Instructors
Hiromi Hangai Johnson
Hiromi Hangai Johnson was born in Tokyo, Japan. She started her practice of Ch'i Kung and T'ai Chi Ch'uan to help rehabilitate her knees after surgery. In 1980 she began studying Ch'i Kung (Eight Pieces of Brocade) and T'ai Chi Ch'uan (24-Step Simplified Form).
From 1988 to 1998 she studied the 99-Step T'ai Chi Ch'uan of Cheng-Ming School under two disciples of Grand Master Wang Shu-Jin, who first introduced T'ai Chi Ch'uan and related internal martial arts to Japan in 1952. Yutaka Ueda was her first teacher, who owns a well-known health food restaurant in Tokyo. Hiromi followed his advice to practice T'ai Chi with his students at Hikawa Jinja, a temple in Roppongi. After a year of practice with Master Ueda, he introduced her to Master Wang Sheng-Zhi, a senior disciple of Grand Master Wang Shu-Jin. Hiromi practiced with Master Wang until his death, and with Master Ueda until she left Japan.
In 1998 Hiromi moved to Charlottesville and joined Little Mountain T'ai Chi and learned the Yang Style Short Form under Susan Christmas. At Susan's suggestion, Hiromi started to teach T'ai Chi and Ch'i Kung at the Little Mountain T'ai Chi Association in 2000.
Hiromi felt a strong need to find a teacher in the States. Fortunately, she found Master Wei-Lun Huang through Barbara Feldman's Blue Heron Martial and Healing Arts in West Virginia. Hiromi trained with Master Huang in Charlestown, WV, Winchester, VA, and Miami, FL.
In November, 2002 Hiromi received a phone call from Japan with news of Master Wang Fu-Lai visiting Texas. Master Wang Fu-Lai is the lineage holder of Cheng-Ming School (Cheng-Ming is a nickname of Grand Master Wang Shu-Jin) in Taiwan. Hiromi was advised to visit Master Wang Fu-Lai and ask if she could pursue her study of the 99-Step Form with him. Since then she has trained with him in Texas whenever he visits. She also traveled to Taiwan to train with him and to participate in a memorial event for Grand Master Wang Shu-Jin in the spring of 2004.
Hiromi feels fortunate to be able to study with such gifted teachers as Master Wang Fu-Lai and Master Wei-Lun Huang to broaden her understanding of Chinese Internal Martial Arts.
Hiromi believes that one of her missions is to help increase awareness of the health benefits of T'ai Chi and Ch'i Kung in the community. Besides teaching at Hiromi T'ai Chi, she also teaches at Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Program, at ACAC, and gives private lessons. She has been giving workshops at the Clinical Connections Day on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) at the UVA Hospital.
She has been a volunteer instructor for the UVA Women's Health Festival, the Church Fair in Grottos, the Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses (AMSN) at UVA Hospital, the Jefferson Area Board of Aging (JABA) and Martha Jefferson Hospital. From June 2004 to October 2005, she volunteered to coordinate the bi-annual weekend workshop with Master Wei-Lun Huang for Little Mountain T'ai Chi Association. She has also organized the Spring Ch'i Kung Workshop co-sponsored by Charlottesville Parks & Recreation and Hiromi T'ai Chi.
Hiromi has been practicing Japanese Tea Ceremony and Vipassana Meditation for over 20 years. She finds these practices complement the practice of Internal Martial Arts. Hiromi believes that integrating T'ai Chi practice with her daily life benefits not only her well-being but also her teaching.
Grayson Gillespie Butterfield
Grayson Gillespie Butterfield began her study of the martial arts in 1995 under Master Charles Scott in Fairbanks, Alaska. Although her studies under Master Scott were primarily the external art of Shaolin animal forms and external weapons' forms, she also studied the Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan long form and push hands.
After moving back to the Charlottesville area in 1999, she continued her practice of T'ai Chi with Little Mountain T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association where she began learning the 99-Step Cheng Ming T'ai Chi form under Hiromi Johnson.
Over the past five years she has taught the Simplified 24-Step and 10-StepT'ai Chi forms for Little Mountain. She also has studied the Flying Rainbow Fan form in workshops under Helen Wu, Push hands with Dr. Li Li Quan, and Ba Gua and T'ai Chi with Master Wei Lun Huang. Grayson is currently continuing her study of the 99-Step form with Hiromi as well as Hsing-I Short Stick, Sword, and Staff forms.
Naomi Ihara
Naomi Ihara has lived in Charlottesville since 1987. She began studying T'ai Chi with the Little Mountain T'ai Chi Association in September, 2000. Over the course of 6 years and under several different teachers at Little Mountain she studied Ch'i Kung, Wu Shu and Push Hands, and learned the Simplified Yang-style 24-step, the 42-step combined competition form, the Flying Rainbow Single Fan form, the Chen 36-form, the Yang 108 movement form, Hsing-I Short Stick, one of the Wudan sword Guardian Post forms and the Wu style double-saber form. She also studied Ch'i Kung, T'ai Chi and Ba Gua at several weekend workshops with Master Wei-Lun Huang. While at Little Mountain, she became certified to teach the Simplified Yang-style 24-step and taught the form both alone and as an assistant to Grayson (Gillespie) Butterfield from 2004 to 2006. She acted as Registrar for Little Mountain from 2003-2006, and served as Vice-President in 2004, and as President from 2005-2006.
When Little Mountain disbanded in the summer of 2006, Naomi began studying at Hiromi T'ai Chi, where she continued her study of Hsing-I Short Stick, learned the Hsing-I sword short form, the Cheng-Ming 14-step form and began working toward her teaching certification with Hiromi T'ai Chi. She became certified to teach the Simplified Yang style 24-step form in March, 2007. She is currently studying the 99-step Cheng-Ming T'ai Chi and Hsing-I staff forms. She is the Registrar for Hiromi T'ai Chi.
In addition to T'ai Chi, Naomi practices Hatha yoga and goes to Jazzercise classes several times a week. She enjoys bonsai, gardening, photography and schmoozing with her cat, Tucker.
Jeff McCormack
Jeff McCormack studied Niharate karate in 1992 while at the Inner Stairway in Charlottesville, VA under Sensei James Ennis and Sensei Michael Hill. In 1998, he studied under John Alton at the Three Emperors where he completed the Simplified 24-Step T'ai Chi Form. In January 2005, he began studying with Hiromi at Hiromi T'ai Chi where he completed Five Animal Ch'i Kung, Hsing-I Short Stick, amd 8 Pieces of Brocade, and is currently studying the 99-Step Cheng Ming T'ai Chi form.
Jeff enjoys exploring the different benefits of the martial arts which include conditioning, coordination, focus, discipline, calming, and of course, Ch'i(Qi), and the health benefits these provide. He is water dowser and Earth-energy dowser.
His hobbies and interests include botanical drawing, art and design, hiking, photography, gardening, herbal medicine, and most anything connected with the natural world.
Chinako Bohn
Chinako Bohn was born in Japan, and just moved to Charlottesville a year ago with her husband and 2 sons. She lived in Jakarta for 14 years and began studying the Simplified 24-Step T'ai Chi form under Master Takeuchi in September 2004.
She started studying the 22-Set Ch'i Kung and the 99-Step Cheng Ming T'ai Chi form with Hiromi in April, 2005. She continues her studies of the 99-Step as well as the Five Animal Ch'i Kung and Hsing-I Short Stick.
She loves cooking and reading.
Nancy Richey
Nancy Richey began studying T'ai Chi and Ch'i Kung from Hiromi Johnson in 2003. She has studied the Simplified Yang-style 24-step, Yang-style 39-Step Short form, and 14-Step Cheng-Ming style Tai Chi, as well as the 32-Step Flying Rainbow Single Fan form. She has studied the 8 Pieces of Brocade and 22-set Ch'i Kung. She continues to study the 99-step Cheng Ming Tai Chi.
Nancy was born in Hampton, Virginia and has lived in Charlottesville for the past 41 years. She has found many benefits in the practice of Tai Chi, both physically and mentally. It has become a very important part of her life and she enjoys helping others learn the form and gain the benefits.