I guess its a dream held by many budo practitioners: building your own dojo.
For 99.9% of us, however, its just not realistic… the costs involved would be prohibitive never mind whether you have access to people that can actually do the job or not. Well, my sempai just built himself a new house this year and downstairs (still inside the house!) he made a small dojo. This is mainly for iai and koryu keiko but, since its soundproofed, you could easily get at one or two pairs of battling kendoka in there as well without bothering the neighbours. Check out the pictures.
Of course, this is just a small dojo for private use, unlike the more well known and much larger scale commercial Pori Dojo that was built in Finland recently.
Both dojo are of-course great but – given the chance – which one would you rather have?
I think I’d rather have Macchan’s place. Air conditioned?
Very nice! I like how the floor continues up the walls, a bit like a sauna. I suppose in summer that’s what it is. I’m curious about the soundproofing and how effective it is. My parents’ house has a big enough yard to build a dojo in, but it’d have to be on the QT, otherwise planning regs would require car-parking, and a whole lot of other BS. Kendoka would have to turn up in overcoats a la that Goodies episode about scouts… b
Its air-conditioned, so it doesnt turn into a sauna!
It wont be used for kendo v.often (neither him nor the wife practise) but the whole house has been sound insulated and the windows are triple glass or something…. so there is little noise. Also, 3 sides of the house have no adjacent buildings, so there isnt really too much of a problem.
The builders shook their heads when the plan was first discussed: “wouldnt you rather have an indoor cinema?” they asked….
One day, one day…
“which one would you rather have?”
the underground lair
Mentioned Pori Dojo is not so commercial.
We are just small club running by voluenteers.
Jukka, thanks for the clarification. I think I meant that you rented out the space (??), not that your were doing kendo/iai for money.
In Pori, several clubs (Karate, Hapkido, kickboxing) have rented this big space with us and we have one part for our dojo. It is quite nice how these several small clubs co-operate and have made this possible.
By Origin this place is old factory.