Aikido Yoshinkan (養神館, Yōshinkan, lit. House for Cultivating the Spirit) is a style of aikido founded by Gozo Shioda (1915-1994) after World War II.
Yoshinkan Aikido is occasionally called a "hard style" because the training methods are a product of the period of intensive training that Shioda spent as a pre-World War II student of Morihei Ueshiba. It is also generally closer to the original aikijujutsu from which all aikido derives than so-called "soft styles" of aikido, and has sharper, more angular movements. The emphasis placed on correct form in addition to correct flow and timing is also distinctive of Yoshinkan aikido.
Yoshinkan Aikido has some 150 basic techniques which are practiced repeatedly: these techniques enable students to master the remaining ones, which total some 3000 overall. Weapons forms are practiced as an adjunct to the open hand techniques. Like many styles of aikido, Yoshinkan eschews competition; instead, it emphasizes self defense applications. Yoshinkan aikido is one of the martial arts taught to the men and women of the Tokyo police.
Distinctively, Yoshinkan places heavy emphasis on basic movements, which are practiced in the form of solo movements or kata. Yoshinkan also emphasizes the importance of kamae, or basic stance, as fundamental to the learning of proper aikido.

Hans de Groot has been training in Japanese martial arts for two decades. He began his training in Shotokan Karate with Saeki Sensei of the JKA. He has been training in Yoshinkan Aikido since 1994. His instructors have been T. Kimeda Sensei, C. Johnston Sensei, M. Kimeda Sensei, and B. Rockburn Sensei. In addition, he has participated in training clinics given by Takeno Sensei and Chida Sensei.
