Mountain Warrior Dojo

Early Judo Photo The founder of the Mountain Warrior Dojo is Andrew Keith Jones. He began his martial arts career in 1981, studying Judo for a couple of years in Plas Madoc Leisure Centre near Wrexham. This photograph shows a time when Plettenberger Judo Club visited from Markischer Kreis in Germany in April 1982. Little Andrew can be seen second from right. Aww!

As Andrew grew older, he drifted away from the practice of martial arts until he was around seventeen. A friend of his in college was practicing Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu with Dave Evans at the old Judo Club in Deeside, something that Andrew really only knew from having seen a few terrible "ninja" movies. Nevertheless, the interest had been sparked. In July 1988, Andrew saw an advert in the local paper, advertising a new Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu class opening in Coedpoeth, just outside of Wrexham and the dormant interest was rekindled. Turning up on that first night, he quickly found that the reality was far more interesting than the film fantasy. He was never a prodigy and struggled with the techniques (and still does!) but he stuck at it on account of being too stupid to quit as one instructor famously told him. Andrew spent the next two decades in continuous training as a member of the Bujinkan Dojo, making multiple trips to Japan and elsewhere to train under the source of the art, Soke Masaaki Hatsumi and his senior students. In March 1993, Andrew founded the Mountain Warrior Dojo. In August 1999, Andrew sat and passed the famous "sakki test" under Hatsumi sensei at the United Kingdom Tai Kai upon which he earned the grade of 5th Dan and the Shidoshi ("teacher of the warrior ways") teaching licence. He formally retired from Bujinkan training after twenty years in December 2008.

Kyudo Image Over the years, Andrew also found time to formally study a number of other martial arts at various times, being a firm believer that all martial artists should have a broad base of experience and training. He studied Judo for a further two years between 1991 and 1993, this time with the Deva Judo Kwai in Chester until a knee injury during a demonstration match brought that to a halt. He also studied Kyudo for two years between 2004 and 2006 with Peter Cassidy of North Wales Kyudo (during which time he was also lucky enough to be granted some training and advice by Yanoma Kiyoshi sensei while practicing in Koshigaya, Japan in 2005). During the year-end shoot of 2004 at the kyudojo of Malcolm Bagnall, Andrew was the first of only three archers to hit the oginomato ("fan target"). During the year-end shoot of 2005 at the kyudojo of Peter Cassidy, Andrew was again the first archer to hit the oginomato, this time with the very first arrow of the shoot and this time against the target fan only opened by one segment. At the same shoot he was also the archer to hit the kinteki ("gold target"), said to bring good fortune for the coming year.

Andrew K Jones Andrew also holds the Kihon licence in Kasumi-An Kenjutsu under Stephen K Hayes, the test being taken during Mr Hayes' visit to Northampton in 2007. He has also spent periods of time studying arts such as Kendo and Jujutsu.

In November 2010, he began studying Naginata as a member of the British Naginata Association and this is now the primary focus of his budo training, currently holding 5th Kyu. In September 2011 he began studying Meifu Shinkage-ryu Shuriken (throwing blades) and Fundokusari (weighted chain) under Otsuka Yasuyuki sensei as a complement to his Naginata studies.

Andrew has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management with the University of Wales and a Postgraduate Certificate in Military Studies with the University of Liverpool. He is now studying towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Information and Communications Technology.

All licences, grade certificates, teaching licences and so forth are available for inspection, including the oginomato and kinteki targets from the year-end Kyudo shoots mentioned.