Chicago Aikikai aikido dojo

An inclusive community for exploring the Japanese martial art of aikido

Dojo

End of an era on Chicago Avenue

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Chicago Aikikai held its last seminar at 1444 West Chicago Avenue, its home since 2009 and the last one designed and built by Kevin Choate (1954-2012) who served as chief instructor and dojo-cho from 1981 until his passing. Instruction was led by Tres Hofmeister Shihan (7th dan, Boulder Aikikai), a longtime friend and guest instructor for many years.

Everyone enjoyed a great weekend of training. Although the dojo was already partially dismantled, the atmosphere was enthusiastic. Many regular members and guests actually commented the minimized dojo look was oddly refreshing and relaxing (Though everyone did miss the elaborate designs and calligraphy – already in storage).

Saturday night dinner was again catered by Torino Ramen, bringing in a variety of Japanese bento lunch boxes as they had for our last two seminars. There was a great opportunity to rest up after the vigorous training (and recent rise in local Chicago temperatures), chat and reminisce.

On the last day after class, Chicago Aikikai members and guests worked together to remove and stage the mats for later transport, and dismantle the wood frame for the mats. The wood pieces were then taken to a rental storage facility where they will be kept for the time being.

Chicago Aikikai will soon be making an official announcement on its new temporary location and plans to secure a long-term space. In the meantime, check out this video remembrance and farewell of its home at 1444 West Chicago Avenue.

Making Movies at Chicago Aikikai

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On Sunday, April 13, regular morning class was cancelled at Chicago Aikikai to accommodate the filming of Blade of the Waning Kingdom, an independently produced feature-length martial arts movie being made in Chicago.

 

Aside from training, Sundays are usually pretty sedate around Chicago Aikikai and its surrounding neighborhood, and usually only get really busy during seminars. Today, however, it was buzzing with cast and crew, as parts of the dojo served as makeup and wardrobe rooms and multiple different locations.

Chicago Aikikai members were invited to participate or observe the production. Joe Guerrier and his daughter Dee came for a while in the morning to watch the production process. Dwight Sora served as liaison between the dojo and production and also assisted the fight choreographer. Rob Brose and Christian Boswell also performed fight choreography as featured extras in a training scene, and Christian later did double-duty as part of a ninja entourage.

All in all, the filmmakers had a lot of thanks and praise for Chicago Aikikai’s willingness to let them film in the dojo. Cast and crew were asked to attend the regular Sunday intro class one week prior to receive proper orientation in conduct and care of the space, and many expressed in signing up as regular or trial students.

Blade of the Waning Kingdom is a low-budget adventure film set in a mythic world inspired by classic Japanese and Chinese martial arts films. Once completed, the filmmakers hope to submit it to film festivals and make it available for streaming viewing.