Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by C. Michial Jones
In the spring of 2012, over the Mother’s Day weekend, we began a project that I thought would take a few weeks. It ended up being a three-month journey into the heart of what a training space should be.
When I first opened the current location of the Yushikan, I was in a hurry. I wanted a place to hit the makiwara and move. I put up plain peg-hole paneling, painted it white, and immediately covered every square inch of wall space with thirty-five years of “clutter”—awards, certificates, trophies, and photographs. I didn’t give it much thought; I just wanted to train.
But as I spent more time in the space, I realized the atmosphere was wrong. It was a room that shouted about my past rather than focusing on the students’ future. I wanted a space that could transport a practitioner—a place where, upon crossing the threshold, you felt you had stepped off a street in Indiana and into a dojo in Okinawa.
From Clutter to Clarity
As we tore down the old walls and encountered the inevitable challenges of construction, my vision for the dojo began to crystallize. I decided to “banish” the ego.
I took down every single trophy. Every medal, every certificate of rank, and every “Pat on the Back” award I had ever received was packed into boxes and sent to the attic. In their place, I wanted simplicity. I wanted a dojo that reflected the way of Karate over a lifetime, not a collection of plastic and wood from a weekend tournament in 1985.
The Relevant Walls
What you find on the walls of the Yushikan today are things of substance:
- Ancient Wisdom: Calligraphy and old sayings passed down through the generations.
- Historical Photographs: Images of the masters who paved the way for us.
- Spiritual Gifts: Hand-written kanji presented to me by karate masters—items that enrich the spirit rather than feed the ego.
- The Tools of the Trade: In most modern dojos, the walls are covered in mirrors. In the Yushikan, they are lined with Hojo Undo equipment—the stone weights, jars, and wooden posts that are the true inheritance of the Goju-Ryu practitioner.
The Atmosphere of Training
The Yushikan is not large. We do not have “modern conveniences” or the sleek aesthetics of a commercial gym. What we have is an atmosphere. It is a traditional space that revolves around the sweat of the current moment rather than the glory of the past.
By cleaning the walls, I cleared my own mind. It serves as a reminder to every student who enters: we are not here to be impressed by what the Sensei has done; we are here to discover what you can do today. The dojo remains open to anyone with a sincere desire to train in the old methods. We have stripped away the distractions so that only the Karate remains.
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