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Is Your Dojo Authentic? How to Clear the Clutter in Your Martial Arts Training Space

A person in a dojo poses with martial arts gear. A Japanese flag and text: "Does your dojo have these? Toss these 'traditional' items."
Two "Black Belt Magazine" covers featured; one with a woman in a hat, the other with a man in a red gi. Spring '25 issue promotion.

There's something powerfully intimidating about a traditional dojo. It looks like nothing we have in the West.


What is intimidating is the emptiness of it all. There’s nothing to distract, nothing to divert one’s attention. The emptiness, severe and silent, can work on the mind.


This emptiness is deliberate. Life is full of distractions. Many of them serve to keep us from looking into ourselves, a process that can be uncomfortable. We can distract ourselves with video games, sports and entertainment of all sorts. The budo can be distractions, as well, if we dress them up with unnecessary stuff. Instead of that quiet, utterly simple space, the dojo can turn into a carnival of distractions.

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