Mizuchi Dojo

06/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F4ogSMi5P/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/30/2026

Check out this episode of The Life Giving Sword Podcast featuring our dojo’s shihan, Bill Reynolds!

In this episode of the Life Giving Sword Podcast, the host intervie...

05/29/2026

Come join us for the “Taste of Japan” at the International Institute of Buffalo; located at 864 Delaware Ave from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. There will be Japanese music and food as well as the performance of the tea ceremony.

Mizuchi-do Youth and Adult classes will be held on the institute grounds that day. And, at 7:20 pm, our dojo will demonstrate kenjutsu including a performance of Mizuchi no ken kata.

We hope to see you there!

05/29/2026

05/14/2026

Why are the martial arts of Okinawa called, “Empty Hand” (karate), when there are plenty of techniques that aren’t done with empty hands?

In 1936, a group of Okinawan masters were assembled by the Japanese government and they signed off on the change from what they had been calling their martial arts since roughly 1477, To-de, “Chinese Hand”.

The official reason given by the Imperial Japanese government is that the name change was to make the Okinawan martial art “more Japanese” and far less Chinese. Second was the name change put an emphasis on the unarmed techniques of To-de and thus made it less of a perceived threat to the government and instead more of a school subject, more similar to gymnastics classes than to military basic training.

Recently I stated elsewhere, and apparently drew the wrath of South African karateka, that changing the name from Chinese Hand to Empty Hand was political, even racist. Those who responded poorly to my opinion said that the name change was to disconnect the art from the Chinese who had been attacking and killing Okinawans throughout history. They were escaping a re-traumatizing trigger word.

If that is true, why did they name their art Chinese Hand to begin with? Some sort of mass Stockholm Syndrome? And, did the Okinawans fail on their own to recognize this for almost 500 years? Also perplexing is that despite the change of the broad system name, the new Karate systems would continue to practice kata named in honor of Chinese martial artists: Seiunchin, Wansu, Chintuu, and Kushanku. If the Chinese were viewed as villains by the Okinawans, why weren’t these kata also renamed? Okinawan martial artists did not rename the kata and they can still be found to be practiced with their original names to this day.

However, it is important to note that Japanese karate martial arts founder, Funakoshi sensei, renamed three of them as well as some others that were not named for the Chinese. He renamed Wansu to Empi, Chintuu to Gankaku, and Kushanku to Kanku-Dai. He also renamed Passai to Bassai and Naifanchi to Tekki as well as Rohai to Meikyo and Pinan to Heian. But, again, while Shotokan is viewed by many karate practitioners as Japanese and the only true karate system, and therefore could represent a distancing from the Chinese, most Okinawan martial arts systems today still train the kata with their original names.

05/14/2026

Underlying Asian martial arts from the start with Shaolin Quanfa has been Zen. And in addition to achieving enlightenment within one’s lifetime, one is directed to treat everyone, even one’s attackers with compassion and to do the least amount of harm when putting an end to a conflict.

It seems clear to me that many martial artists would do well to consider this underlying philosophy especially if they claim to practice traditional martial arts.

For the sport martial artists, I guess you will probably pass on that. 😊

05/13/2026

Today, I questioned what I felt were racist comments about the renaming of tode to karate. In response, one, possibly two martial arts organizations, South African Karate-jutsu Association and Kudo South Africa, decided to post hateful imagery to this page. And this was after my expressing disappointment in this perception after a lifetime of experiencing racism against Asian Americans that led to the development of my PTSD.

I have since blocked them from this page as well as my personal page where this exchanged started.

I wish I could feel this is an isolated incident but I’m afraid it is just another in host of examples of bullying behaviors I’m seeing perpetrated by martial artists against each other.

I know should already feel cautious about expressing opinions. And I shouldn’t imagine I can always have thoughtful discussions that do not degrade to bullying behavior. But, that’s how I roll - I like to imagine that we can all have our own opinions without becoming hateful toward those who don’t share them.

05/09/2026

Sweep the *LEG*, Johnny. Sweep the leg, Johnny!

05/09/2026

Why wear hakama?

Originally, hakama were the official over-pants of horse-mounted samurai similar in function to chaps. Since 1919, the hakama would come to represent a claim to training in the manner of a samurai in the “Way of War”, Budo. This would include most of the Japanese martial arts founded in the early 20th century such as Kendo, Iaido, Kyudo, and Jodo, that claim to maintain the samurai lifestyle which ended in 1877.

So if you practice one of those Japanese arts, makes sense to wear them and claim to living the “Budo” life… even if samurai did not practice Budo - they practiced bujutsu.

02/11/2026

Why aren’t we a school?

The place where Mizuchi-do karate is trained is a dojo. Dojo meaning a “place of the Way”. Why do we not refer to our place as a school let alone a “Black Belt school”? Because we are not a school.

A dojo, like a school, provides instruction and has a curriculum as well as expectations for what qualifies a student to be considered competent in the elements of its curriculum. But a school uses objective assessments, provides numerical scores, and uses those scores to determine advancement (as well as maintenance or even reduction) in the level of training. A dojo does not. In a dojo, assessments are subjective, there are no numerical scores, and there is only maintaining a level of training or advancing in the level of instruction.

Why then does any place where martial arts is trained called itself a school? Personally, I blame Shotokan and then all that followed their lead. Again, my opinion, the establishment of Shotokan was specifically to take training out of the “Classical” period of martial arts and put it in the “Traditional” period. Karate was shifted from its emphasis on self-defense to self-perfection. And from open-ended training meetings to structured classes. And the basis of instruction moved from training dyads and groups to individual learners facing primarily a single instructor who generally remained at the front of the training area.

In other words, the training basis was made to be identical to how an academic subject would be instructed in a school. With this, the performance of basics, which is most amenable to class room style instruction, became the primary modality of learning. Kata, once done with a partner or multiple partners was reduced to primarily being done on one’s own. And fighting became a special segment and even came to not even resemble the system it arose from like it was a separate subject.

Traditional schools function based on earning belts, like a school would graduate you to the next grade. They encourage competing against others for medals like schools encourage quiz bowls, math olympiads, and spelling bees. They imply there is an end to training, like getting a diploma, whether it is being promoted to a Black Belt or even that 10th degree means the end of getting better at a martial art. You can somehow know it all and stop growing.

The Mizuchi Dojo follows the philosophy of the Classical period of martial arts. This is the period that immediately followed the “Ancient” period when martial arts were trained solely inside military training areas or inside temples. And the intent of the “art” was purely martial. The Classical period is marked by training areas being created in the community. And not to satisfy the requirements of being a fully trained soldier or guardian and capable of defending against soldiers. The Classical period focused on being able to simply defend oneself against miscreants and criminals. One trained without being given regular feedback or advancement. One might be honored with acknowledgements such as being asked to help teach or to be named as the new master when the old master died. But otherwise, people trained during the Classical period to simply become, maintain, and perhaps improve their ability to defend themselves and others.

Of course, the Mizuchi Dojo does provide feedback and advancement. We use “colored” belts and ranks of black belts. These are similarities we share with schools. But we are most definitely not a school.