Instructor, Business Development Advisor, William Sensei
(William Gillespie)
I started studying Aikido formally in 1987 at a traditional dojo in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles under Reverend Kensho Furuya (who lived in the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1969 as a kenshusei and received his M.A. in Japanese Studies from Harvard University in 1972). In 1991, I was selected to serve as one of three disciples (deshi) to Furuya Sensei – studying Aikido, weapons, Muso-shiden–ryu, and Iaido daily. Having visited Hombu Dojo for training in 1992 and 1994, in 1997 I took a fifteen-month sabbatical and moved to Tokyo for intensive training at Hombu Dojo. Living close to Hombu, not working, I trained several times daily. I remained in Tokyo for 8 years, often assisting with Pacific Aikido’s classes during that time. In 2004, I moved to London and while there trained at Chiba Shihan’s dojo, before opening a second home in Beijing in 2005 where I trained at Suganuma Shihan’s dojo at Beijing University. In 2008, I founded the Beijing Aikikai serving to this day as its Chief Instructor and establishing a group of eight dojos in five cities in China known as CAikikai. In 2017, Miyamoto Tsuruzo Shihan promoted me to 6th dan. I have also studied Judo and its derivative art Brazilian Jujitsu, earning a blue belt from the Roger Gracie Academy in London. I relocated to Tokyo in late December 2020, with my 11-year-old daughter and am excited to once again be part of the Pacific Aikido team.