jodoseals
    The Capital Area Jodokai
 
Welcome to the website for the Capital Area Jodokai.  We study jodo, the way of the stick, as taught by Kaminoda Tsunemori Sensei of the Nihon Jodokai.  We practice Saturday (11-1:30 pm) & Tuesday (7-10 pm) at 25 S. Quaker Lane, Alexandria VA.
 

 
P1030326News & Events Update
Just back from a Jodo training camp with Kaminoda Sensei held in Kashima, November 3 through 8. Sensei was very strong and two of our friends, Jack Bieler of Denton, Texas and Claude Gilmore of Madison, Wisconsin, received scrolls at this training camp. Hit the link above to learn more.

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Kaminoda Sensei (tachi) & Lena Carlberg (jo) of Stockholm, Kashima Jingu dojo, 2008
This classical Japanese weapons art, which is approximately 400 years old, is built around the use of a staff to defeat a swordsman.  Invented by Muso Gonnosuke as a dueling art, jodo rapidly evolved into a policing art. The jo proves to be a formidable weapon against a swordsman, and a skilled jo practitioner can tune the amount of force to the situation.

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Over time, associated weapon arts were added to the curriculum. These include tanjo (a walking stick), kenjutsu, kusarigama, jutte & tessen, and hojojutsu (rope tying).

The Capital Area Jodokai trains in Alexandria, Virginia, performs embu around the region, and members travel to Japan as frequently as life allows to train in gasshuku or at the Zoshokan dojo in Tokyo with Kaminoda Sensei and the other senior instructors of the Nihon Jodokai.

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(l-r) Michael Rogers of Nagano/New Mexico, Ray Sosnowski, Josh Badgley, Lena Carlberg of Stockholm, Kashima, 2006.

Shindo Muso ryu jodo is a koryu, or classical martial art, and training in it is not a casual enterprise. There are many good instructors around the U.S., often with different ties back to Japan. If you are interested in studying Shindo Muso Ryu jodo, make sure that you find someone who has a live tie back to a master instructor in Japan. Jodo cannot be learned from a book, from Youtube or from films; it must be learned through direct transmission.

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Dan Pearson and Rich Friman, Kashima Taikai, 2008.

Dan Pearson is the senior instructor of the Capital Area Jodokai, with a teaching license from Kaminoda Tsunemori Sensei. We have affiliated groups in Detroit (Peter Boylan); Milwaukee (the Go Daiko Jodokai led by Rich Friman); Northern Virginia (Corey Comstock); and, Denton, Texas (Jack Bieler) If you are interested in training in the Washington, D.C. area, or want information on how to train with these other groups, please feel free to contact us.

Photos on this page courtesy of Valerie Mathews, Scott Rakow, Dan Pearson, Nettie Legters and members of the Nihon Jodokai.

 
 
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