THE MUGEN DACHI STORY
Mugen Dachi was started in 1999 by Jim Alvarez and David Wilson, two kenjutsu practitioners who were not satisfied with the high cost and inconsistent quality of the mats that were available at the time for tameshigiri. In the early 90's the only mats you could get were used ones from Japan and the cost was pretty high to have them sent to the U.S. There were beach mats available but they were not considered an option since they made such poor targets and didn't compare to tatami omote. The result was that we held cutting practice on a very limited basis and when we did we only got to cut two or three targets per session.
So what did we do? We decided to put our energy towards a more positive outcome. At first all we wanted to do was to find enough tatami for our own use. Living in the San Francisco/Bay Area, which has a large multi-cultural population, we figured we could probably find some old tatami omote from the tatami mats that were re-covered locally. As it turns out it wasn't quite as easy as we had thought as we could find no one in the area that recovered tatami.
We didn't give up and we kept looking around. Finally, with the help of a connection in Japan, we found our current supplier. As we began to discuss our needs it became obvious that we would have to buy in large quantities to get a regular supply at any kind of a reasonable price. We forged ahead without giving much thought to the repercussions of a "quantity" purchase. Our supplier was enthusiastic and very interested in helping us to get the best quality mat for our needs. He came up with a very creative idea that helped lower the price to a reasonable level for martial arts use and still maintain a high quality. And so, in 1999, after several moments of serious thought and a few deep breaths, the Mugen Dachi Company was formed. We purchased our first container of 7000 mats and sold out in a year, the next year we sold two containers, our third year in business we sold three. Over the years our mats have gained a reputation for consistent quality and became the preferred material for tameshigiri practice.
In 2010 Mugen Dachi turned over the retail sales responsibilities to our vendors on the East and West coasts. In 2014 Dave Wilson left the company and since then it has been solely operated by Jim Alvarez.
So what did we do? We decided to put our energy towards a more positive outcome. At first all we wanted to do was to find enough tatami for our own use. Living in the San Francisco/Bay Area, which has a large multi-cultural population, we figured we could probably find some old tatami omote from the tatami mats that were re-covered locally. As it turns out it wasn't quite as easy as we had thought as we could find no one in the area that recovered tatami.
We didn't give up and we kept looking around. Finally, with the help of a connection in Japan, we found our current supplier. As we began to discuss our needs it became obvious that we would have to buy in large quantities to get a regular supply at any kind of a reasonable price. We forged ahead without giving much thought to the repercussions of a "quantity" purchase. Our supplier was enthusiastic and very interested in helping us to get the best quality mat for our needs. He came up with a very creative idea that helped lower the price to a reasonable level for martial arts use and still maintain a high quality. And so, in 1999, after several moments of serious thought and a few deep breaths, the Mugen Dachi Company was formed. We purchased our first container of 7000 mats and sold out in a year, the next year we sold two containers, our third year in business we sold three. Over the years our mats have gained a reputation for consistent quality and became the preferred material for tameshigiri practice.
In 2010 Mugen Dachi turned over the retail sales responsibilities to our vendors on the East and West coasts. In 2014 Dave Wilson left the company and since then it has been solely operated by Jim Alvarez.