This is a very strange story. It is about Tony Annesi of Framingham Massachusetts. I never trained with him, only saw him a few times, yet he had a unique impact ohn me.
When I first moved to Derry NH I met another martial arts in a nearby area. In return he invited me to a seminar where sevrral instructors were going to present their arts. One of them was Dr Yabg Jwing-Ming where I had several of his YMAA Chinese Martial Books . He was going to present some of his Chin Na and I was most interested in seeing what he had.
The seminar was interesting in seeing multiple arts being presented. But one demonstrator stands out, beside Dr.Yang.
That demonstrator was Tony Anessi (who I had not heard of earlier). He was presenting what he called his Aiki-Jujitsu. I had heard of Aiki-Jutsu and never seen it. I had received a bit of Aikido training from my studies with Tristan Sutrisno. (of course what he called Aikido was nothing like other aiidoka I had seen on youtube, but it worked effectively). In turn that training gave me some knowledge of how Aikido worked.
The demonstrations that Tony Annesi gave really did nothing for me. It did contain Aikido principles, But where I had been shown a Aikido that efficiently and most quickly placed an attacker on the ground. What Tony Annesi showed seems more like showboating. Every demo was drawn out, done in a most slow manner. Nothing like anything I had been shown. What he showed went into my forget file.
Then years passed, I moved to three different employers, in more important company positions. My latest employer was Dennison Manifacturing in Framingham Mass.
I read about Tony Annesi, various magazine articles in a variety of magazines. Eventually talking about his training with Albert Church of the NKJU.
It turned out I realized his dojo was in an old manufacturing building about 1 block away from where I worked. I was not interested in training with someone else (as I was already training with too many other people). However I saw he was selling a new VHS video of a seminar with 5 different instructors in 5 different Aiki arts.
So one day at lunch time I walked down to his dojo, met him and purchased that VHS video. (I no longer have the video, discarded when I moved to Arizona.) As I recall it was about 2 hours long. Each of those arts did use aikido principles. Again I did not think much of the Tony Annesi presentation. Too much talking, too slow motion in its presentation. There is a prevue video on Youtube. (which you can find a link to below). As it turns out the presentation of Dennis Paulimbo impresed me most.
American Masters of Five Aiki Arts
Don Angier, Henri-Robert Vilaire, Tony Annesi, Dennis Palumbo, and Miguel Ibarra from the mid-1980s production of American Masters of Five Aiki Arts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQMQYfMjh4
Eventually I moved to another job with Fidelity Investments.
Then in 2010 a neighboring karate school brought Patrick McCarthy in for a weekend training session. Also attending the session on Saturday was Tony Annesi. He recognized me and during some of the demonstration we chatted a bit.
Those were the times I've seen him.
In the magazines they touched on many things and controversies about him. I was not involved and will not comment on them.
I have viewed many of his YouTube videos. He published many books an many videos. In fact a small publishing empire of his stuff.
However nothing I have viewed has changed my opinion of what I saw. Of course that is his business and his program. It was just not for me.
Here are a few of his many YouTube videos.
Fire&Water1-Seienchin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjq4yxKrCE
Aikido Master Tony Annesi - 1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJfJ3CFjyA4
Master Class: The Wave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_A1uswMp4Q
When I search about him on the internet, most that is there seems older material, nothing that seems to be current.
Here is some biographical information on Tony Annesi
BUSHIDO-KAI (Organization of the Way of the Warrior) was founded in 1970 as a martial arts school with an emphasis on the traditional Japanese arts of judo, ju-jutsu, and karate. In 1977, Tony ANNESI, one of the early members of BUSHIDO-KAI and now its head instructor, settled in to full-time martial arts teaching. He had been trained in a number of martial arts and held black belts in judo, Kamishin aiki-ju-jutsu, Kamishin karate, and Shotokan karate.
In 1984, Sensei ANNESI was appointed Soke-dai (inheritor designate) of the Kamishin-ryu martial arts and of the Kamishin-kai International and received a ranking of rokudan (6th degree). Two years later, ANNESI had earned the honor-title of Shihan Renshi (master instructor) through the Kamishin-kai's honor credit system and his dojo BUSHIDO-KAI was appointed the Hombu Dojo (central school) of the style.
After rejuvenating a federation which had suffered from the loss of its founder (and Sensei ANNESI's teacher), Shihan Albert C. CHURCH, Jr., ANNESI felt that his ideas for moving the federation forward did not concur with the ideas of its leader, Catherine O. CHURCH, Shihan Albert CHURCH's wife and apparent successor. In order not to create a conflict, ANNESI resigned from the association of which he had been a part for 16 years.
Former students petitioned ANNESI to form a new group so that they might continue to study under him and earn rank following the curricula and standards of his organization. After more than a year of consideration, ANNESI founded BUSHIDO-KAI KENKYUKAI (Way of the Warrior Organization Research Society) and the TAKESHIN SOGO BUDO (Bamboo Spirit Comprehensive Martial Ways).
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