Kendo Magazine » Taro Ariga Kendo blog

Making of Butokuden Kendo Dojo wood floor

taroariga — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:17:30 +0000

Some people had asked me how I made the wooden floor of the BUTOKUDEN Dojo, so today I will write now I made the Butokuden Kendo Dojo wood floor myself.

Our Dojo used to have a plastic tile, which covered a layer of plywood. Originally, we rented this location, because it used to be used by [...]

Fighting Sprits

asukakondo — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:39:17 +0000

Hello. This is Asuka.

We will have the All US Junior Kendo Open Chmapionships in July. We will start practice for Junior Tournament soon. This tournament is for children 18 and under. We have a few good Junior Kenshis in our Dojo. One of them has a very strong fighting sprit. He is 9 year old.

One [...]

Last Practice with Esteban!

asukakondo — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:53:27 +0000

Hello, this is Asuka.

Last Week was the last practice with Esteban. He left to Colombia.

Since it was the last practice with Esteban at BUTOKUDEN, I really wanted to beat him in Keiko, even though he is male and practices more than I do. I was sure we would have last Keiko with him. So I [...]

Female Kenshi

asukakondo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:20:11 +0000

Hello, this is Asuka.

It was a great opportunity for me to meet these highly skilled for female Senseis. What was common among them was that they were all very humble. Watanabe Sensei told us that the secret to improve Kendo skills is that we should listen to what our Senseis say and try the lessons [...]

Practice Diary 12/26/2009 Birthday Keiko

asukakondo — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:09:45 +0000

Hello, this is Asuka.

Happy New Year! In our Dojo, we already started our practice from January 5.

We were very busy at the end of 2009. We had the Christmas party, Toshikoshi Keiko and my Birthday Keiko. My birthday is December 26th.

As for the Birthday Keiko, I was happy that everyone remembered my Birthday and decided [...]

Christmas Party!!

asukakondo — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:49:41 +0000

Hello, this is Asuka.

Last week, we had Christmas party in our Dojo. In the afternoon, we had the Butokuden Dojo tournament and in the evening we had the party.

This tournament is very memorable for everyone. In the Kids division, the smallest one, who would never be happy unless he is [...]

Promotion Test

asukakondo — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:43:45 +0000

On Sunday, we had the promotion exam for KYU to 4 Dan. There were around 60 people testing at the examination.

I got 3 Dan a year ago, therefore I did not have the qualification to take test this time. I went to the examination as a helper. I helped as a timer, so I was [...]

Practice Diary-11/13/2009 Jodo

asukakondo — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:34:48 +0000

Hello, this is Asuka.

In our Butokuden Dojo, we practice Jodo before our Kendo practices, for about 30 minutes.

Jodo is often called ‘The way of the stick.’ This martial art uses a short wooden staff, called a ‘Jo’ or ‘Tsue’, to defend oneself against an attacker using a Japanese sword.

First Tsukidue Practice

We started Jodo a [...]

Someya Senpai’s visit to Butokuden (10/15/2009)

taroariga — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:41:07 +0000

Someya Senpai (Kendo 7 Dan, Brazilian National Team Manager) came to our Dojo again last Thursday. He was travelling with his family to Grand Canyon, and came directly to our Dojo after his trip. We had a almost 3 hours long Keiko.

At the end Someya Senpai and I had a Jigeiko. I though it was [...]

Kendo Demonstration at Seal Beach Pier

taroariga — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:46:59 +0000

Today, we had a Kendo Demonstration at the the Seal Beach Pier, for the Japanese Kite festival. Many of our BUTOKUDEN Dojo members came to help us.

Thank you, Ryo, Riki, Ian, Cozo, Shion, Leon, Arata, Hiroyuki and Haruna!

We had a lot of people watching us and it was a good turn out, but [...]