Baltimore-Annapolis Kendo was founded in 2006 to promote the practice of kendo and iaido in the greater Baltimore region. The group grew from the Annapolis Kendo and Iaido Club after the group had to relocate from its practice space at Anne Arundel Community College. Our group began practice with ten kendo-ka plus three distinguished guests. We have since grown to thirty iaido-ka and kendo-ka. The club is incorporated in Maryland as a non-profit, non-stock entity and practices twice-weekly in a historic church (circa 1924) at The Community Center in Severna Park, Maryland.

We share a common root with our dear friends at Northern Virginia Budokai. For many years, Donald Seto, PhD, has served one club then the other as head kendo instructor. Co-hosting this event has brought members of our two dojo even closer together.

Baltimore-Annapolis Kendo hosts an annual kendo tournament which provides an opportunity to see many of our kendo friends and to make new ones throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. You are welcome to visit and practice with us whenever the opportunity presents itself.

The Capital Area Budokai began in the summer of 1997 as the George Mason University Kendo Club. In 2002 the expanding club moved off campus and officially severed our ties to George Mason University, changing the name to the Northern Virginia Budokai. From 2002 until 2007 the club practiced at the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Department in Arlington Virginia, during which time the organization expanded to include Federation-sanctioned instruction in Naginata, Kyudo, Iaido, Batto-do, and Jodo, in addition to Kendo.

In 2008 the club moved to its present location in Alexandria, Virginia and began drawing students from across the Mid-Atlantic region in the several Budo disciplines we teach. At that time the club formally changed its name again to the Capital Area Budokai, to reflect our growing regional membership; but the Kendo section of the organization remains registered with the Southeastern US Kendo Federation as the Northern Virginia Budokai for historical reasons.

The Capital Area Budokai is registered in the Commonwealth of Virginia as a non-stock, non-profit corporation, providing qualified instruction in traditional Japanese Budo in cooperation with the All United States Kendo Federation, the American Kyudo Renmei, the United States Naginata Federation, the International Batto-do Federation, and the Nihon Jodokai.