The roots forgotten, the tree cannot stand.

The walk of a person is not only against time; the aikidoka advances in the shadow of memories, of roots, and of stories covered by oblivion. A path without a past is like a ship with a broken compass: without direction, condemned to drift…

The past is not a time that has vanished. It is the essence of our present, the light of our future. Each memory erased is a step cast into the darkness of tomorrow. To remember is to know the depth of one’s being. The individual who forgets their past forgets themselves: they lose their identity, their value, their way.

In Aikido, this truth shines with clarity. Our techniques are not mere movements: they are the living breath of a teaching handed down from generation to generation. Every step on the way of Budō has meaning only if it follows the traces left by those who came before. To erase these traces would be to erase the way itself.

For us, one of the brightest of these footprints remains the shadow and the light of Tamura Shihan. His teaching was not only technical; it embodied a way of being, an understanding of life itself. To forget Tamura Shihan would be to forget the very heart of Aikido. Our responsibility is to bring to life the spirit that was entrusted to us.

A tree that denies its roots surrenders to the wind; but the aikidoka who draws strength from the past, the person who acknowledges their roots, remains standing before the storm. For the past is not a chain, it is a wing. It does not imprison us; it lifts us and opens the horizon.

Each time we enter the dojo, each time we step on the tatami, we are in truth bowing to the past. In that bow resound the voice of Tamura Shihan, the breath of O-Sensei, and the depth of an entire tradition. Thus must we remember:
The one who knows their past builds their future. The one who forgets it walks only in darkness.