Career
He also was the responsible teacher in Denmark and in Finland, had importance for the development of iaido in these three countries, and was the first to give aikido demonstrations in Finland. Ichimura holds 6th dan in the aikido organisation Aikikai, a rank he received in 1977, and 6th dan renshi in iaido since 1969. In 1961 he went to the Toyo University, where he started a university dojo.
To start with Ichimura was based in Beime"s dojo, Stockholm Aikikai, and later at Minnano.
He also travelled, teaching in many different dojos in the Stockholm area. In 1968 he moved to Uppsala, roughly 70 kilometres north of Stockholm, where he started a new dojo in cooperation with the local Young Men’s Christian Association. The dojo has since changed name, and is nowadays often referred to as Uppsala Aikikai.
In the years to come Ichimura taught in Uppsala as well as in Stockholm and other places in Sweden, and also taught seminars in Finland, Denmark and Poland. Among the traces he left in Swedish aikido are a connection between aikido and iaido.
Most of the older aikido practitioners in the country have done also iaido.
The part of Scandinavian aikido who do Nishio"s type of aikido originally had this connection from Ichimura. Ichimura also wrote two of the first aikido books in Swedish, Aikido and Aikido och fred (literally "Aikido and peace"). Ichimura no longer does aikido, but has a shiatsu clinic in Kobe.
However, in connection with the 50 years jubilee in 2011 for aikido in Sweden, Ichimura made a temporary comeback.
At the jubilee training camp in Stockholm in September he instructed on a training session and terminated the performance session during the camp.
