Our School

Martial arts as a practice allows the student to get an exciting and dynamic workout while having fun and building comprehensive self-defense skillsets. Learning to make and achieve goals, as well as to push through difficulty and roadblocks, helps the individual gain self-confidence, self-discipline, and the qualities of a true leader.

Teaching in the area since 1990, Mahato Karate in particular offers an array of classes, from bullying-prevention and child safety, to traditional Okinawan Shuri-te Shaolin Karate-do, to the strength-building and body-toning fitness workout of KoBu Power Fitness.

Shihan Michael Graves owner and master instructor of Mahato Karate brings an extensive array of experience in training, fighting, competing, and adapting traditional arts to serve more modern fitness needs. Therefore, while classes are held together by a familiar structure, each individual class is unique and based on what is needed in the moment—not necessarily what has been pre-planned. In other words, Mahato Karate is student-driven, dynamic, exciting, highly effective, and incredibly useful. What is Mahato Karate? At Mahato Karate we study the art of Shuri-te Shaolin, a form of karate originating in Okinawa, Japan, with influences from Chinese kung-fu. Our system is known for its fast and powerful techniques. Unlike some other forms of martial arts, our school places significance on kobudo (weapons-based training) in addition to open-hand karate, because we believe that weapons training and open-hand fighting inform one another. We also study aki jutsu (joint locking), kyusho jutsu (pressure point hitting; which is only taught to higher ranking Yudansha (black belts)), and iai-do/kenjutsu (samurai sword training). In addition to more traditional Karate-do.

Mahato Karate offers Kidini Karate classes aimed at teaching young children Bully Prevention and Child Safety. Our Small Samurai children’s Karate classes emphasize self-confidence and self-discipline through safe, fun, and exciting martial arts challenges. Shihan Graves’ KoBu Power Fitness is the workout that could save lives, by offering self-defense training using resistance-based Samurai cardio-kickboxing moves to tone the muscles and improve cardiovascular strength. At the heart of Mahato Karate is the idea of building every student’s confidence and character through the training of Body, Mind, and Spirit to ultimately achieve peace and harmony. Shihan Michael Graves, owner and head trainer of Mahato Karate in Wilmington, has a saying to emphasize the need for dedicated practice toward this aim: “Learn once, practice 1,000 times. Practice 1,000 times to do once.” While the practical need for martial arts techniques may never present itself, once a person’s execution of those techniques is improved and eventually mastered, the benefits on and off the mat are manifold.