Itten Dojo

10/11/2026

Last Thursday we had important visitors training with us in our aikijujutsu class — Richard Dixon Sensei and Michael Sheffield Sensei, respectively the National and Pennsylvania State Directors of the National Karate and Jujutsu Federation (one of the oldest budo organizations in the US). As part of the warm-ups I demonstrated ukemi, in the kata we use to train this critical skillset. We’ve recently returned to using this kata after being away from it for years, so there are still some areas needing to be smoothed a bit, but this is the version of the kata that will be required from the green-belt level. When I first started training in martial arts in 1975, my instructor was affiliated with the National Karate and Jujutsu Union — the precursor of the NKJF, founded in 1974. I still have my membership card somewhere. I’m very grateful to have been accepted for membership once again.

10/08/2026

Practice is constant.

What is Midashinami 身だしな?

Respect Begins with Preparation

Before we bow, draw a bowstring, or begin a kata, our preparation has already begun.

The Japanese term midashinami refers to keeping ourselves neat, clean, and appropriately dressed, with consideration for those around us. In the dojo, this becomes a practical expression of respect—for our teachers, fellow students, and the space in which we train.

A clean uniform, properly tied obi, neatly arranged hakama, and well-kept hair all deserve attention. Personal hygiene and care for our equipment help create a comfortable, orderly environment where everyone can focus on practice.

These small habits also give us an opportunity to pause. As we straighten our clothing and prepare our equipment, we can turn our attention toward the lesson ahead. Preparation becomes part of training itself.

For beginners, learning to wear and care for the uniform is one of the first steps into dojo life. Experienced practitioners can set an example through the same steady attention to detail.

Midashinami is a daily practice of care. Before your next class, take a moment to check your uniform, your equipment, and your readiness to learn.

Respect is visible in the small things we do consistently.

10/07/2026

We’ll be there.

10/06/2026

Adults in the Mechanicsburg area: If you have been telling yourself you will start training “someday,” this is a good month to make it real.

Itten Dojo has been teaching traditional Japanese martial arts in South Central Pennsylvania since 1992. You do not need a background in martial arts, and you do not need to be in peak shape on day one. New students are guided carefully so you can build fitness, flexibility, and skill without getting overwhelmed.

Classes stay small, instruction comes from black-belt teachers, and you start with one art that fits you: aikijujutsu, judo, iaido, kyudo, or shodo. Many members add a second art later — membership includes access to all arts.

What people usually come for is the training. What keeps them coming back is the environment: serious practice, real attention, and people who are committed to getting better, together.

Visitors are welcome. Come watch a class and see if this is the right place for you.

Itten Dojo
701 West Simpson Street, Suite C
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
ittendojo.org

10/05/2026

We stayed at this ryokan during our first dojo visit to Japan and will be staying again during our trip next year. Ohnuma-san is an especially gracious host. The facilities (and food!) at the inn are truly exceptional. Everything about this place is fantastic — the mineral baths are wonderful. Most highly recommended!

10/05/2026

Hasegawa Eishin — Seventh Headmaster of the Hayashizaki Lineage and Founder of Hasegawa Eishin-ryu

The swordsman known in English as Hasegawa Eishin—more fully Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Eishin (長谷川主税助英信), or Hidenobu—is the figure from whom Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu takes the second half of its name. In the orthodox lineage claimed by that school he is counted as the seventh-generation successor to Hayashizaki Jinsuke Minamoto no Shigenobu, the late-sixteenth-century originator of the seated and standing drawing methods that later generations called iai or batto. In another, equally traditional reckoning he is not merely a transmitter but the school’s founder (ryuso): the man who recast an older tachi art for the katana of the early Edo period and whose personal name became the style’s designation.

A biography of Hasegawa must begin with a caution. Almost nothing about him can be fixed with the precision expected of a modern life. Japanese encyclopedic treatments state that his dates of birth and death are unknown, that traditions about his birthplace conflict, and that “there are many points of doubt about the actual Hasegawa Eishin; the historical facts remain difficult to establish.” What survives is a composite of densho (transmission scrolls), later domain histories from Tosa and Shinano, and the memory of schools that claimed him as ancestor. This essay in Sword and Spirit distinguishes, as far as the evidence allows, what is widely repeated from what is merely possible.

Download the October 2026 issue of Sword and Spirit at https://www.ittendojo.org/dbfiles/download/swordandspirit/pdf/108. All back issues of Sword and Spirit are available at https://www.ittendojo.org/articles/swordandspirit.

10/04/2026

Another beautiful day yesterday for kyudo on our improvised, full-length range in the field behind our dojo. If we can raise sufficient funds the range will become progressively less improvised. These two photos show moments during the Hassetsu, the Eight Stages of Shooting: Hanare (the release of the arrow) and Zanshin (maintaining concentration after the release).

For something so deceptively simple on the surface, kyudo is astonishingly difficult and unfathomably deep. But the art is accessible to virtually anyone. At each session of our study group — we train with the authorization and under the direction of Sabastian Velilla Sensei of the Florida Budokan — we strive for incremental improvements while trying to surrender the need to be successful. Learn more at https://www.ittendojo.org/arts/kyudo.

10/03/2026

Via Media has long been a strong supporter of our dojo — best wishes for continued success!

10/02/2026

I’m a little behind schedule for this post. Bailey Sensei did some special arrangements for our iaido seminar last weekend that were really nice. Thank you, Sensei!

10/01/2026

Outside the Curriculum: The Creation and Evolution of Bangai no Bu in Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū

As one of the topics for our recent iaido seminar with Suino Sensei and the JMAC assistant instructors, I had requested for our in-house instructor cadre an introduction to the Bangai no Bu waza (techniques). We hadn’t seen these techniques previously and found the waza to be both fascinating and particularly challenging. I knew only a very superficial history of this set so, after the weekend, I directed my AI research assistant to prepare a more thorough overview.

Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū (無雙直傳英信流), “the peerless, directly transmitted school of Eishin,” is among the most widely practiced classical traditions of Japanese swordsmanship. Its lineage is customarily traced to Hayashizaki Jinsuke Minamoto no Shigenobu in the late sixteenth century and, more immediately, to the seventh-generation master Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Eishin, whose adaptations of earlier tachi methods to the katana gave the school its distinctive name. By the nineteenth century the art had taken root in the Tosa domain as Tosa Eishin-ryū and had already divided, after the death of the eleventh headmaster, into the Tanimura-ha and Shimomura-ha lines. The set of techniques known as Bangai no Bu (番外之部)—literally “the extra section,” or techniques “outside the numbered curriculum”—does not belong to that older koryū inheritance. It is a modern creation of the seventeenth headmaster, Ōe Masamichi (大江正路, also read Masaji; 1852–1927), and its later growth across rival branches is one of the clearest windows onto how a classical school remade itself for the Meiji and Taishō worlds.

Read more at https://www.ittendojo.org/articles/bangai-no-bu.