Product Details

• Actors: Morihito Saito
• Directors: Don Warrener
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Rising Sun Productions
• DVD Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00030LP06
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,493 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

FightingSpirit .Com
Finally a real DVD with real sword techniques from a real master.

Product Description
Morihiro Saito was one of the senior students of the architect of Aikido Moreihei Ueshiba. In this production you will learn the entire sword syllabus of Aikido the way the master taught it to his disciples. You will learn not just the basic techniques and take aways but also training drills combinations, offensive and defensive techniques You will also see a complete full color demonstration by Master Saito that is simply put phenomenal. He is also seen teaching a class of Aikido. This is one of those rare DVDs that was lost until recently and was shot at the same time his 5 volume book series was photographed. This series of course is no longer in print and the few copies that are available sell for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If you have ever wanted to see a full dvd of a master teaching and demonstrating the defense and offense of the sword this is it. There is nothing better available . Most of this is in B/W and is very high quality and some of it is in full color. Key Words: Aikido, Ueshiba,Sword, Martial Arts

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars High quality - ummmm, June 28, 2006

By	L. Johnson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aikido Saito's Empty Hand DVD
Aikido Saito's Jo DVD
Aikido Saito's Sword DVD
I wasn't expecting a great deal from "lost footage", but to say these are "high quality" is way off the mark. The first 10 minutes (approx.) of each DVD consists of 2 short films in B&W showing various aikido techniques. These are old, grainy and look like they have been copies from old film stock to VHS and then to DVD. As old historical footage of Saito Sensei, they are interesting and worth viewing.

The annoying problem with these three DVDs is that the second and third sections of each DVD are identical. The only parts which are different are the first 10 minutes in B&W, which do indeed concentrate on Sword, Jo and Empty Hand as claimed in the titles.

The second section is in color, again old, grainy, but is taken from old professional video stock so that it is relatively clear. It is a documentary type section showing training at the Iwama dojo and demonstrating a number of techniques. This is the longest section at about 30 minuets, interesting and worth viewing, but I don't need three copies of it.

The last section is an old home video of Saito Sensei teaching bokken. The video is very bad, breaking up in parts and the audio is virtually inaudible, which makes the section fairly pointless since Saito Sensei is trying to describe subtle differences in position which you can neither see properly on the old video nor hear explained. I definitely don't need three copies of this.

I would have been happier getting one DVD for the same price with the 6 historically significant B&W short films and the old documentary section and a bit of clarity about what is actually on the DVDs.