30 Facts About Jacques Payet

Jacques Payet is a practitioner of Yoshinkan-style aikido.

Jacques Payet was the longest-serving non-Japanese uchi-deshi of Yoshinkan founder Gozo Shioda and is ranked Hachidan in the Yoshinkan organization, with the honorific Shihan.

Jacques Payet is the founder and head instructor of Mugenjuku dojo and the Mugenjuku Kenshusei program in Kyoto, Japan.

Jacques Payet is the originator of the well-known Senshusei Course, a translator of several important works in aikido, and a guest instructor in demand around the world.

Jacques Payet arrived without any information about Shioda's location but was able to find the Yoshinkan dojo with the assistance of a French speaking Japanese student at Tokyo University.

When Jacques Payet arrived at the Yoshinkan in 1980, most classes were taught by Takafumi Takeno.

Jacques Payet's stay was extended several times until the beginning of the dojo's next special police training course in April 1981, at which time Payet officially became an uchi-deshi in the Yoshinkan dojo.

Jacques Payet was Shioda's deshi from that time until Shioda's death in 1994.

Jacques Payet lived in Japan as a direct disciple of Shioda for two periods, 1980 - 1985 and 1989 - 1993.

However, in 1988, Jacques Payet decided he was unsatisfied with his own practice of aikido and requested that he be allowed to return to Japan to continue studying at the Yoshinkan dojo.

On moving to the US, Jacques Payet made a tour of the country, visiting dojos and observing the state of aikido practice and aikido instruction throughout the country.

Jacques Payet initially settled in Minnesota but eventually moved to California, where he taught in the University of California system.

Jacques Payet is a popular seminar instructor and makes trips to dojos in the United States, England and Russia annually in addition to giving seminars at corporations and universities in Japan.

Jacques Payet was present at Gozo Shioda's last overseas demonstration in Germany in 1988.

When Jacques Payet moved to Kyoto in 2005, leadership of that school passed to David Fryberger, Yoshinkan 5th-dan, and the school's name is "Aikido on Ventura".

Jacques Payet returned to Japan in May 2005, settling in Kyoto as the assistant director of ITEC at Doshisha University.

In Kyoto, Jacques Payet initially pursued aikido training on his own without taking on students.

In 2008, Jacques Payet opened a formal dojo in Kyoto with the assistance of shidoin Yutaka Kikuchi and Masahiro Nakatsuka.

Jacques Payet wanted a traditional facility rather than a gymnasium for training and found Shiramine Jingu, which has a dojo on its grounds.

Jacques Payet designed and organised the original international Senshusei Course, in which foreign students can enroll in the special training course given to the Kidotai.

Jacques Payet observed that most foreign students could achieve technical proficiency up through the 1st or 2nd dan ranks, but did not have an opportunity to advance after that.

Jacques Payet conceived of the Course and the IYAF as a way of building up qualified foreign instructors who could promote the Yoshinkan style of aikido outside Japan.

Jacques Payet took care of foreign correspondence for the dojo and served on the staff of the Aikido Yoshinkan International Newsletter.

When Jacques Payet was uchi-deshi at the Yoshinkan, there was a notebook full of technical information and anecdotes of Gozo Shioda.

Jacques Payet taught himself to read Japanese with the aim of translating this notebook.

Jacques Payet acted as a translator for portions of this work, while his deshi Chris Crampton, 4th-dan, proofread some of the English text.

Jacques Payet is mentioned several times in Robert Twigger's book Angry White Pyjamas, about the author's experiences on the 3rd Senshusei Course.

In 2011, Jacques Payet appeared in a video produced by the travel program YAJIKITA ON THE ROAD.

In 2014, Jacques Payet appeared on a comedy sketch filmed in Tokyo.

Jacques Payet offers a Part-Time Kenshusei course, which meets on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings and is appropriate for older individuals or those with full-time jobs.