Ligo Dojo of Budo Karate

Information may not be reliable

Ligo Dojo of Budo Karate in Durham
Classes for All Ages age 6 and up! 923-6915. Best in the Triangle. Cheapest in the Triangle. No Contracts. Nonprofit Community-minded Ideals. Sliding Scale for qualifying families!Adult Classes $80/month! 1/4 mile form Duke East!

Photos and video from the tournament we went to in Rochester, October 9th, coming soon! (In the mean time, see our facebook fanpage for more photos.)

Class Times 6:30 PM Monday to Friday, 5 PM Saturday, Closed Sunday
New 4:30 PM Classes Monday to Friday starting in July
Cost : $80/month with request that those who can pay $100 because we're a nonprofit and some students participate without paying the full amount. No contracts of course.
Simply pay by the month. We are located at 118 W. Parrish Street in Downtown Durham.
For more information call Nathan Ligo at 923-6915.

New Instructors at Ligo Dojo: Made possible by gants from NC Governor's Crime Commission, JCPC, and Triangle Community Foundation

Amy Kaufman, MSW, shodan (black belt)
Woodrena Baker-Harrell, J.D., 1st kyu (brown)
Daniel Brandyl, Ph.D., 1st kyu (brown)
Erin Krelwitz, Ph.D., 1st kyu (brown)
(graduate degrees are coincidental, and not generally required for teaching karate)
Beginning New After School

All classes will be open to all students,
and will be staffed by two assistant instuctors in addition to head instructor, Nathan Ligo.

Winter's End Belt Promotion Test March 2, 2010

The Cutting Edge at Ligo Dojo February 19-21, 2010

This month has provided Ligo Dojo with a collection of the best possible news imaginable. At the top of the list: The graduation of Paul Kaminski (24) of Connecticut. Paul, this week, attained his goal of remaining 1000 consecutive days in the Budo Karate House Dormitory. This is no small challenge. Indeed +/-70 BKH residential students over the past 9 years FAILED to complete this goal. Paul was first. He returned home this week, honorably, to see his family for the first time in 1000 days and he leaves behind, in the dormitory, Kenny and Aaron, who plan on being the next two to graduate. Paul is fighting with us in Korea in August and Budapest (in the world tournament) in October. We have offered him a position with a full salary and we expect that in a half year or so, he will return to teach at Ligo Dojo and work towards a time when he can operate his own dojo. This is up to him, of course! Either way, he goes forward into life knowing that he can do whatever he sets out to achieve. Good for you, Kaminski!! You have a family here for life!
Ligo Dojo, a 501.c.3 nonprofit, got all four of the grants it applied for for next year. And it's about time!! We have persisted for 9 years without external funding. Special thanks to the Governor's Crime Commission ($70,000 over two years), Triangle Community Foundation ($15,000 gift), Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (Durham County) ($12,000 gift), and the City of Durham ($40,000 over three years) for their joint sponsorship of the "Young Warriors Scholar-Athlete Scholarship Program" in which children who are at-risk of falling into anti-social routines can train, without charge at Ligo Dojo (provided they are referred by participating agencies). This program is already in full-swing and is resulting in unprecedented growth in our student body. On the behalf of Budo Karate House and Ligo Dojo, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to these agencies for recognizing the incredible value that Ligo Dojo can provide for the future of Durham by teaching its young people. You have put your eggs in the right basket! Our program is in full swing and we will surpass our stated goals!

Two Ligo Dojo Students Compete in Tournament in Korea

Ligo Dojo Students Take 5 Places (including 3 first place wins) in 7 divisions in Connecticut Tournament

Ligo Dojo in Durham News
Ligo Dojo experiences its first boom in popularity! February 2008

At long last it seems like Triangle residents are starting to figure out both that we're here, and what kind of quality training we offer. We're located in downtown Durham near the ball park and the Sun Trust Building and it was at about the same time that the city of Durham finally completed construction on our street, Parrish Street, that students started to roll in . . . at least when compared to anything we've seen in the past. We continue to offer 90-minute classes every night of the week except Sunday that are primarily geared towards adult students. Indeed we pride ourselves on NOT being the "belt mill" or babysitting service that so many American martial arts schools have become. Children from the age of 7 are welcome and we have several as young as 6 that train with their mothers and/or fathers. Parents and kids training together has in fact been very successful and we recommend that you give it a try!
All training is geared towards full-contact, real world applicable karate. Of course the primary motives are self-defense, the development of spiritual and physical health, and the deepening of character! But we are firm believers that martial arts schools who train their students for anything less than real fighting are doing a great disservice to their students, since they will surely develop a false sense of their own abilities. That said, SAFETY and respect for the PACE with which each individual student should approach higher impact training is upheld as a matter of course. We currently have 4 students in their 50's one in her 60's and minors that are as young as 6. . . They don't leave the class injured, and yet they SWEAT and they learn techniques that they can apply should they ever have to.
Ask Sensei Ligo and he'll tell you that one of the most exciting developments in the recent growth of the Ligo Dojo student body is the development of a women's program with the potential to set a new standard far beyond the Triangle in terms of developing the true potential of women as practitioners of karate who are not held back by social stigma. Current female students, whether they know it or not, have set out on the road to achieving a standard for women in karate that has been largely absent from the American South. Women in Canada, Europe and Russia, those that choose to, engage in full-contact competition just like the men. All Ligo Dojo students engage in contact activities at a pace at which they're comfortable, but the evolving difference here is that women at Ligo Dojo will have the opportunity to fight if they so choose.
Shihan Jacques Sandulescu, 79, (below) was the first American to practice Kyokushin Karate in the continental united states in the early 60's when Kyokushin's founder, Mas Oyama (1923-1994), stayed with him in New York for five months on his first trip to introduce karate to America. Jacques is a legendary figure in Japan since the adventures that he shared with Mas Oyama were immortalized in books, movies, and even comic books. The two men's friendship was life-long and we are extremely honored to have Jacques and his wife, Annie, as dojo members since they moved to North Carolina from New York three years ago. In Rochester, New York in 1992, Mas Oyama introduced Nathan Ligo (head instructor, Ligo Dojo) to Jacques, and said, "Ligo you have to take care of Jacques, Jacques you have to take care of Nathan. Support each other to build Kyokushin Karate in America," and another life-long friendship was born.

Jacques's wife, Annie, above right, has been practicing Kyokushin Karate for 35 years. She brought Jacques to North Carolina in 2006 to be near Ligo Dojo so that Nathan Ligo and his students could help to take care of Jacques in his retirement. Like her husband, Annie is an inspiration to Ligo Dojo students since she trains harder and kicks higher than most of the rest of the students and yet she's, well, pushing sixty-something. Annie is currently working to edit Nathan's most recent book (she is a professional editor and was a book critic for the NY Times), and although she let Nathan's prior 5 manuscripts remain on the shelf, she finally likes this one, and will help to push it through to where it can be read by more than just her. "Your students ought to really benefit from reading this book," she said, "particularly the new ones. They'll start to figure out what karate's all about, those of them anyway who limit their idea of what it's about to their pre-conceived notions."

Ligo Dojo instructor and founder, Nathan Ligo, is seen here in Japan in the last week of November '07. The All-Japan Karate Tournament was held on the 25th and Nathan Ligo traveled to Japan to enter his residential student (uchi deshi), Paul Kaminski (see below). That's Sensei Ligo (above left) participating in a training for instructors following the tournament and (above right) interpreting Kancho (chairman) Royama's speech at the opening ceremony of the tournament. Below, that's Nathan again with Kancho Royama (see "Kyokushinkan Home" link above).

Herald Sun Newspaper Articles about Ligo Dojo

Wins at Kyokushin Open Tournament in Connecticut

Sensei Ligo's Connecticut Seminar at Fujiwara Dojo July 2008

All-Japan Tournament Preparation, October 2006

Korea Open Kyokushinkan Karate Tournament, August 2006

All-Japan Weight Catogory Tournament, April 2006

2 BKH Resident's 1st Tuffman Competition, Octonber 2005

Kyokushinkan 1st World Open Karate Tournament, Moscow, September 2005

Kyokushinkan Instructor's Seminar in Japan, March 2005

All-Japan Karate Open Tournament, November 2004

Visit to Ligo Dojo by Fujiwara Shihan, August 2004

Korea Open Kyokushinkan Karate Tournament, June 2004

All-Japan Weight Catogory Tournament, May 2004

Budo Karate House, A Night at the Fights, March 2004

All-Japan Open Karate Tournament, November 2003

All -Japan Weight Catagory Tournament, June 2003