Tony Sargeant

Sensei Tony Sargeant first started training in Aikido at a club in Cambridge, England in 1973. The club was part of the Institute of Aikido and Sensei Sargeant would travel down to London most Sundays to train at The Hut Dojo where the famed martial artist Kenshiro Abbe had first introduced Aikido to the UK. In 1975 Sensei Sargeant obtained Morihiro Saito Shihan’s book series Traditional Aikido Vols 1-5 and the accompanying cine films which he used as a way of improving his Taijutsu and his Bukiwaza, a side of Aikido not widely taught at that time. For the next 27 years Sensei Sargeant has followed the teaching of Saito Morihiro Shihan.

Saito Sensei was the Dojo-cho/Dojo Head at the Iwama Dojo (more recently renamed the Ibaraki Dojo) – where modern Aikido was created by O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba – where he had also been the custodian of the Aiki Shrine.

In 1983, and following the advice of Stan Pranin, Sensei Sargeant sought out and trained under Saito Shihan for the first time, at a seminar in Auckland, New Zealand. It was a meeting that changed Sensei Sargeant’s whole perspective on Aikido and turned him into a direct student of Saito Shihan. In 1991 Sensei Sargeant parted company from The Institute of Aikido, in order to create a school that followed the teachings of Saito Shihan. Sensei Sargeant had been given consent to do this directly from Saito Sensei and is Saito Sensei’s representative in the UK.

In 1994 Tony Sensei received his 5th Dan Taijutsu (body art) and 4th Dan Bukiwaza (aiki weapons) from Saito Sensei whilst training in Iwama. He was later honoured with the 5th and highest level Bukiwaza award and asked to continue to teach Iwama weapons and to maintain the highest standards for this core element of Aikido.

At the time of his awarding, Saito Shihan asked Sensei Sargeant to give his word to continue teaching Iwama weapons and maintaining the highest standards throughout Europe.

In April 2023 Sensei Sargeant was awarded his 7th Dan and the title of Shihan, ‘master instructor’.