About the JCC

The Japanese Cultural Center was established to make some of the arts, crafts, and philosophical riches of Japan available to the general public.

The Center is not a museum where lifeless objects are displayed. Rather, it is a school where living skills are passed on -person-to-person- as they have been for centuries. Arts from other countries, which complement the Center's function, are also offered.

The curriculum includes classic martial arts such as Aikido, Karate, Kendo, Shorenji Kempo, and Iaido, as well as, modern arts like Capoeira, and the powerful developmental practice of Zen.

Cultural courses are also available in the form of Chanoyu (tea ceremony), Ikebana (flower arrangement), and Japanese language. The fundamental purpose of these courses it to enable students to realize their full potential: to unify mind and body, develop natural abilities, and live dynamic, creative lives.

Just inside the door of the Center is a wooden panel on which are carved the characters "Ten Shin Kan," or "Place of the Universal Mind/Body/Spirit". In the spirit of the traditional training halls of the Orient, the JCC is a true "dojo", or "house of the way".


About the Founder

The JCC was established in 1978 by Mr. Fumio Toyoda. Mr. Toyoda was a student off the martial arts since childhood, held a 6th degree black belt in Aikido, and was founder of the Aikido Association of America, Aikido Association International, and Aikido International Foundation. His martial art training was supplemented by years of study in Zen, massage and therapeutic breathing.

Although he obtained a law degree in Japan, Mr. Toyoda elected to make martial arts instruction his life's work. After arriving in Chicago, he envisioned a facility where various disciplines devoted to "the way" might be united under one roof. The Japanese Cultural Center is the result of that dream.


About the Director

Stephen Tatsuo Toyoda, son of Aikido Association of America (AAA) and Aikido Association International (AAI) founder Fumio Toyoda Shihan, is the current director of the Japanese Culture Center. Mr. Toyoda began his studying Aikido since the age of three.

After graduating with a degree in Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mr. Toyoda was accepted as an uchideshi (live in student) under Y. Kobayashi Shihan (8th degree black belt) in Kodaira, Japan.

Mr. Toyoda is also the Executive Director for the AAA and AAI and the dojo cho (chief instructor) of Tenshinkan Dojo in Chicago, Illinois and has instructed Aikido seminars throughout the United States. In 2003, he was involved in two research studies on obesity and asthma in the children of Chicago's public school system. He helped them learn to breathe easier and deeper by introducing them to Aikido breathing techniques.  Toyoda Sensei also is the first civilian to have undergone the LE Press Defensive Tactics Instructor Certification Program.