Peter Van Marcke shihan is chief instructor at Antwerpen Aikikai. He started aikido at the age of 10, back in 1976. He studied aikido intensively under Seiichi Sugano shihan (in memoriam 2010) for 28 years, under Nobuyoshi Tamura shihan (in memoriam 2010) for 23 years and under Yoshimitsu Yamada shihan (in memoriam 2023) for 36 years. These 3 teachers have been direct, living-in students of the founder of aikido, O-sensei Morihei Ueshiba.
Beside these, Peter trained under about 30 other Japanese teachers, among those mostly under Osawa shihan, Iwagaki shihan, Yasuno shihan, Kanai shihan and Seki shihan.
He also trained often under some well-known non-Japanese teachers, mainly Claude Pellerin shihan in the early years and Donovan Waite shihan later on.
During his intensive search for aikido, he stayed countless times in France and other countries on seminars with Tamura sensei, he travelled numerous times to many countries with Sugano sensei, and he stayed longer periods at the New York Aikikai, at the dojo of Yamada sensei – where Sugano sensei was also teaching.
Peter sensei started teaching aikido in 1986 and he's conducting aikido seminars in several countries. He already taught in Germany, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Albanië.
Peter sensei reached the rank of nanadan (7th dan) of the Aikikai Honbu dojo in Tokyo, was granted the title of Shihan by the Aikido World Headquarters and the degree of Trainer A at the Vlaamse Trainerschool of Sport Vlaanderen.
