About Tacoma Aikikai
Our Dojo
Tacoma Aikikai was founded in 2016 to share the art of Aikido with Tacoma and the surrounding South Puget Sound region. Today, we offer Aikido classes for kids, teens, and adults six days a week, as well as camps and intensives, youth leadership programs, community- centered self-defense trainings, and other workshops.
Tacoma Aikikai embraces the benefits of traditional Aikido training, rooted in honoring the lineage and culture of Japanese martial traditions. We also work to continually evolve our dojo and our practice in line with Aikido principles of awareness and compassion. We hold to our founding vision of making Aikido accessible for anyone who wants to practice and contributing to our community. We operate on a sliding scale fee basis, with no one turned away for lack of funds.
Tacoma Aikikai instructors are accredited by the Aikikai World Headquarters, in Tokyo, Japan, the direct familial lineage of Aikido teaching from O-Sensei through the current Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba, O-Sensei’s grandson. In the U.S., Tacoma Aikikai is affiliated with and accredited by Birankai North America, an organization established by the late T.K. Chiba Shihan. We also have a strong relationship with Aikido Kyoto and our teachers Yoko Okamoto Sensei and Chris Mulligan Sensei.
Our Community
Tacoma Aikikai is a community of diverse families and individuals who come to Aikido for many reasons. All ages, levels, and abilities practice together to challenge and support each other on and off the mat. Our members bring their individual stories and backgrounds to enrich our collective practice.Our dojo is also part of an Aikido community that extends regionally, nationally, and around the world. By hosting and traveling to events we develop friendships across cultures that deepen through our shared practice.
Tacoma Aikikai is committed to creating a supportive and inclusive community, fostering mutual respect for people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, backgrounds, faiths, ages, and abilities. Tacoma Aikikai actively condones and challenges any implicit, explicit, or institutional expression of discrimination, and we continually seek to improve our own dojo environment to be a more equitable and inclusive space. Abuses of power, bullying, discrimination, or sexual misconduct are not tolerated under any circumstances.
Our Story
Tacoma Aikikai was founded by Ea Murphy in 2016. As a young person, Ea experienced the transformative and healing power of practicing martial arts in a supportive and inclusive martial arts community in Oakland California. After a 20-year journey, Ea returned from intensive training in Japan with the vision of establishing a community of practice that could offer the same opportunities here in the Northwest. Strategically located in the heart of the Puget Sound, the vibrant Tacoma community immediately felt like the perfect new home for the dojo.
After building a core community of practitioners out of a rented space in Urban Grace Church, Tacoma Aikikai moved to its dedicated location in the Central District in 2019. The iconic red brick building that once housed Elliott Printing now offers a full schedule of classes and events for kids, teens, and adults in Tacoma and the surrounding South Puget Sound.
