Don't have recent martial arts experience?  You'll want 

Jan Janssens Kyoshi

Darren trains under Jan Janssens Kyoshi, founder of Kobukai International Budo. Sensei Jan is the teacher Darren learns from today, and he contributed to completing the structure of the jo. 

The affiliation with Kobukai International Budo reflects a request from Hiroo Mochizuki, carrying the Yoseikan line forward. 

In January 2025, Sensei Jan travelled to Scarborough to present Darren's Shihan certificate in person.

Yoshiaki Unno Sensei

Before Sensei Jan, Darren trained for sixteen years under Yoshiaki Unno Sensei — his longest-serving student — until Unno Sensei's passing in 2006. 

It was from Unno Sensei that Darren learned the substance of the art, and he holds what he was taught with deep respect. 

It remains the foundation of everything he teaches.

Making it our own

Yoseikan has always asked its teachers, once they've carried the art far enough, to make it their own. As Shihan, that is what Darren has done — and the tradition recognises it. 

It shows in something small and precise. Certificates issued within Kobukai International Budo name the art Yoseikan Aikijujutsu. The certificates Darren issues name it Yoseikan Aikijutsu. Sensei Jan knows the difference and supports the direction Darren has taken — a distinction the tradition acknowledges without needing to set it apart. 

This is not a break from the lineage. It is the lineage working the way Yoseikan intends.

If the falls cost more than they used to

You don't have to be finished to admit your body has changed. 

Aikijutsu has no lifting and dumping throws, no high breakfalls. No one lands on top of you. The techniques don't turn your wrist into a point of pain — in this art, the joint is never the weapon. 

If you can take a standing mae or yoko ukemi, you can do this. 

This isn't a step down from what you trained. It's the same depth, on an engine your body can still run.

Who teaches here

Darren Edwards Shihan has trained in the Yoseikan tradition for 35 years and taught in Scarborough for 23. His belt is coral red and white — a rank beyond black belt that most practitioners never reach. 

In class, he's usually the one receiving the technique, not only demonstrating it. When the most experienced person in the room takes the role of the one being moved, it tells you something about how this art is transmitted — felt directly, through contact, nothing forced or driven through pain. 

For anyone wondering whether they can keep training into and past their fifties — the simple answer is - If you can take a standing mae or yoko ukemi, you can do this.

Come and feel it

For someone with your experience, the honest next step isn't reading more — it's getting on the mat once and finding out whether what you know transfers. 

Bring your gi. It won't be like ours — that doesn't matter. You won't be sat at the side and talked at. You'll train. A single session. No pain, no hard falls.  

You'll know inside the first few minutes. 

Message us on whatever's easiest — and tell us what you train. We'll find a time.

Prefer something else?