Karateka: Cool and Family-Friendly Martial Arts Merchandise

Karateka means "practitioner of karate" in Japanese, and that's just what I am. I've had lots of ranks, and a few titles, but from the day I started until the day I die, I'll be a "karateka." I created the Karateka Martial Arts Shop as a Cafepress shop a couple of years ago for two main reasons:
- Good martial arts instruction is expensive, and I'd like to earn some extra money to offset my family's tuition. Though I am an instructor at the school, I am not an employee - I volunteer my time.
- I've been designing martial-arts themed t-shirts and things for ages, but only a couple of them ever saw the outside of my notebook. My shop is a way to express my creativity. It's a very satisfying feeling when people like a design well enough to actually spend their hard-earned money on it.

One of the challenges I really enjoy is to take a favorite quotation and try to pair it with a single word that represents its essence. For example, I paired the word Tenacity (in both English and Kanji) with the Babe Ruth quote, "You just can't beat the person who never gives up."

I try to keep my themes positive and family-friendly. I try to focus on the peaceful, disciplined aspects rather than the violent; you won't find shirts with, "Attack Me - I Need The Practice" in my shop (I went to college with a guy that had that shirt!). Likewise, my designs that denote belt rank and teaching titles are simple and tasteful. No "Bow to Sensei" stuff. Sure, we bow to each out of respect, but there just something about designs like that that rub me the wrong way.

You'll find a few cool things here:
- There's a section that showcases a few items from my Cafepress shop, of course. I have many more designs than you see here, on all manner of apparel, buttons, mugs, stickers, etc. Please drop by the shop and have a look.
- There are also a couple of Amazon sections, featuring books relevant to different aspects of karate.
- There's a Links section, that includes links to my Cafepress shop and my dojo, as well other worthwhile websites. If you have any suggestions, feel free to pass them along.
- I also have a Guestbook, so please sign it and let me know that you dropped by!

Arigato!