Great Falls Budokan

09/04/2026

Great Falls Budōkan will be closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 7th. Enjoy your holiday!

09/02/2026

Many old photographs have been passed down through the years, but this one is a true treasure: Lovret Sensei with his senior deshi, Rajguru Sensei. (Mid-1990s)

08/28/2026

The deshi of Great Falls Budōkan are looking forward to training at the 2026 Taikai at Sandia Budokan on October 17th and 18th. To register, visit www.heiho.org.

08/22/2026

Developing the human spirit is the central tenet of Yamate-ryū Aikijutsu. Do not conflate the techniques of the ryū with its true heart.

https://heiho.org/martial-traditions

08/22/2026

After navigating quite a bit more bureaucracy than anticipated, we have a new sign up in front of the dōjō. This allows new students to find us much more easily. Come by and check us out!

08/20/2026

08/14/2026

Sandia Budokan in Albuquerque, NM demonstrates one of the kumitachi of the Ittō Tenshin-ryū.

Sandia Budōkan will host the Fall 2026 Ittō Tenshin-ryū Taikai over the weekend of October 17-18. See www.heiho.org for registration information.

08/12/2026

Ms. Nakhshin, one of the senior deshi at Great Falls Budōkan, discusses the benefits of studying Ittō-tenshin Ryū kenjutsu.

08/11/2026

Great Falls Budōkan holds zazen classes every Saturday morning at 0900. Our zazen classes are open to the public.

Zazen is an indispensable exercise within our traditions. It affords the practitioner an opportunity for direct realization.

The martial traditions of Japan have long recognized the value of leaving familiar surroundings and entering periods of disciplined training in solitude. The mountains were not simply places of seclusion. They provided conditions in which familiar patterns could fall away, allowing the practitioner to encounter existence more directly.

This practice is not unique to the samurai. Periods of seclusion amid the rawness of nature appear in religious and spiritual traditions throughout the world.

This September, I will enter a monastery in the mountains to undertake forty days of intensive meditative exercise, solitude, silence, and martial training.

Recently, someone asked me, “What is the purpose of your retreat?”

“I am retreating from nothing,” I responded. “I am going to engage fully with life!”

Joseph T Simms
Ittō Tenshin-ryū® Kenjutsu
Yamate-ryū® Aikijutsu
Goseki-ryū® Aiki Heihō
United States Marine Corps