Auderghem Budo

The word budō (武道) is made of bu, the martial art, and dō, the way. It refers to the Japanese martial arts as they evolved beyond their warrior origins: old combat techniques (bujutsu) transformed, century after century, into paths of personal development.

A budo practitioner isn't only after technical efficiency. What they're after is the unity of body and mind — discipline, respect, self-control — built through repeated, demanding practice. That's what sets the nine disciplines recognised by the Japanese Budo Association — judo, kendo, kyudo, sumo, karate, aikido, shorinji kempo, naginata and jukendo — apart from combat sports in the strict sense: technique is a means, not an end.

That's the exact spirit the Brussels Budo Festival wants to put on display, bringing together for one afternoon the schools and disciplines that keep budo alive in Auderghem.

The Budo Charter is clear on this point: the goal isn't performance, but "building disciplined individuals, capable of contributing to society." A dojo doesn't just teach how to strike, throw, or bow with a sword. It teaches showing up on time, bowing to whoever you're about to face, losing without bitterness, improving without ever thinking you've arrived. Those are habits of character, not just habits of the body — and once picked up on the tatami, they don't stay there.

It's also a practice that crosses ages and generations without pitting them against each other: a 6-year-old and a 70-year-old practitioner can share the same dojo, the same discipline, the same mutual respect. Few activities allow for that so naturally.

For a commune like Auderghem, that value becomes very concrete. Like many Brussels communes, Auderghem is dense and diverse: families from everywhere, several languages, generations that cross paths without always talking. The dojo is one of the rare places where that mix happens without effort — nobody asks where you're from, only that you bow when you walk in.

A neighbourhood club also gives young people a demanding, rewarding structure just steps from home, without having to cross the city. It gives adults a space to push themselves without crushing competition. And it plants, in a small Belgian commune, a practice born on the other side of the world — a link made even more meaningful by the fact that 2026 marks 160 years of relations between Japan and Belgium.

That's why the Brussels Budo Festival isn't just a technical showcase: it's a way of reminding Auderghem of the value it already holds, discipline by discipline, dojo by dojo.

The Nippon Budokan in Tokyo takes its name from its very purpose: one hall, under one roof, bringing together the nine major disciplines of Japanese budo recognised by the Japanese Budo Association — judo, kendo, kyudo, sumo, karate, aikido, shorinji kempo, naginata and jukendo. That idea of gathering is what founded the place in 1964.

Auderghem, at its own scale, lives a version of that same idea. Across a territory of under 10 km², split between the Centre Sportif de la Forêt de Soignes and the Gymnasium, six clubs today keep six of these disciplines alive: shorinji kempo at the Brussels branch of the World Shorinji Kempo Organization, judo at Judo Club Auderghem, kendo at Yu-Hi Kendo Club since 1979, goju ryu karate at Goju-Ryu Karate-do Bruxelles, aikido at Kiryoku Aiki Dojo, and naginata at Club de la Forêt de Soignes.

Few communes this size can bring together so many different schools within a few hundred metres of one another. That's what makes a festival like this possible: practitioners have often never watched their discipline-neighbours train, even though they share the same neighbourhood, sometimes the same hall. The Brussels Budo Festival is a chance to discover each other.