JAPANESE MARTIAL ARTS CENTER

In terms of the body, the martial arts are a collection of postural forms designed to express physical energy in an intelligent way. This ex...

An upright posture is important in the martial arts for four reasons, specifically: 1) it unifies the upper body with the ...

What is jujutsu? In the 21st Century, the term "jujutsu" - also sometimes spelled " jujitsu " or " jiu jitsu ...

Out in the "real" world , we take great pains to express ourselves. We choose certain clothes, drive a certain make of car, and we...

Between the martial arts teachers at the Japanese Martial Arts Center in Ann Arbor and their students, there exists a social contract . The...

What does it mean to "master" a martial art? In the Japanese martial arts, we are very reluctant to use the term "master....

The Frog. Sato Shizuya (Chief Director of Kokusai Budoin, IMAF) sometimes tells the story of the frog at the bottom of the well. The frog, ...

"Empty Your Cup" is a martial arts aphorism that virtually every student has heard. It refers to the idea that students should pu...

The Japanese martial arts that employ the sword take many forms. Some emphasize formal techniques, some emphasize sparring. All have valuab...

We are often asked to explain the difference between the words Karate, Karate-Do (sometimes written "Karatedo") and Karate-Jutsu ...

Many students wonder what the difference is between aikido, jujitsu (jujutsu), judo, and aiki-jujutsu. The short answer is that all of them...

Zen refers to Zen Buddhism, a system of thought that is widely misunderstood to be a religion. Instead, Zen, in its purest form is a system...

Those of us who grew up watching Bruce Lee and other actors in martial arts movies sometimes believe that dojos in the same town are always ...

What does it mean to teach "traditional" martial arts? It can mean many things, some obvious and some not so obvious. A few of the...

In our martial arts training lives, whether we study aikido, karate, kendo, or some other martial art, we must learn to use the power of the...

At the Japanese Martial Arts Center (our "dojo"), we use many Japanese words and expressions. These help create the cultural atmos...

When we get a new bokken (wooden sword) at the Japanese Martial Arts Center in Ann Arbor, we take time to scrape off the shiny finish appl...

There's no getting around it, martial arts requires repetition. You have to practice your techniques over and over again to get good at ...

To whom much is given, much is expected. This is nowhere more true than in the traditional martial arts. Along with the great skills that w...

At the Aikibudoin at Dartmouth College, on their shomen, is some calligraphy in Japanese that says, roughly translated, "Have I loved ...