About Rick Polland

Written by Rick Polland | 19 January 2010

Growing up in the Midwest I visited every dojo (all three) in a city with over 1 million inhabitants and selected a karate dojo.  I started doing "Kempo-Goju" karate, a made up compilation though I didn't know it at the time.

In college and while teaching karate I met a judoka and policeman named Bruce Brown.  He introduced me to Jodo, Tomiki Aikido, Iaido as well as Masaki Ryu.  I began studying Jodo and Iai in earnest in 1974.

Life and career have been kind to me allowing me continued access to my teachers in Japan and the opportunity for ongoing training.

Today I reside near Annapolis, Maryland with my wife Yuri and our two children.

As the senior instructor of the Beikoku Rembukan Dojo I guess I can now claim that I've been studying budo for almost 40 years.  I've been fortunate in studying under some of the 20th century's most wonderful sensei (teachers) including Mssrs: Shimizu, Draeger, Kuroda, Kaminoda, Tomiki, Oba, Ohtsuka, and Yonemoto to name a few.

 I hope to dust off some of the photos from the 70's and 80's and add them to a gallery within this web site... It's on the to do list.

 In studying with people of the caliber of Shimizu, Nagamoto, Tomiki and Draeger Sensei my thoughts have been shaped in countless little ways.  Those of us who trained at the original Rembukan Dojo were embued with Shimizu Sensei's sense of mission.  He had a strong desire to promote Jodo throughout the world without losing the heart of what Jodo is.

I hope that our dojo represents and promotes this same spirit and that in some small ways we are contributing in a positive way to the development of good budo.

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