After taking a hiatus from Aikido for 9 years after the death of Ueshiba, in 1978, Kurita was urged to come back to aikido by his fellow uchideshi Mitsunari Kanai and Kazuo Chiba (Birankai). He was sent to the United States and then directed to Mexico City by Yoshimitsu Yamada (New York Aikikai).
He arrived in Mexico City on 14 May 1979. In 1980, the Asociacion Mexicana de Aikido was formed, and from 1989 to 1999 held annual international seminars with guests Mitsunari Kanai, Yoshimitsu Yamada, Ichiro Shibata, Kazuo Chiba, T.S Okuyama, and M. Murishige.
In 1999, Kurita Juku Aiki was started in order to take Aikido one step further in its development by rescuing all the original teachings of the Founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba.
The Central Dojo is in Mexico City and is devoted not only to transmit the teaching of Aiki in its purest form but to develop a theory that will launch it to a better understanding apart from all the martial references that had made it similar to old martial arts.
Kurita Juku Aiki works with students from other parts of Mexico and with seminars in both Mexico and the United States, as well as with Aikikai Hombu Dojo and the United States Aikido Federation.
In 1995 the first schools derived by Kurita Shihan outside of Mexico were formed in the United States, and over the years there are KJA dojo and classes in Texas, in: San Antonio, Laredo, San Marcos, New Braunfels and Wimberley.
To be continued…
