About Us
- Welcome to Inaka Dojo.
- In Japanese inaka means countryside and dojo means a place to
study a martial art. When you reach Inaka Dojo after driving through the
cornfields around Beecher, Illinois, we'll be studying the art of aikido.
Visitors are always welcome to observe our classes.
- Aikido is a non-competitive martial art based on turning an attacker's
power back against him. The study of aikido increases flexibility, endurance,
and balance. Most students find that it reduces stress and increases the
ability to focus. Aikido can be a very effective form of self-defense.
However, that is not the goal of aikido; rather we strive for agatsu,
the control of ourselves.
- Inaka Dojo is affiliated with Aikido Schools of Ueshiba, which is
headed by Mitsugi Saotome
Shihan. ASU, in turn, is affiliated with Aikikai World
Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.
- Inaka Dojo was established in 1992 by Wendy Whited, the chief
instructor and head of the dojo. Whited Sensei has trained for more than
twenty-five years in aikido and continues to find new depths in the art.
In 1999, she was awarded a sixth degree black belt by her instructor,
Mitsugi Saotome Shihan.