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Tuesday 6pm - 8pm Thursday 6pm - 8pm Saturday 10am - 1:30pm

Heartland Dojo

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Roanoke, IL
Heartland Dojo

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Instruction in Shuri-ryu karate-do for self discipline, self defense, self confidence, and general f

10/11/2026

I want to thank Kirk Smalley of Stand for the Silent for sharing his story and his mission with our school district this week. Kirk's presentation was powerful and heartbreaking, but his message is vitally important and I'm glad he was able to share it with our students, including a few of our dojo members.

Thank you, sir! We'll be putting one of your decals on the board in our dojo. 🤟

To the other martial arts instructors out there, please check out standforthesilent.org to learn more about their campaign.

09/29/2026

The weekend portion of the Cincinnati Jodo Seminar was reserved for training, testing, and then another day of open training! Adam and Tenley successfully tested for ikkyu in jodo, and Ashton and Tim were able to do some iaido training on Sunday morning. We learned a lot, had some great conversations with our friends and instructors, and we got to watch the instructors train together for a bit as well. All in all, a very successful and enjoyable weekend!

09/28/2026

We had a great weekend at the annual Cincinnati Jodo Seminar! Friday's training kicked off at the Aikido Dojo of Cincinnati, which has a spacious mat area and welcoming facilities. It would be a lot of fun to run a karate or judo class on those tatami!

We had mostly open practice on Friday, which made it a good opportunity to stretch and warm up after a long car ride.

09/27/2026

Congratulations to our new jodo Ikkyu, Tenley Hale and Adam Morgan! As the youngest candidates, they performed their kata directly in front of the judges' table, and they did great. More weekend photos to come!

09/19/2026

The rain stayed away, and we had nice, cool weather for the picnic today! We got a good workout, warming up with some basics, learning some tuidi (seizing hand) techniques, and working with the sai. We snuck in some jodo off to the side, and then we wrapped up the day with a nice lunch.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it! Next year we'll try to work around school events and band practices a little better. Thanks to everyone who put the effort into baking those great treats, too!

09/18/2026

We finished our day at the Japanese Festival with one more walk around the Seiwa-en (the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese garden), and then waited for the toro nagashi.

I've always enjoyed the design of Japanese gardens. They're designed to look simple and natural, but they require a lot of planning and care. I'd love to put one in the back yard, but skill to build it and time to maintain it just isn't there. Maybe some day. In the meantime I'll have to be content with the small zen garden on my desk at home.

Toro nagashi translates to "lantern flow" or "lantern cruise," and it's a ceremony where water lanterns are pushed out onto the water to guide departed souls. It's a time to reflect on one's ancestors, or lost loved ones.

At the end of the day, my watch said I'd logged nearly 16,000 steps and we still didn't see everything! I hope we'll be able to return next year to catch some of the other exhibitions and demonstrations.

09/17/2026

We welcomed some time in air conditioning to wander through the bonsai (potted trees) and ikebana (flower arrangement) displays.

I'd always thought it would be cool to have a bonsai tree, but they require a lot of care and attention. We don't have a good spot for consistent sunlight in our home, and I couldn't even keep a tiny succulent alive, so I'll leave the trees to the experts. They had some gorgeous examples, though, some of which were larger than I expected. A few were 10-20 years old, and the first tree in this photo set is 50 years old!

Melissa enjoyed the flower arrangements. Ikebana is also known as kado, or the "way of flowers." Ikebana and chado (way of tea) both have traditions that date back centuries, and they even have their own ryuha (schools), just like martial arts. A student learning ikebana would have a sensei, just like karate students.

09/16/2026

We got back to the stage in time for the taiko (drum) demonstration by the St Louis Osuwa Taiko group. I'd previously seen a small taiko trio perform at one of the ISA Shuri-ryu seminars in Fort Wayne, so I was looking forward to this as well. We watched a few songs, including one that featured a pipe and another a shamisen (similar to a lute).

Unfortunately by that time we were sun-baked and absolutely starving, so we ducked out of the performance early in search of shade and food. One of the food court stands included a selection of sushi, and I opted for unagi tacos. They were pretty good!

Address

1407 W. Front Street
Roanoke, IL
61561

Opening Hours

Tuesday	6pm - 8pm
Thursday	6pm - 8pm
Saturday	10am - 1:30pm

Telephone

+13098635315

Website

http://www.heartlanddojo.com/

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