The Kazoku Dojo

Alright...ROUND 2 of testing this week!

We had 4 Little Ninjas who leveled up to yellow belts! Congratulations to Mason, Logan, Peyton and Ethan!

How about a great big yeehaw! to Sophia and Nick for going FLAWLESSLY on to their Orange belts.

The picture of the belt ceremony shows the kids reaching OVER their old belt to get to the new one. This symbolizes the conquering of goals to achieve success in whatever they do.

Just another great day here at the Kazoku Dojo! What are YOUR kids doing?

It's been a great week so far! I'd like to congratulate a few people on recent promotions.

First, I'd like to recognize our little ninja, Lily. Lily has been with me since we opened the dojo in Canal Wi******er. She's a tiger. Probably one of the most competitive people have ever met in my life. I'm happy to say that she has been promoted to her orange belt.

I would also like to congratulate Addy and Ishmael for being recognized for great attendance. And finally for the Little Ninjas, I'd like to recognize Jamison as our Kazoku Dojo student of the month. Please join me in congratulating all of these little ninjas.

Finally, a big shout out to my dude Jace. I was so proud to promote Jace to his brown belt after being with me for 4 years and starting as a short, pudgy little school kid. The fact of the matter is, he's a force to be reckoned with and nobody knows it because he's humble. Keep going, Jace. Stay focused on Jesus and you will absolutely accomplish everything you want to in this life.

It's an exciting time to be a part of this dojo! More testing to come!

🥋 Kazoku Dojo isn’t daycare in a gi.

We teach REAL self-defense. REAL discipline. REAL respect.

❌ No point fighting
❌ No tournaments
❌ No participation trophies
❌ No coddling

Your child will learn practical combat martial arts rooted in traditional training and real-world street self-defense — the same principles we teach our adults, adjusted appropriately for kids.

At the Kazoku Dojo, respect is mandatory. Discipline matters.
We believe martial arts should build:
✅ Confidence
✅ Accountability
✅ Awareness
✅ Respect
✅ The ability to handle dangerous situations

Many schools focus on tournaments and point sparring.
We focus on preparing your child for REAL LIFE.

🥋 Ages 7+
🎁 FREE first class for kids, teens, and adults
🏛 Traditional old-school dojo environment
📍 Located in Historic Downtown Canal Wi******er
👊 Serving Canal Wi******er and surrounding communities

If you want your child to become mentally and physically stronger while learning real-world self-defense — this is the place.

📞 Call 740-530-DOJO today to schedule your FREE class. Be sure to check out our website at www.kazokudojo.org and LIKE our fb page for great self defense tips and information!

Big shout out to Christina and Jonathan for leveling up last night! Christina moved up to 7th Kyu (七級 - Nanakyu)) with an almost flawless performance of her curriculum. Her randori (乱取り - "taking chaos" - freestyle sparring) was pretty brutal at times...just ask James, Jace and Jonathan! She is not the shy, timid lady she was when she started. I've said it time and time again that learning a valid martial art EMPOWERS you. It gives you CONFIDENCE. It gives you a sense of real SECURITY. She is coming along in a strong way.

Jonathan moved up to 4th kyu (四級 - Yonkyu - Brown Belt). Jonathan - san is one of those students that is HUNGRY for this stuff. He does most of the major Taikai's around the midwest. (大会 - "mass meeting or assemblies" - usually led by higher ranked teachers within the Bujinkan community and most often by Japanese Dai Shihan (大師範 - "Grandmaster" or "Senior Instructor"). He puts in the work. He puts in the time. He's what a teacher wants to see in all of his students. Congratulations, Jonathan - san. Well deserved.

I also want to thank Sensei Jeremy for conducting a great test and always striving to make his students better. And of course, thanks to the ones who could make it to testing and for being great training partners and letting those testing do their thing!

KEEP SHOWING UP...one day, it will all make sense.

Oh, as I was going through my pics this morning, it just made me giggle seeing these pics of Sensei Jeremy trying to up my phone for pics! 🤣

My Grandson... Carter-san. Starting to come into his own in the Martial Arts. Love you, Lil buddy. Keep moving forward! Gambatte kudasai!

🔥 NINJAS IN THE PARK 🔥
by the Kazoku Dojo
Looking for something fun, active, and different for your kids this week?
🥷 Join us for Ninjas in the Park — an exciting outdoor martial arts experience where kids can learn, move, and have a blast!

📍 McGill Park – Canal Wi******er
🕕 Thursday, April 23 @ 6:15 PM til 7:15 PM

✅ Beginner-friendly
✅ High-energy training
✅ Confidence building & discipline

🎉 Sign-up specials available!
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Ages 7 and Up
💧 Bring hydration
🪑 Bring chairs

Call The Kazoku Dojo 740-530-DOJO if you have questions!

🚨🚨🚨CURRENT STUDENTS...you can wear your black uniform pants and a black tshirt (a dojo shirt if you have one) 🚨🚨🚨

Happy Friday! I am so pumped to share the news that Addy passed her Yellow Belt exam! Ill tell you what...this girl is as tough as nails.

All boys in class tonight, and most bigger than she is. Not only did she know her curriculum well, her "never quit" attitude carried her through MULTIPLE rounds of Randori (free response sparring) boy after boy after boy. She took some hits...big ones...cried a little here and there...BUT she sucked it up and continued to move forward! SHE DID NOT QUIT!

Guys, sometimes thats better than all the skill in the world! Great job Addy! Dad was proud as you can see! Keep showing up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Kazoku Dojo will be CLOSED today, falling in line with our surrounding school districts. Stay warm! Gambatte!

🚨WARNING🚨 Long and unpopular post ahead...

I've had many mentors in the martial arts. An overwhelming majority of them have been very adamant about a couple of things. Among them, the absolute necessity of not discussing two subjects in your dojo: one is politics and the other is religion. They are widely regarded as Dojo killers.

It is no secret that our martial art, Bujinkan Budo Taijitsu is steeped in Eastern Religion. It weaves in and out of the Bujinkan very seamlessly and many of the practices, etiquette and nature of things "introduce" regular folks to Buddhism and Shintoism. Is that a bad thing? Most certainly not. And that's my caveat.

I've known many Buddhists in my life and only one was a terrible person, who may have just acted like he was a Buddhist when it suited him. But that's neither here nor there. In this world, you are free to worship how you want and who you want. Well, for the most part but you understand what I'm saying. Which brings me to The Reason for this post.

It's no secret that myself and my wife are Christians. Not just regular everyday Christians, but Christians who truly try to live the way that Jesus instructed us to in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. As the world changes constantly, sometimes unrecognizable from one day to the next, Christianity is fast becoming a minority religion. At least for those of us who take it seriously and adopted as a way of life.

For years, I have intermingled my Christianity and the Eastern religion of My Chosen martial art. Constantly telling myself that what we do has nothing to do with Buddhism or Shintoism, but we're just paying honor and respect to the Warriors who came before we did. Honoring our teachers in the past who are long gone for passing down this martial art many generations. I was told that by my Christisn teacher In the last year as my wife and I have grown in Jesus and feel as though He's called us into deeper waters, I find myself looking at things much differently than I did even 2 years ago. I find myself in a place where I don't want to offend the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that I believe dishonors God is when we place other items or gods before him. This is taught to us throughout scripture, and here's a few for you to look up. Because never take my opinion or what I'm saying or anyone else's for that matter. Look at these when you get a chance: Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 6:14, Isaiah 45:5, John 14:6, Psalm 82:1, Acts 4:12 and so on. Again, read and study for yourself never take anything as the gospel that someone else is telling you.

2025 was the worst year of my life and the best year of my life. How's that possible? Easy. My wife and I both were sick in 2025, bad sick. I'm currently on dialysis. She still struggles with the pain of nerve damage in her legs from a lawn mower accident that happened in 2024. It was during this time in 2025 where neither of us could work, and we lived as best we could on what we had. Which wasn't much. Many things happened at the dojo in my absence that wasn't necessarily good for it. I guess I should preface this whole thing by saying we believe that God built this dojo for us so that we could do good for our community and students.

How was 2025 the best year of my life? Because that is the year when I formed a complete Bond with Jesus. I knew that he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to me beyond what already has.

Which finally brings me to my point: I have intermingled these religions long enough. I decided with my wife to pull all things from the dojo that had anything to do with another religion, and kamiza. The shrine, the sage, anything to do with the Japanese or Chinese zodiac etc.

I'm sure people will find this post and cause me a great deal of grief because of the changes I've made. But trust me when I tell you, I would rather offend you than my God.

Last Sunday evening, we held a prayer meeting at the dojo. We gathered everything in the dojo that represented Eastern religion such as the shrine the gifts on the commandanna, the Zodiac things Etc and we put them on the table to get rid of. We placed a single cross on that shelf. We decided to let Jesus have his rightful place in our dojo and promise to never hide him again. About 10 of us walk to the entire building, touched every wall, every chair, the rugs, the mats, doorways, the kitchen appliances and literally everything in there to make sure it was going to be pleasing to God.

I also just noticed that the Shadows made two additional crosses appear on either side of the cross. I thought maybe you might get a kick out of that.

Again, I'm not trying to offend any of my colleagues or Dojo owners or other practitioners in our martial art. That's not my intention. My intention is to publicly state that Jesus comes first inv everything that I do. "everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven...but, whoever does not acknowledge me. Y before other men, I will not acknowledge him before my father". - Matthew 10:32

We've changed the Bow in process and everything. Now we will put the work in and grow this thing back to where it's supposed to be before it was ran into the ground by my absence. I want to thank our students and family who came out to do this thing with us. It was a good night.

Hatsu Geiko (初稽古), the first training of the year, was a great success.

We had some fantastic discussion, learned some great self defense stuff...both the traditional use and the modern applications...and we capped it off with some promotions!

Big Shoutout to Jonathan for moving to 6th Kyu. We tested last week and he crushed it. Christina moved into 8th kyu and crushed her test as well.

Nick and Wystan, the father/son team leveled up to 9th kyu as a total surprise to them. Last week when we tested them for their Mukyu Ichi and Ni (White belt 1 and 2 tips), Sensei Jeremy and I decided to see where they were on 9th kyu curriculum. Since they did Sanshin so much last year with no testing in my absence for 9 months, well, we couldn't be happier to add some color around their waists last night!

Lastly. Dez, our young lady who came to me as a CHILD 5 years ago who is now driving and attends Fairfield Career Center was put into her Brown belt after a rough two years or so in her Green. She's been through the ringer BUT she's as tough as they come. She is fiercely loyal to her family which at this point includes Lisa Fox and me. She's like our own kid. I actually teared up a bit when she was promoted. I personally changed her belt myself. Her mama, Katrina Johnson and family are blessings to us at the dojo and personally.

It was good to see Jace and Shawn as well! Jace is the same to me as Dez. He's been a student for over 4 years. He'll be on to his Brown as soon as he finishes all of his theater stuff at Canal. My biggest honor for him? Last night after class, he asked me to pray for him and family. His mom, Cassie Ridgway is in surgery today. He's neverer done that before.

Man, these kids are so grown.

Great Little Ninja class too!

Kazoku means family...boy are we!

Gambatte and Happy New Year!