The Budo Spirit

Maintaining The Martial Mindset

On a sweltering August afternoon, somewhere between Tokyo and Misawa City, Japan, I was riding the Shinkansen (bullet train) back home after a long and arduous weekend of aikido summer training in Kashima City.  We were three years in to a four-year military assignment, one filled with a mix of emotions and experiences .  My teacher, Yamamoto-San, sat across from me, the worry finally leaving his face because I stopped lapsing into unconsciousness.  He had a good reason to be alarmed; I was pretty beat up and extraordinarily dehydrated.  His treatment of my symptoms was standard for Japanese Budo (martial arts):  A tall glass of Sapporo Beer.

It was a very special day for me because I had successfully passed the exam for black belt, a feat that I really had not counted on before leaving Japan.  If you are not familiar with aikido, let me give you a very brief synopsis.  Aiki (harmony) Do (way or path) is a modern derivative of Japanese Jujutsu, the close-quarter combat art of the samurai.  Today’s jujutsu looks absolutely nothing like the original form which was predicated on vanquishing an enemy on the battlefield, not tying him up in a neat little knot.  Anyway, it was on that train ride home that I decided that some day I would open my own dojo.  That was in 1995 and I was 30 years old.

After returning to the U.S., I started teaching on Air Force bases and occasionally at martial arts clubs wherever we were assigned, preparing for the day I would follow through on the dream.  Shortly after retiring in 2005, I started working and converted our small, two car garage into our first dojo where I taught my teenage sons, some of their friends and some other stragglers looking for something different.  One thing you can say about Jissenkan Dojo, it was very different.  Those young men and women were trained in a militaristic, “leave if you can’t hang” type of atmosphere.  I made things harsh:  Saturday morning runs to the high school and back before class, two-hour training sessions with no heat or air conditioning.  Endless ukemi (rolling) drills, vigorous throws, takedowns, joint locks, a mixture of aikido and jujutsu along with striking, sparring, boxing, etc.  Similar to my experience in Japan, black belt tests were brutal, maybe worse than mine because I wanted those kids to understand the only limits they had were the ones they placed in front of themselves.  I also wanted to create the vision of what I thought dojo should be…a place that’s not for everybody.

Well, here we are in 2025 and that vision has not changed, evidenced by our small number of students.  But some things are different.  For example, we have beginner and intermediate classes now.  When I was working full time and only had three days a week to teach, prospective students would have to learn fast or leave.  And to ensure we weren’t stuck with slackers, I typically gave people a month or so to acclimate and then we’d have a “hell” session with tons of push-ups, sit-ups and other physical punishment along with drill sergeant tactics designed to insult and intimidate people.  If you attended Jissenkan Dojo back then, you had to want to be there.  I’m proud to say that seven udansha (black belts) came from that special place and time.  But times, bodies and attitudes change.  Some things have to change or we never leave the train.

Jissenkan Dojo is still here.  We call ourselves Tatsu Dojo because most people can’t begin to pronounce the former and that name is easily lost during the three seconds of scrolling attention span.  Our martial focus has shifted to karate because in my humble opinion, it is the most sustainable art for health, strength, longevity and self-protection.  My training began in karate and it has never stopped.  But you can believe the karate we teach today has a heavy influence of aikido and jujutsu and we have classes that focus on those arts.  If black belt is your goal, know that you will be brought to your physical, mental and perhaps spiritual limits.  No one will receive a black belt from me just because they “try.”  We expect you to meet the standards to be best of your physical ability and limitations.  We also expect you to take training seriously especially during advanced classes and when people don’t, we still provide suitable reminders about martial ettiequte and discipline.

But if black belt is not your goal and you just enjoy training here, well then there is always a place for you as long as you’re willing to take it seriously.  Understanding Budo, the “enlightened path through warrior training” means realizing that everyone’s path is different.  Not everyone needs to become a black belt to get the benefit of martial arts training.  Not everyone has to be really good at sparring, grappling throws, etc.  What you do need is the willingness to learn, allowing yourself to be uncomfortable and the tenacity to keep trying no matter how bad you think you are.  Most of all, you need humility.  It’s starts with being completely honest with yourself.  Something that a lot of us are simply not willing to do.  After all, it’s not for everybody.

Dave Magliano

Jissenkan Dojo

Jissenkan Budo

Dojo Cho