Our
Philosophy- To
provide a top quality target material for test cutting at the
best price we can. The two owners of Mugen Dachi are also martial
artists. With a combined 33 years of martial arts training between
us when we started the company in 1999 we understood that most
martial arts practitioners have a tremendous amount of dedication
to their training. We also understand that most martial artists
do not usually have a tremendous amount of money to spend (extra
funds are usually spent on more training time). Once we decided
to form the Mugen Dachi Company our goal has always been to make
sure that students of the sword arts have a target material available
that will provide a true challenge to cut, at the lowest possible
price. If you are serious about your training we honestly feel
that you won't find a better value than the Mugen Dachi New Tatami
Omote for Seminars, Competitions, or your regular cutting practice.
Our
Name- The
name "Mugen Dachi" translates literally as "Infinity Sword". A
more appropriate contemporary translation would be "Infinite
Sword". We wanted a name that would adequately describe
the multitude of possibilities
that
present themselves when someone walks the path of a student in
the martial arts.
The
Company- Mugen
Dachi was created in 1999 by two Kenjutsu students who were not
satisfied with the high cost and inconsistent quality of
the mats that were available for tameshigiri. In 1998 the
only
thing you could get were used mats from Japan and the cost was
pretty high, over $5.00 per mat. Beach mats were not considered
an option since they make such poor targets. The result
was that we held cutting practice on a very limited basis.
When we did do tameshigiri we only got to cut two or three
targets.
So
what did we do? We complained of course, a lot. That tactic
got us absolutely nowhere
so when
we finally got tired of hearing ourselves complain we decided
to put our energy towards a more positive outcome. At first
all we wanted to do was to find enough tatami for our own use.
Living
in the San Francisco/Bay Area, which has a large multi-cultural
population, we figured we could probably find some old tatami
omote from the mats that were re-covered locally. As
it turns out it wasn't quite that easy.
We
didn't give up and we kept
looking around. As we made more and more connections it
became obvious that we would have to buy in large quantities
to get a regular
supply at any kind of a reasonable price. We forged ahead
without giving much thought to the repercussions of a "quantity" purchase.
Finally, with the help of a friendly connection in Japan,
we found our current supplier. He was enthusiastic and very
interested
in helping us to get the best quality mat for our needs.
He came up with a very creative idea that helped lower the
price to a reasonable
level for martial arts use and still maintain a high quality.
We were ready to go!!! The only drawback is that we had to
place an order for a minimum of 7000 mats... every time we
ordered!!! And so, in 1999, after several moments
of serious thought
and a few deep breaths, the Mugen Dachi Company was formed.
The
People-
The two Kenjutsu students who started Mugen Dachi are Jim Alvarez
and Dave Wilson. Jim
started his Aikido training in 1978 and has been the Senior
Instructor at his own dojo since 1989. He started his Kenjutsu
training in 1990
and
teaches
regularly scheduled classes at his dojo. Dave started
his Karate training in 1987 and has been the Senior Instructor
for the children's program at a local YMCA since 1990. He started
his Kenjutsu training in 1995 and as a senior student he also
teaches at the dojo where he trains.
In
addition to running Mugen Dachi we both have regular 40 hour
work weeks, train in two martial
arts,
teach
at least
one
martial art, and we are both senior students in a
kenjutsu style. It's a very busy schedule and it keeps us running
around
pretty much most of the time. Our days start early and usually
end late. Sometimes our busy schedule keeps us from helping
our customers as quickly as everyone would like and for that
we offer
our sincere apologies. It definitely keeps us from getting
to the Post Office or to our storage facility, and shipping
out orders
as often as we would like. We do the best
we can and hope that our customers and fellow martial artists
will understand.
Thank
you to all of our customers for their patience and loyalty,
Dave and Jim
