Aikido Center of Atlanta

The Aikido Center of Atlanta is located in Avondale Estates, Georgia which is a suburb of Atlanta Our building is made of locally quarried granite blocks and was built sometime between 1910 and 1915. It was originally used as a feed storage facility. As part of the Avondale Estates community, the building is included in the National Register of Historic Places.

The kamiza is made of rare heart wood pine, also called yellow pine. The giant columns were rescued from the demolition of one of Atlanta's last Cloth Mills which was built in the 1890's. The wood came from the old-growth southern forests which were used up by the early 20th century. These trees were approximately 300 years in age.

The "castle" doors which open into an outside courtyard were designed by Kennedy Sensei with assistance from instructor Alan Gay. The corner hardware was copied from a temple in Kyoto. The dragonfly motif represents katsu mushi- a common Samurai motif representing beauty and instant victory. In the context of aikido, reference O Sensei's masa katsu a gatsu- "true victory is self victory".

We at the Aikido Center are very proud to be a charter member of the USAF. Our school is one of the three oldest schools in the United States (New York Aikikai and New England Aikikai being older). The school was founded by Rodney Grantham Sensei, 6th dan, in 1967 and we moved to our present location in 2000. We have been honored to have Kennedy Sensei, 5th dan, as our acting Dojo Cho for the last fifteen years. We are extremely fortunate to have Darrell Tangman Sensei, 6th dan, make the drive from his own school in Augusta, Ga every Sunday to teach both the children and adult classes. Alice Billman Sensei, 5th dan, also drives in from her own school in Carrollton to provide instruction on Saturdays.