Kotokukan Dojo .

Well done to my senior Kokamishin ryu student Aaron Keeble Shihan who did a great job of teaching a little Kokamishin Ryu at the Portsmouth seminar 🙏🏽

Very much looking forward to being one of the instructors at this Event. If anyone is looking to try some genuine old school martial arts now is your chance.🙏🏾

Joy was at the heart of Iha Sensei’s karate. He often said you come back to the dojo because it makes you happy to see your friends there.

Congratulations to Chiyo on her promotion to Sensei!

Starting in September, Sensei Chiyo will be teaching our Junior Classes on Wednesdays.

Congratulations, Sensei Chiyo! We are very proud of you and look forward to seeing you inspire and guide the next generation of students. 🥋👏

The tea master who went to war.

No one expected the tea guy to show up at Sekigahara.

That's what they called him. Oda Urakusai.
Younger brother of Oda Nobunaga - the most feared warlord Japan ever had. While Nobunaga burned temples, his little brother Nagamasu studied how to whisk tea under Sen no Rikyu.

The other samurai said he was soft. Said he belonged in a tearoom, not a battlefield.

Then October 21, 1600 comes. 160,000 men. Fog so thick you couldn't see 10 feet.

And who walks out of that fog with Tokugawa's Eastern Army?
Urakusai. 53 years old. 450 men.

His son found him not sharpening his sword, but making tea. In full armor.
"Father... what are you doing?"
He smiled and handed him a bowl.
"My brother taught me how to take a life. My master Rikyu taught me how to honor one. Today we might lose ours. So let's remember what peace tastes like first."

He put his bowl down, picked up his spear, and charged. The East won.

For his service, Ieyasu gave him 30,000 koku - a whole domain. Years later, he left it all, retired to Kyoto, and built a tiny two-mat tea hut with his own hands. He named it Joan.

That hut is a National Treasure now. Still standing.
All those warlords who mocked him are dust. Their castles burned down.
His little tea house is still here.

Anyone can learn how to win a war.
It takes a real man to figure out how to live in peace.

Based on the true story of Oda Nagamasu / Urakusai (1548-1622). Dialogue dramatized.

We had a very productive and enjoyable Hakkoryu Jujutsu class this morning.
Well done to all.