About the instructor

John H. Lee began his martial arts journey through TaeKwonDo in middle school.  He was an active competitor at the state and regional levels over the next 7 years until the end of high school, when he badly fractured his wrist during a tournament sparring match.  It was while recovering from surgery that John's martial arts interest shifted toward Japanese swordsmanship.  

Thus, John began training in Kendo and Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu (iaido) during his first year at Yale University as an undergraduate student, where he also studied Japanese culture and history as a part of his major studies.  John stayed at Yale after his degree (History), studying Religion, Philosophy, and Ethics at the graduate school.  Afterward, John was offered a teaching position at Quinnipiac University, where he has been teaching Philosophy for the past 16 years in the Department of Philosophy and Political Science.  During this time, John also further studied at the graduate school of education at Columbia University, focusing on curriculum and instruction.  

The kenjutsu curriculum offered at Yozan is a unique synthesis of Applied Philosophy and John's 20+ years of training and research into classical Japanese swordsmanship techniques.