SOA Store

Welcome to the SOA Store.

This page contains SOA merchandise such as T-shirts, Books, Booklets, and more.

Donations and Dues:

• • • Make a tax-deductible Donation to help support SOA ongoing SOA projects.
    • Pay yearly Member Dues

Events and Fees:

• • • Visit our Events and Fees page to register for current SOA sponsored events and to pay Exam Fees.

T-Shirts:

• • • Look here for your next great T-Shirt.

Books:

• • Aikukan: A life in Shintaido by Master Masashi Minagawa
  • SHAKUNETSU: Chronicles of the Creation of Shintaido, a Japanese Martial Art, by Pierre Quettier
  • Shintaido: The Body Is A Message Of The Universe, by Hiroyuki Aoki
  • Untying Knots: A Shintaido Chronicle, by Michael Thompson
  • Cutting The Blue Sky, compilation
  • Total Stick Fighting: Shintaido Bojutsu, by Hiroyuki Aoki

Booklets:

• • Student Handbook
  • SOA Publications Collection: Origins, Tenshingoso& Eiko, Zero Point of Consciousness & Improvisation and the Body

DVDs:

• • H. F. Ito Presents Body Movements Of Self-Expression: Shintaido
  • Self Care Program For Hospice Caregivers

Other Merchandise

• • • Shintaido History Timeline PDF

SOA Signature Shirts:

SoA apparel is here. Please visit our clothing storefront at Printify (a print on demand service).

Books and Booklets:

Aikukan: a Life in Shintaido

by Master Masashi Minagawa

Aikukan: a Life in Shintaido, is Master Minagawa’s autobiography, published by British Shintaido in April 2026.

Aikukan, the “space of love”, is the ideal Masashi Minagawa has sought, and the reality he has found, through his lifelong devotion to Shintaido. In this very personal book, he shares this space of love with us.

He takes us from his childhood in provincial Japan to 1960s Tokyo, where he first met the charismatic Hiroyuki Aoki, founder of Shintaido, and joined his Rakutenkai “group of optimists”, undergoing extraordinarily intense physical and spiritual training to discover a fuller, freer way of being and fulfil a new human potential

In 1990, after moving to the very different culture and environment of Britain, he had to go back to his deepest roots to find a way of communicating what he had learned to the people he met, few of whom were interested in Japanese martial arts. At the same time, he took on a major role in developing the worldwide Shintaido movement.

Filled with humour, anecdotes, insights both personal and spiritual, and extraordinary explanations of his creative processes, Aikukan is a book that every Shintaido practitioner will want to explore, as this best-loved of teachers shares his journey through Shintaido, and through life, with his customary modesty, wisdom and joy.

Celebration /launch event

The book was launched in a Zoom event on Sunday April 19, 2026

See a recording of the launch event here: https://youtu.be/V7wqN-bKxxs

From the back cover:

Aikukan, the “space of love,” is the ideal Masashi Minagawa has sought, and the reality he has found, through his lifelong devotion to Shintaido. In this very personal book he shares this space of love with us.

He takes us from his childhood in provincial Japan, to 1960s Tokyo where he first met the charismatic Hiroyuki Aoki, founder of Shintaido, and joined his Rakutenkai “group of optimists”, undergoing extraordinarily intense physical and spiritual training in order to discover a fuller, freer way of being and fulfil a new human potential.

In 1990, after moving to the very different culture and environment of Britain, he had to go back to his deepest roots in order to find a way of communicating what he had learned to the people he met. few of whom were interested in Japanese martial arts. At the same time he took on a major role In developing the worldwide Shintaido movement.

Filled with humour, anecdotes, insights both personal and spiritual, and extraordinary explanations of his creative processes, Aikukan is a book that every Shintaido practitioner will want to explore, as this best-loved of teachers shares his-journey through Shintaido, and through life, with his customary modesty, wisdom and joy.

Where to Buy:

You can buy an English-language copy from Amazon in your home territory; search for “Masashi Minagawa Aikukan”.

British readers can purchase from UK Amazon at https://amzn.eu/d/01Rzz5I9

US readers can purchase from US Amazon https://a.co/d/0bdCSxRE

SHAKUNETSU: Chronicles of the Creation of Shintaido, a Japanese Martial Art

by Pierre Quettier, paperback, 387 pages, illustrated with photos

English language edition released 2023: (also available in French as a Kindle eBook)
Amid the extraordinary, global upheaval of the 1960’s, a group of young Japanese idealists embarked on a quest characteristic of the time: to break down the cultural and class barriers of a venerable and ancient tradition to its essence, reconstitute it, and share it with as many people as possible. The tradition was budo, the traditional martial arts of Japan. The result of their work was shintaido, a radically new discipline, open and generous, forging its own body of tradition and mythos that would be handed down to their successors and, they hoped, benefit the world. The ambition of this book, a collective biography, is to provide access to these origin stories by presenting the men and women who lived these moments, as they lived them. Their testimony may prove valuable, not only for practitioners of shintaido and martial arts enthusiasts but also as primary source material for scholars of the human sciences, particularly sociologists codifying the knowledge-to-exist of a culture.

See Interviews with the author Pierre Quettier and interviews with Mieko Hirano, HF Ito, M Minagawa and the team of translators who worked on the English edition of this book.

For more visit: www.shakunetsu.net

From the Back Cover:

Amid the extraordinary, global upheaval of the 1960’s, a group of young Japanese idealists embarked on a quest characteristic of the time: to break down the cultural and class barriers of a venerable and ancient tradition to its essence, reconstitute it, and share it with as many people as possible. The tradition was budo, the traditional martial arts of Japan. The result of their work was shintaido, a radically new discipline, open and generous, forging its own body of tradition and mythos that would be handed down to their successors and, they hoped, benefit the world.

The ambition of this book, a collective biography, is to provide access to these origin stories by presenting the men and women who lived these moments, as they lived them. Their testimony may prove valuable, not only for practitioners of shintaido and martial arts enthusiasts but also as primary source material for scholars of the human sciences, particularly sociologists codifying the knowledge-to-exist of a culture.

About the Author:

Pierre Quettier is a retired professor from the University of Paris 8, an ethnomethodologist specialized in Information and Communication Sciences and in Education Sciences.

He is Dai-Shihan of Shintaido, which he studied in Japan since the 1970s with the founding members of the discipline, and holds high-level dan ranks in karate, bojutsu and kenjutsu.

All other Amazon Marketplaces:

Search “Shakunetsu shintaido” or ISBN: 979-8-218-21148 .

Out of print

available through second hand resellers

Booklets:

Purchase this PDF:

This PDF Booklet set will be available for purchase in 2026-09. Please come back for pricing and purchase options.

Available for purchase in Oct 2006