Finding the Dragon Spirit in Blue Mounds

Kurt Lifka’s Aikido martial arts journey started nearly 30 years ago. It was inspired years before that.

“When I was a teenager, I literally saw a video of on public cable TV — a demonstration of some American teacher in Ohio,” he says. “This was the 70s. The teacher was teaching Aikido and I thought, wow, I’m never going to get to do that. That’s different. That’s cool.” 

People who don’t know any better may picture martial arts in a couple of exaggerated ways, from Bruce Lee to UFC. But Aikido is more of an experience, or even a way of life.

“I wasn’t smart enough to realize this before, but when I started practicing martial arts, I realized this is what I was looking for with pottery,” Lifka Sensei said. “The art is the process and then it’s gone, like music. People learn how to play a piece of music exactly the way Beethoven wrote it; they all play it differently, but they all try to play it exactly right. When we do sword kata, we draw the sword, do the kata, and put the sword away. There’s no thing; there’s no object. To me that’s art, and it’s high art. It’s ephemeral.” 

Lifka allowed me to shadow a Monday night class at the Blue Mounds Dragon Spirit Dojo, which he designed as a modern dojo almost entirely by himself. I would say that my experience was in fact ephemeral, in the way new culture transports a person beyond the space they are in. I was told to leave my shoes at the door, to bow at the dojo entrance, and the people I met bowed to greet me. The students were almost completely autonomous, not needing to communicate for warm up, using wooden swords (bokken), short staffs (jo), and sometimes a dagger (tanto). They nodded to each other and bowed before doing a set of nearly choreographed movements with weapons. After the weapons class, they scooted down on their skirt-like pants, known as the hakama, which protected their knees. Lifka Sensei and his students cleaned their weapons precisely.

 “The physical Aikido training is a laboratory, and that laboratory puts you in a small, yet safe, stress box,” he explained. “Somebody is grabbing you and you can’t move, and you’re supposed to respond in a nice way. We’re not training you to react. Aikido is training you to respond with equanimity and kindness. We’re dealing with physical stress, which can represent all kinds of stress. By studying this way, we can learn how to better resolve situations in our daily lives.”

Aikido class began with claps and more bows. We did some basic exercises. 

“Our warming up routine is the notes in a piano concert. And then the techniques are like scales,” Lifka mused. “Learning how you’re supposed to stand and entering and turning, sit down falls, and forward falls, those are all things that people when they’re learning can practice at home on a carpet or whatever and progress really rapidly.” 

Lifka gently corrected the students’ and my form. I learned quickly that the culture here is to bow and say thank you and simply experience the moment, then try to improve the movement.

Students sank almost effortlessly into the space around them. There was transience but also the familiarity.

“As a teacher you can observe people and help them process it,” Lifka said. “Aikido is just an abstract practice that generalizes, and they can take it into their relationships with their spouse, their family, or with a person who cuts them off in the street or whatever. Every day we constantly have a new chance to change, but it is very difficult. New day-to-new-day, new-month-to-new-month, you have the opportunity to be in the light.”

Lifka explained that “kata” is the process people go about doing something. Kata has a close English equivalent in the word “form,” but seems to be more complex than that. Kata is shown by a teacher for a student to learn the correct techniques of using energy and balance to throw and grapple. Kata is something you practice, just like real life. Lifka compared it to the way we try to be a better person, in that we can practice and get better at it.

With a little peer pressure, and permission from his teachers John Stone Sensei, Robin Cooper Sensei, and Mitsuge Saotome Shihan, Lifka opened Iowa County Aikido, now located at the Blue Mounds Dragon Spirit Dojo, in 2002. Lifka’s current teacher, Sugawara Sensei, named it the “Ryu Jin Dojo,” or “Dragon Spirit Dojo,” after one of the typical midwestern storms. Later “Sei Zan” which means blue mountain in Japanese, was added for the location in Blue Mounds.

“I want it to be more open to people and I don’t really feel the need to have a sliding scale or anything like that,” said Lifka. “The prices are so low, but with other business models, they want to get you in on a contract, and then there’s all this stress to pay all this money that people can’t really afford. From a business standpoint, my interest lies with people who say, ‘This is something I really want to do, until I can’t anymore.’ There’s social activity and we’ve become great friends. It’s more like a family activity club, rather than a business thing.”

He pointed to a picture of Sugawara Sensei on the wall that he had taken in Kamakura, a seaport south of Tokyo. “There’s this full garden and a red Daoist shrine and a cinnabar colored gate. I snapped this picture, and it’s very symbolic because we are always following somebody,” he said. The elderly man in the picture appeared to be checking on his student, looking over his shoulder: “Sugawara opened a door. My teachers John and Robin opened a door. The Japanese came to this country to share Aikido, opening the door for all of us.” 

“I had asked a specific question about why it is so difficult to get rid of aggression in people, including myself, particularly in training,” Lifka recalled. “You get through layers and layers of stuff and then there’s that last little bit, which is reaction, instead of response.”

Lifka is soft-spoken but confident. There is a factual tone to his voice. He is fit and his hair barely greying; he turned 56 in March, and this man can touch his palm to the floor without an issue. 

“When I was a kid, we played physical sports, constantly bumping and crashing into people, even with soccer. We don’t do these things as adults. And we never do that with people of different ages or genders. Here we’re constantly physically interacting with people for health, fun, and the study of martial arts. It’s a part of life that we don’t get,” Lifka commented. “It’s direct empathy. When you have group empathy, we’re all moving together. I slow down the whole group so the new people can figure it out. The other people are ready to race ahead, and I’m making sure somebody’s helping new people. It’s all quite good for the health of your ego. All kinds of physical types.”

If you’re interested and determined enough to commit to something new when the Safer At Home order ends, sign up for the four-week beginner seminar for teens and adults held at the Blue Mounds Dragon Spirit Dojo at 10967 Division Street. Classes will be held on Mondays, 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. and the Tuesday/Thursday timeslot will be 6-7 p.m.

For more information, including children’s Aikido classes, visit iowacountyaikido.com or call 608-341-8137.