom, the legacy of the Japanese masters, and the changing face of aikidō itself.

Personal, irreverent and often provocative, The Parent asks a fundamental question: what do we inherit from our teachers-and what are we ultimately responsible for passing on?

Published by
The Ran Network
https: //therannetwork.com