Harvey Konigsberg


Harvey Konigsberg is an artist and aikido teacher. He holds the rank of 7th dan and is one of about 20 non-Japanese Aikido instructors worldwide to hold this rank within the Aikikai.
Harvey Konigsberg was born in New York City in 1940. He studied Art at New York University and at the University of Miami. After completing his university studies in 1964, Konigsberg returned to New York City to begin a long and successful career as an artist.

Art

During the mid to late 1960s, while Konigsberg was working on his famous Whale series of paintings, and on his less well known Jazz series, he, and his part-Cherokee fashion-designer wife, were central figures in a dynamic group of aspiring young New York painters, writers, and designers known as the Konigsberg Group.
In the late 1960s the Konigsbergs moved briefly to Montreal, where they quickly rose to social prominence through friendships with English Canadian luminaries such as Leonard Cohen and Irving Leighton. Shortly after Konigsberg's brilliant first Canadian show in 1970, the Konigsbergs again returned to New York.
Through the 1970s, Konigsberg's art career flourished, with frequent one-man shows at galleries such as Starkman, Dallas and Runyon-Winchell

Aikido

In parallel with his painting career, Mr. Konigsberg began studying aikido in 1965, shortly after his arrival back in New York City at the finish of his University studies. In 1972 Konigsberg began training in iaido.
In the mid 1980s Konigsberg established a studio in Woodstock, New York. Since then he has maintained a presence in Woodstock as an artist and as an Aikido instructor.
One of the original students of Yoshimitsu Yamada, Konigsberg has now been practicing aikido for over 50 years. He currently holds 7th dan rank in Aikikai Aikido, holds the title of Shihan, and has a dan ranking in iaido.
In addition to his instructing practice in Woodstock, Konigsberg also instructs at the New York Aikikai in Manhattan and teaches seminars across the U.S. and abroad.

Corporate collections