A warm welcome to Santa Fe Budokan, a dojo that recently joined Birankai North America, and welcome back to Damon Apodaca Sensei, a student of Chiba Sensei’s starting in 1981.
Santa Fe Budokan opened in November of 2008 but recently moved into a newly built structure on Apodaca Sensei’s property at 190A Nine Mile Road, in the southern part of Santa Fe. The dojo offers classes five days a week in Aikido, Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido and Zazen and features the instruction of Birankai veterans Kristina Varjan Shihan and Rikko Varjan Sensei.
Apodaca Sensei’s Aikido journey started in 1974, when he interviewed to join M. Nakazono Sensei’s Santa Fe dojo. Upon joining the Navy, he joined Chiba Sensei’s Fourth Avenue “Pressure Cooker” dojo and trained in San Diego until 1987; he also spent three months in Iwama as an uchideshi of M. Saito Sensei. He opened his first solo dojo in Santa Fe then moved to Newport, R.I., where he maintained a dojo until 2009. He also co-authored the book Aikido Ground Fighting.
Santa Fe Budokan welcomes visitors and guests. People wishing to train there regularly must apply directly to D. Apodaca Sensei, and must either have a recommendation or be subject to an interview.
“I hope to be a good contributing member to BNA, especially in memory of Chiba Sensei who I credit as being the teacher which contributed most to my training,” D. Apodaca Sensei said. “I am grateful daily to be able to still train regularly in all these arts.”
