Byakkokan Dojo

Inspiring to see the growth of Zentokan dojo!

So happy and proud to see it grow!

10 Years of Zentokan Dojo — Zentokan Dojo A dojo is not a place. Although a dojo occupies space, it is not defined by its architecture or its address. A dojo begins beneath the feet of one person and persists when a community develops around shared practice under sincere and selfless guidance. Nothing about modern life is setup to make this

ZNTIR seminar hosted by congrats to those who passed testing today. Awesome to see the strides that you made .salmonsushi

Def check out this event hosted by a great group in MN!

Midwest Seminars and Shinsas 7/11-12/2026 Minneapolis, Minnesota will be hosting its first event of this scale on July 11 and 12! There will be opportunities to take seminars and test for rank in all 3 federations that are commonly practiced in our sword community: ZNBDR, ZNTIR, and USFBD. This is a 2 day event, and will be broken up into s...

One of our dojo members Peter Haas representing what he teaches on TV!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZu08dVW-3Q

On this snowy day, I received word that one of our old members passed away. An awesome sword practitioner (in JSA and HEMA) but also one of the craziest, most inspirational beings that helped to shape the dojo and me as a teacher as well. Will truly miss you RIP Tiger Mike

On a snowy day, heard unfortunate news of the passing of one of our classic dojo members, Michael Edelson.

First met him at the ol Swordfest events in DC which lead him to join our dojo. The passion that he had to learn gekken and cutting in which he applied it to his HEMA was truly incredible. With that, he took on such crazy endeavors in the HEMA community in which we always cheered him on and supported.

Fantastic practitioner but an even more amazing human being. You'll sorely be missed. RIP Tiger Mike. Shot a of soju in your honor.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D7brXMPND/

It's hard to name a person who has had a bigger influence on the culture and practice of HEMA than has Mike Edelson, because of the large number of people who have trained at his clubs and competed in his tournaments, because of the much larger number of people who studied his book, and because of his tendency to generate controversy and thus steer the conversation in HEMA.

Mike was a student of the sword for decades, studying both Liechtenauer longsword in association with some of the most experienced and dedicated HEMA researchers and fencers in America, as well as Toyama-ryu Batto-jutsu under Sang Kim. He started HEMA with Selohaar Fechtschule before leaving to found his own school NYHFA, the New York Historical Fencing Association, which grew to be one of the largest HEMA schools in the country during the 2010s.

Mike's pursuit of HEMA (and Battodo, and shooting sports) was always focused on practical application--how does the real tool perform in the real world under realistic conditions. In pursuit of these questions, Mike made his greatest contribution to the HEMA world: elevating the practice of target cutting from a minor diversion to a serious discipline. He learned cutting first with the Japanese sword, and then spent years learning to apply those teachings to his collection of European swords and how to teach it to others. He brought rigor and discipline to the activity and organized the very first cutting competitions, and eventually traveled the world teaching cutting workshops and judging cutting tournaments. If you've ever taken a cutting class in HEMA, the odds are good that you were receiving a version of his teachings.

When I (Michael Chidester) was considering starting another club in 2016 and wanted to catch up on best practices in HEMA, the first thing I did was go to Mike to learn how to cut. Over the course of a single weekend at his house, he opened an entirely new world to me. Cutting went from arcane and frustrating to simple and easy, and the teachings he imparted to me are still in my mind every time I pick up a sharp sword.

Mike's thoughts on practicing fencing as a martial art were also highly influential. Though sometimes caricatured as "real deadly longsword", his ideas about fighting with sharp swords and how to practice fencing in a way that minimizes artifacts and transfers most readily to sharps *still* dominate the conversation today, even among people who don't know his name, and it's hard to escape them when discussing this topic. They also helped steer the trajectory of the Longpoint rules, and it was discussions with Mike that lead to the 2015 version of the tournament where we permanently diverged from the Nordic-influenced scoring model toward something that I, Jake, and Mike could all agree was a better test of martial efficacy.

Mike's love of the practical before all else often left him feeling at odds with teachings in the fencing treatises, and after years wrestling with how to harmonize Liechtenauer's teachings with his own understanding of how swords work, he moved away from that tradition and embraced George Silver, in whose teachings he saw a much better expression of the conclusions he'd reached in his practice. Unfortunately, that's one of the most toxic areas of the HEMA community, and his reception there soured him on fencing for several years (though he returned to the fold in the end).

For all his abrasiveness online (perhaps his greatest flaw was that it took him a long, long time to learn how to interact online in a way that conveyed his real character--he was still working on this up to the end--and inadvertently burned many bridges because of it), out in meatspace, Mike was always happy to help his friends. When I was out of work in 2012 after working a series of dead-end jobs, Mike told me I was too skilled for that kind of work and patiently walked me through the entire process of entering the tech world. Wiktenauer was the only resume I needed for the job I eventually got at Pfizer (developing a wiki-based knowledge management platform for them), but Mike was the one who led me there and I never would have even known how to learn about jobs like that, let alone how to apply and get noticed and how to interview, without him.

A few years ago, soon after moving from mid-state New York to Pittsburgh, Mike was diagnosed with cancer. He fought this new opponent--at great physical and mental cost--and for a time it seemed like he won, but then the doctors discovered an early false-negative on a test that meant that it had all been futile before he even started. He began to say his goodbyes at the end of 2025, knowing the end was coming even though no one could say how soon it would arrive.

He goes now to face the Oberste Gerechten Fechter, and we wish him Waffenschwein.

Image created by Mike Edelson on the occasion of Jason Taylor's death so many years ago.

First class of 2026 and my first class back after about 6 months. Did a 1000 cuts and since it’s been so long, def feeling it haha. Awesome to see the growth of the dojo and looking forward to more. Happy new year and everyone train safely!

Happy holidays!! Hope you were able to get some new gear and swords for the holidays!! Feel free to share in the comments.

Been a bit since I’ve been able to visit the dojo after my 2nd was born but was able to make it for the holiday get together. It’s been almost 6 months and I was quite proud to see how much all the members have grown while I’ve been out and the spirit has been going strong. Tons of food and drinks and an awesome white elephant to top it off. Happy holidays!!!