Igor Dovezenski was born in 1974 in Skopje. At seven years of age, he started training karate, followed by other martial arts (gendai budo), that he trained until his fourteenth year. In 1986, he received a video recorder and a single VHS tape from his father with the movie „Revenge of the Ninja“. The same night his life was destined. All that started as a child game and a fantasy, would trace his Path forever.
When he was 14 (1988), Dovezenski found out of the organization Bujinkan and its leader Masaaki Hatsumi and started creating his first contacts with known European masters of ninjutsu at that time. At the same time he ceased with training karate and decided to devote himself fully to koryu bujutsu.
At the beginning of 1994, Dovezenski was recruited by the Military Police of the Army of Republic of Macedonia, and at the end of the training he was selected by the most elite squad in that time, called the AT Squad (Anti-Terrorist Squad).
In 1995, Igor Dovezenski founded the Organization for teaching traditional Japanese martial arts Taiyou e no Michi, and at the same year (2nd July) opened the first ninjutsu dojo in Macedonia. At that time, he was one of the youngest instructors for martial arts in his country.
With the course of time, his interest for classical schools grows even more, and the love for martial arts makes him go travelling more often and participating in many seminars throughout Europe. Since 1995, until today, Dovezenski had participated in more than 200 seminars, intensive courses and workshops for traditional and modern martial arts. As an instructor, he had organized and taught to over three hundred seminars, intensive courses and workshops, among the most famous are his outdoor seminars that are the trademark of his dojo. He is known for several feats, such as „Survival in nature“ and „The Path of Shugenja“, that tested his endurance and his will.
In 2005, Igor Dovezenski started achieving his first contacts with several instructors of Daito ryu Aikijujutsu, but he met the real teacher in 2010, when he left for Italy to the dojo of the only non-Japanese shihan for this art, Antonino Certa. After the return of the instructors’ training in Italy, Igor Dovezenski at first opened a section that with time grew into a dojo. In 2013, he successfully passed the master level (shodan) and earned the title shidoin (instructor) and shibu cho (leader of a branch) or representative of Daito Kai for Macedonia.
During the participation on BuYu Kai in Germany (2011), in front of more than twenty shihans from around the world, Dovezenski successfully passed the so called „sakki“ test or the test of the „deadly intent“. With that, he became the first Macedonian with a degree godan (5th dan) and the first carrier of the title „shidoshi“ for the arts of Bujinkan in our country.
Unfortunately, the same year (November), in a fall of a cliff during free climbing, shidoshi Dovezenski suffered a spine and pelvis injury, where the doctors were concerned about the prognosis of his future and the possibility for continuing training. Determined never to give up the martial arts, Dovezenski didn’t follow their advice for stopping physical activities and started researching the work and the functioning of the human organism in more detail. With the help of the traditional Japanese techniques for stretching and strengthening of the body, he managed to overcome the pain that arose during training, as well as to return his mobility and successfully to continue with everyday training.
The restless spirit and the love for traditional Japanese martial arts guide him to the oldest documented koryu school „Tenshi Shoden Katori Shinto ryu Bujutsu“. At the beginning of 2013, Igor Dovezenski left for Netherlands and became a student of shidosha Erik Louw, and several month later gave a blood oath (keppan) in front of the shihan of the art, Nobutoshi Otake. In September, the same year, with permission and mentorship of shidosha Louw, with work begins „Katori Shinto ryu Macedonia“ – the third dojo in Taiyou e no Michi.
In 2014, Igor Dovezenski leaves for Japan where he trains directly with the descendants of the martial arts that he represents in Macedonia. At the same time, he visits other traditional dojos, where he trains with the other teachers for classical Japanese martial arts, with purpose to understand their history and principles better.
During one of the training sessions in the Hombu Dojo of Bujinkan, as an acknowledgement for the quality work and the long-term dedication to his work, the leader of „Taiyou e no Michi“ earns hachidan (8th dan) directly from soke Masaaki Hatsumi.
Igor Dovezenski is the first Macedonian of Republic of Macedonia that trained in the dojo of Dr. Hatsumi, as well as the dojos of his oldest students who are respected shihans in the organization of Bujinkan today. He is the first Macedonian that learned directly from the legendary heir of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto ryu Bujutsu – shihan Risuke Otake, at his Shimbukan Dojo. In addition, Dovezenski is the only Macedonian that trained Daito ryu Aikijujutsu in Japan, along with other classical martial arts that came from the Land of the Rising Sun.
On 14th of September 2015, at the Faculty Counsel at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the members of the board unanimously approved the project proposal of Igor Dovezenski to open a „Laboratory for Eastern Cultures“ within the Institute, and for the first time in Macedonia, classical Japanese martial arts are taken to the academic level. With that, the students from the department IEA for the subjects „Ethnology of Asia“ and „Ethnology of Japan“ are going to have mandatory classes where through exercises, they will study the theory, as well as the techniques of the arts that are taught in the Organization „Taiyou e no Michi“.
Shidoshi Igor Dovezenski never had the intention for expansion and personal glory. He never trained so he could „gather“ diplomas and titles. The attempts of several of his „colleagues“ to present themselves as great masters or creators of their styles, always seemed petty to him. During his carrier, to this day, as a martial artist, he was always led by the great love for the Japanese traditional martial schools. His sacrifice on that field is great, and because of that he is very respected by his students. Igor Dovezenski never collaborated and never participated in anonymous organizations where titles and degrees are received with payment of monetary resources, in contrary, he collaborates and participates the most respected world organizations led by proven masters and koryu descendants.
Although his life is dedicated to the traditional martial systems, Dovezenski respects the training and the discipline of the fighters in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) greatly and several times he helped them giving lessons for specific subjects in his dojo.
Igor Dovezenski is an ethnologist by profession and at the moment works at the State University „Ss. Cyril and Methodius“ in Skopje. He loves his country and tries to transfer that love of this little piece of land, called Macedonia since the beginning of time, to all of the people surrounding him.
He is a husband and a father of three children that follow his footsteps already. He spends his free time with his family on his country property far from the city noise, where he tries to restore the harmony with nature as much as he can.