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How an Elk Grove company’s CEO brought a renowned karate master to town

The forced relocation of a long-standing karate studio in Oak Park has brought the business — and its world-renowned karate master — to Elk Grove Village’s business park.

Miura Dojo will host a ribbon cutting and grand opening demonstration at 11 a.m. Saturday at 1651 Lively Blvd., where owner Miyuki Miura quietly opened over the summer.

The 2,000-square-foot studio is attached to a manufacturing plant for Lawrence Foods, one of the oldest businesses in town. Its CEO, Marc Lawrence, has been a Miura karate practitioner for 32 years.

The company has had a presence in Elk Grove since 1959, and today makes bakery ingredients for commercial food manufacturers, in-store supermarket bakeries and food service operators from facilities on Lively and another just down the block at 2200 Lunt Ave.

The front office space on Lively wasn’t needed, Lawrence said. So he took the opportunity to build the new dojo for his longtime karate instructor, who has been teaching the martial art in the Kyokushin style since arriving here from Japan in 1973.

Miura operated his studio from a tiny strip mall at Harlem and Garfield avenues for some 40 years, but a forthcoming apartment complex redevelopment project forced him to look elsewhere.

He has about 40 regular students — mostly males, ranging in age from 16 to their 60s — who make the trip to the new location for classes or private lessons two or three times a week.

Miyuki Miura offers lessons in Kyokushin karate at his new studio in Elk Grove Village. Courtesy of Marc Lawrence

“If someone joins my school, they stay a long time. Not too many people quit,” Miura said.

But the karate master hopes to grow the business by appealing to beginners and new students in the area.

The reasons someone may try karate vary, from its physical and mental attributes, to self-defense and lessons for children on respect and good manners, Miura said.

“I think people are thinking physical — get in shape, lose weight. Then (later) they think about control the mind, concentration, that stuff,” Miura said. “People worry about, ‘Oh I’m overweight, maybe I’m not good enough.’ I say, ‘No, no, no. Just sign up.’”

Saturday’s celebration will serve as a reunion of sorts, with many of Miura’s original students, as well as the karate practitioner who sponsored his coming to the United States, in attendance.

Since his arrival from Japan in 1973, Miyuki Miura has been teaching karate in Oak Park, Hillside, Elmhurst, and now Elk Grove Village. Courtesy of Marc Lawrence
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