Muidokan by Dan Djurdjevic? Important!

Some people may have been wondering if Muidokan Karate Kenkyukai is related to the excellent traditional martial arts school run by Dan Djurdjevic* in Australia, of which the karate division name is also Muidokan. Simply put, they are different schools. But it would be inadequate to say they are unrelated. This can be better explained by Samir Berardo’s own words:

“I was extremely fortunate of being in touch with Dan Djurdjevic’s work in the martial arts since my early years of training, at first through his internet-pioneer, award-winning blog ‘The Way Of Least Resistance’. I’ve read almost every article he wrote throughout over a decade in his website, which greatly benefited all aspects of my own martial arts journey. Not only I gained knowledge, but was also deeply influenced by his scientific approach to martial arts, open-mindedness, irreproachable intellectual honesty and role model as a martial artist and human being. Throughout the years I was also lucky enough to be able to become directly in touch with him, and then we became friends (that is, essentially the situation of a friendship between disciple and master).

I believe it’s impossible to say my work in Muidokan Karate Kenkyukai is not related with Dan Djurdjevic’s. In fact, he influenced me so much that when I decided to use a Japanese name for my karate school/research society, I unknowingly (or maybe knowing it subconsciously) came up with the same name used for the karate division of his own martial arts centre (where he teaches various different styles he is proficient at). One day I had come up with the name ‘Muidokan’ 無為道館, I looked it up in the internet for other schools and, believe me or not, apparently only in that moment I became fully aware of the ‘coincidence’. The next thing I did was to ask Dan directly for an approval for my using of the same name, to which he answered: ‘By all means, Samir, use it’.

It is not completely unheard of that different martial arts schools use the same name — there are many other examples around. But I think it’s fair to say the similar names between the Muidokan Karate Kenkyukai and the Muidokan Karate School of Dan Djurdjevic’s Traditional Martial Arts Academy (Perth, Western Australia) are not a mere coincidence. Even though those two schools have different curricula, the relation between them is inevitable through everything I’ve learned from Dan Djurdjevic.

I have founded Muidokan organization, as the full name says, not merely as a karate school, but actually as a karate research society (= Karate Kenkyukai 空手研究会). And until the foundation of Muidokan (and after that as well) I’ve learned from various masters and fellow researchers — and I’m extremely thankful to all of them. I’ve also learned from my students and Muidokan members as well, especially through Muidokan’s hontou bunkai lab tests. For complete fairness, each and every person who contributed to the establishing of Muidokan deserved a personal mention, and the list is huge. But for brevity, I’m forced to mention only one person here (but I hope to do justice to other great teachers I learned from in the future). So the first one I have to mention is Dan Djurdjevic.

As I have said so many times to him, I want to express it again: ‘Thank you, Dan’.”

* Dan Djurdjevic is not only an award-winning martial arts blogger and instructor, but also a novelist, musician/composer, social commentator and lawyer. He lives and teaches in Perth, Western Australia. His personal website is https://www.dandjurdjevic.com/ and is martial arts website is https://www.wayofleastresistance.net/.

Samir holding his signed copy of the Amazon best seller Essential Jo by Dan Djurdjevic, sent as a gift by the author in 2015.