Itten Dojo

The May edition of Sword and Spirit has been posted. In “Hydration and Training,” guest contributor Erika Wolfe discusses the roles of water in the human body and notes potential consequences should proper hydration not be maintained. Download the newsletter by joining the Sword and Spirit group on Facebook, or directly from our website, at https://www.ittendojo.org/dbfiles/download/swordandspirit/pdf/67. All back issues of Sword and Spirit are available at https://www.ittendojo.org/articles/swordandspirit. #ittendojo #japanesemartialartscenter #aikijutsu #jujutsu #kenjutsu #iaido #shodo

  Reasons to Choose Itten Dojo • You will be a member, not a customer (we do not use contracts). • You will train in authentic, heritage martial arts with fully documented lineages tracing directly to Japan. • You will have regular access to some of the most-accomplished, highest-ranking instructors in the world. • Our dojo is widely recognized as an exceptional source for traditional training, supported and endorsed by the Japanese Martial Arts Center (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Reigakudo Foundation (Tokyo, Japan), Takeshin Dojo and the Nihonden Aikibujutsu Senyokai (Salem, Massachusetts), the Yamabushi Jujutsu Aikijutsu Ryu Association (Bronx, New York), the Shudokan Martial Arts Association (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Japanese Budo Association (Tokyo, Japan), and  Bugeisha Traditional Martial Artist  magazine (Kane’ohe, Hawai’i). • We maximize the training benefit to members by offering 90-minute classes and frequent open-mat periods. • Our class sizes are small, ...

  THE LAST BUGEISHA A Tribute to Angel Lemus, by Peter Hobart With due respect to Robert Fulghum, almost everything I know, I learned as a bartender: • Welcome everyone through the door, but be ready to show it to them again if need be. • Treat a pauper like a princess, and a princess like a pauper. • There isn’t much that men (and women) of good faith can’t solve over a beer. • Clean as you go, and if someone drops a glass, clean that up for them as well. • Be nice. Be nice. Be nice (until it’s time to not be nice—this one courtesy of Roadhouse ). And the list goes on… Bartenders the world over will tell you that in this profession, you generally encounter two types of regulars: Those who want to tell you what they know, and those who want to ask you what you know. As a barkeep, I generally preferred dealing with clients of the former type, since they were usually easier to handle. In friends and colleagues, however, different metrics apply. Angel Lemus was ...

 Self Defense Law and the Martial Artist For almost three decades, one of the most frequently accessed articles on our former website was this detailed overview of Pennsylvania self-defense laws and considerations of critical importance to martial arts students and instructors. Freshly revised and updated by the author, the article has been restored to our website and can be read at https://www.ittendojo.org/articles/self-defense-law . #ittendojo #selfdefense

  Knees, Feet, and Ground — the Critical Interface The knees are some of the most critical, and also most vulnerable, joints in the human body. Protecting the knees in routine training is a primary requirement for long-term participation in martial arts. Equally important, the things a student should do to protect his or her knees can be a gateway to learning how to optimize the power and effectiveness of a wide variety of techniques, regardless of the art being practiced. Let’s start with the key principle: Keep the foot and the knee in alignment. I had 20+ years of training and a sandan in karate, with a little judo and European fencing while in college, before I had the opportunity to begin training in kenjutsu. One of the first things I was taught was how to walk properly. My sensei illustrated how most people tend to walk, with feet splayed outwards and essentially falling forward with each step. Because the knee points forward while the foot is angled to the outside, every st...

KAKEMONO OF THE MONTH — FEBRUARY 2023 After I’d decided to make permanent in the tokonoma the beautiful scroll presented to the dojo by Jevin Orcutt, I wasn’t sure what to do with all the other kakemono in our collection. Then it dawned on me to build an appropriate way to display scrolls in the auxiliary training area we now use for shodo (calligraphy) classes. Sorting through the collection of scrolls I found this — that I’d forgotten we have. When the amazing collection donated to the dojo by calligrapher extraordinaire Paul Myers arrived, I thought, “What will I do with a kakemono that says ‘Shodo’?” Well, how about display it in the shodo dojo? Information on our shodo training with Bailey Sensei can be found at https://www.ittendojo.org/arts/shodo .

The January edition of Sword and Spirit has been posted. In “Kagami-biraki 2023,” Itten Dojo chief instructor Robert Wolfe presents a photo-essay focused on our New Year’s observation. Download the newsletter by joining the Sword and Spirit group on Facebook, or directly from our website, at https://www.ittendojo.org/dbfiles/download/swordandspirit/pdf/63. All back issues of Sword and Spirit are available at https://www.ittendojo.org/articles/swordandspirit. #ittendojo #japanesemartialartscenter #aikijutsu #jujutsu #kenjutsu #iaido #shodo