The Budokan community in North America is preparing for a landmark event: on July 24–26, 2026, the Lynnwood Event Center, located north of Seattle, Washington, will host the first-ever Taikai by Daishihan Shiraishi Isamu in the United States. This event will be a rare opportunity for Western practitioners to work directly with one of the school’s senior Japanese instructors.
About the event
According to information from relevant budō groups on social media and official announcements, the three-day seminar is being organized with centralized coordination through the special website ShiraishiTaikaiSeattle.org and a mailing list. Registration details, price categories, and the exact schedule of classes will be published later, as indicated in the promotional materials marked “Registration details coming soon.”
The Lynnwood Event Center, which traditionally hosts large conferences and cultural festivals, will for the first time become the venue for a large-scale budokan event, underscoring the seriousness of the organizers’ preparations and the expected scale of participation.
Shiraishi Isamu: bearer of tradition
Daishihan Shiraishi Isamu has been one of Japan’s senior Bujinkan instructors for decades and is known for his emphasis on the principles of balance, precision of movement, and a deep understanding of the internal mechanics of techniques. In specialized literature and among practitioners, he is mentioned as one of the closest disciples and main uke (demonstration partners) of Masaaki Hatsumi during the master’s work at the hombu dojo in Japan.
For Western followers of Bujinkan, Shiraishi-sensei has long remained a figure accessible mainly at training sessions in Japan or at rare European seminars. Holding a full-scale taikai in the US opens up direct access to his methodology for North American schools, many of which are developing far from the Japanese centers of tradition.
Significance for the Bujinkan movement
The taikai format (large-scale training gathering) traditionally brings together instructors and students of different levels of training, allowing them not only to master technical material, but also to synchronize teaching standards between dojos in different regions. Bujinkan communities in the US, Canada, and Europe are already calling this event a key date for the summer of 2026, around which travel programs and group trips are being organized.
Against the backdrop of growing global interest in classical Japanese martial arts, the first United States Taikai with Daishihan Shiraishi Isamu is an important milestone — it establishes North America as a full-fledged part of the international Bujinkan network and sets a precedent for future visits by high-ranking Japanese masters.
Practitioners are encouraged to check ShiraishiTaikaiSeattle.org for updates and subscribe to the official mailing list for registration and event program information.
