The Shoshi-no-kon bohjitsu workshop was held Sunday May 192024, in Cotati, California. Robert Gaston, Senior instructor and SanDan Bohjutsu taught two keiko and associated kumiboh. Sally Gaston and Nicole Masters organized the workshop. Nicole Masters hosted a potluck brunch at her home. Thank you to PacShin for providing financial support for the workshop. This workshop was held for the first time at a veterans facility in Cotati.
As reported in the April Body Dialogue article, Rob Gaston attended a European Shintaido College (ETC) workshop in Macon France. This workshop was taught by Alain Chevet, General Instructor and Yondan Bohjutsu, to share the newest Boh Kata – Shoshi-no-kon. This kata has been under development by HF Ito for the past 15 years. Shoshi translates into “Joyful Warrior” to reflect the state of relaxed joy after a shared moment of happiness.
Seven Shintaido “Joyful Warriors” attended the workshop: Shin Aoki, Sandra Bengtsson, Sally Gaston, Nicole Masters, Jason Ravitz, Mike Sheets and Robert Gaston. Go to the Shintaido YouTube channel to see videos of this kata:
I started high school in the public school system but due to circumstances, namely me not wishing to be in school, I was sent to Kentucky Military Institute in Louisville, KY.
At the beginning of the Vietnam conflict in 1966, I was drafted by the Army for a 2-year term. However, not wanting to be in the Army, I choose to enlist in the Navy for 4 years.
My job as an electronics technician and air crewman gave me many hours flying which included landings and take offs from an aircraft carrier. Saw many places around the world in twenty-four months at sea on four different aircraft carriers.
My duty station was Quonset Point Rhode Island and after my discharge I never went back home, choosing instead to remain in New England. I used the G.I. bill to take flight training and get my pilot’s license. It took eight or nine years of flying as a swordfish spotter to accumulate enough flight hours and experience to be hired by an airline.
After flying for a small commercial airline for about twelve years, I decided it was time to move on.
A few years before I left the airlines as a commercial pilot, I followed another lifelong dream of living on a boat and bought a forty-one-foot ketch (sailboat). I lived onboard that boat for the next twenty-two years.
I worked as a harbor master’s assistant in Westport, MA. As I found that I truly enjoyed working on the water, and I received my merchant mariners captain’s license from the Coast Guard.
Most of my time working on the water was assisting recreational boaters, responding to emergencies in any weather day or night.
Prior to my study of Shintaido I never practiced any other martial arts.
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When and where did you first encounter Shintaido?
In the early 90’s, I became good friends with a fellow live-aboard who was Sarah Baker’s brother. Through my connection with her brother, I became friends with Sarah. In 2012 we began spending more time together. It was then that Sarah began sharing some Aikido and Shintaido movements with me. At the time, I did not know anything about either art, but I became interested in the open hand and foot work she would show me. Sarah would try to teach me while we would go for walks on trails and in parks. I was introduced to Ito sensei through watching DVD’s Sarah had. He had been a friend of Sarah’s sensei in Massachusetts, and she studied with Ito when he came to their Aikido dojo. In 2017, Ito encouraged Sarah to visit and train with him in San Francisco, California where he would be for several weeks. Sarah invited me to go along, and we could see the sites while there. That is when I met Ito sensei and watched my first formal Shintaido class.
I have never enjoyed participating in organizations, group activities, social clubs, etc. However, the first time at Day Street Dojo, I felt a kinship with Ito sensei though Shintaido did not excite me yet.
The second time we went to San Francisco, Sarah asked if I would help video the practice. At one point, people were running around in circles, arms raised above their head yelling. “What is this Shintaido?” I thought.
The third time I experienced a formal class was in Quebec, Canada, where Ito was teaching. It was when I started to become interested in the practice. There are no schools in Florida that teach Shintaido. Sarah would help me with the movements and interpret their meanings. Because of Covid-19, Zoom became the gathering place for group activities. The more I practiced on Zoom the more I wanted to get better.
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What initially attracted you to Shintaido?
The challenge. From the beginning, when Sarah began sharing movements from Aikido and Shintaido I enjoyed the challenge of learning. Learning the forms, discovering my balance in a new way and just moving in these totally new patterns.
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Do you have a favorite technique, favorite parts of keiko?
I find practicing outside makes me feel closer to the universe. I really enjoy the movements of Tenshingoso and Diamond Eight, but sword practice, open hand and with bokuto, is what I like most. I also have come to really enjoy Taimyo as it has given me a way to slow down and meditate. The first thing I do every morning is go outside and do part one. Shintaido has given me a better understanding of myself and is teaching me to be understanding of others and listen differently. Work in progress.
Most of my in-person keiko has only been at PacShin Kangeiko and this only a few times. I was fortunate to study one time with the SNE group and in Quebec once. What I really enjoyed at these times was having so many new people to train and learn with.
I find the Zoom keiko on Sundays with Connie, Rob, and Sandra and Fridays with Nagako in the UK are very supportive. I can learn new movements, new ways of understanding older movements and expanding my overall technique.
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Why did you decide to take an Advanced Student Evaluation?
After about five years studying Shintaido more formally, Connie asked me if I would like to take a student evaluation. I did not feel that I had become proficient with the katas, and I did not know all the Japanese words and terms. My body at 78 is not as it was in my 50’s and some joints protest loudly. My arms don’t have a full range of motion anymore and balance could be better. However, I thought I would except the invitation because even if I did not pass, I would still have that experience. Another opportunity to learn by trying.
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Did you feel nervous before or during the evaluation?
Two months before the evaluation date I had started trying to learn the terms and names of the katas. It is a slow process and much if it didn’t stay with me. Sarah and I planned our trip to CA so that we would be there about two weeks before Kangeiko. This gave us extra time to practice in-person with Connie and Rob.
With that said, when evaluation day arrived, I was nervous and was losing confidence. Rob had taken the time to coach me for several days while Sarah and Connie were away in France, and I could not let him down. More than once in my life I have had to take a test twice before passing and if I needed to this time, it would be no big deal.
Two of us were being evaluated that day. Afterwards, we all went for lunch, and by that time I could feel the results of my stress, but I also felt I had done the best I could. I was pleased with my performance.
After lunch we were presented with our certificates. It was then that I realized how much I felt validated in my study and how much I really have learned in my practice to this point.
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What feedback did you get and what are your thoughts about it?
Shin and Connie each gave us their thoughts for areas of improvement and encouragement. One point that Shin explained, when I do a kata even if I cannot reach high or far, believe that I am reaching beyond my thinking. Expanding all my space.
Specifically, Shin mentioned my Tenshingoso movement. He noticed that I was not able to reach up above my head very high due to my limited shoulder movement. As I moved into the end of Ah he instructed me to focus my intention as if I were reaching up higher than I am actually able to do and connect in tenso, even if I am not able to duplicate the exact form of others. Then as I cut Eh he told me to allow my cut to come down lower than what I see others doing. His suggestion was to develop a greater distance from the top of my tenso to the end of my Eh cut – creating the desired change in elevation between tenso and the end of the cut opening space in front of me.
Since returning to Florida, and practicing in this new way, I have begun to find I actually am able to think less about the specific form. I have begun to find the form in my being instead of focusing on it in my mind.
I’m not sure if it was Connie or Shin who mentioned that I should allow my voice to connect to my movements in Eiko Dai better. Having very few opportunities to practice Eiko with instruction, I am not fully clear on this feedback, but I try to keep it in mind as I practice all forms.
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Any other thoughts?
The Shintaido community is very helpful, understanding, and makes no judgement of others.
Shintaido is wonderful in how it helps me look at things differently. I am happy with my study so far.
Because of everyone I have mentioned from San Francisco to the United Kingdom, I like what I have achieved and am looking forward to many more keikos. There is so much Shintaido I want to learn. I feel happy working on studying the Shintaido I have already been exposed to. It is less important for me to keep learning more and more new forms in Shintaido. I am very happy with my current practice as it is, hoping to continue to deepen my personal understanding as I keep practicing.
Here is a brief report of my trip to Macon France to attend the ETC boh workshop in which Alain Chevet presented Shoshi no kon boh kata that Ito developed over the last 15 years.
This kata had as its starting point as Sueyoshi-no-kon kata, the sho-dan level boh kata that was used in the bohjutsu exam curriculum until the early 2000s. In the new name “Shoshi” means after the laughter and I wondered if there a translation subtlety I missed from Japanese to French to English. Initially it sounded like a suggestion to stop laughing and be serious. Through repeated practice and Alain’s story of Ito sensei laughing as he taught it, I realized it was a peaceful joyous feeling one has after a good belly laugh.
I arrived in Paris and was met by Charles Burns for a short train ride to Tonnerre, in the Burgundy region. We had a wonderful welcome dinner and overnight stay with Georg and Natalie which included some Yon-dan Soei kumibo practice with Charles and Georg. We awoke early and drove to Macon Sport Center and continued practice that evening before dinner.
Saturday morning began the official workshop in which Alain demonstrated Shoshi no kon. We began a to break down the various parts of the kata. The first keiko was quite long and lasted 3 1/2 hours. The beginning movements of the kata worked well as a kumibo and we practiced for a while. It consisted of two jodan gyaku receives stepping back and a quick chudan morote tsuki to stop your opponent’s attack. The long-repeated practice softened our minds and bodies and we were doing a kumite that flowed back and forth with no clear leader or follower, curving and changing the rhythm so the attacker could at any time become receiver.
We progressed to learning the middle portion of the kata and took a break for lunch.
For keiko #2 we added in the left right change of direction portions of the kata. This part was familiar to those who had done the original Shodan boh kata. We explored it more deeply with a wave like kumibo that reminded me of the inyo-itai boh movements absorbing the boh into fluid motion. We progressed through the first 2/3s of it.
After dinner we retreated to the tea corner room and ETC had a boh subcommittee meeting that included drinking and brainstorming of how they wanted to include Shoshi no kon into the ESC Shintaido boh curriculum. For now, it will be in their teaching curriculum and reviewed in 2026 to add to the exam curriculum.
The next morning, in the final class, we finished off the kata and studied a third kumibo. This added a jump away and geidan uchi komi to protect our ankles as we step across and jump away from a tagurei tsuki to our ankle. By this time a sense of peace and relaxed smiles were evident in the practice. Alain finished the class with repetition of the kata as he fine-tuned our movements individually.
The warm welcome I received from the ESC members left me energized and excited for Shintaido bohjutsu. I am left in wonder at every Shintaido event that gets people together from diverse cultures and experiences, allows connection and understanding and my renewal of the value of Shintaido. The sense of being relaxed, happy and enthused has returned home with me.I quickly reached out to PacShin with a request to teach a boh workshop to teach the boh kata of the joyous warrior. It will be May 19th, 2024. I hope to get more opportunities to pass on this kata to those who love bohjutsu like I do.
My first exposure to karate keiko was practicing with a student of Tsutomu Ohshima, founder of the Shotokan Karate of America school, in New Orleans, when I was studying in law school in the early ‘90s. I was interested primarily in the self-defense aspects back then.
After law school, I moved to Japan to study at Chuo University in Tokyo. Although I was a post-graduate student, I had the good fortune to join the University Karate Club. At the time, I was wholly ignorant of its proud history and important role in the Shotokai. I practiced regularly with the Club during my three years at Chuo. At that time, student club members practiced every day, usually twice a day, and attended gasshukus (special intensive offsite trainings) several times a year.
In terms of the content, the stances were lower than I was used to, and the practices were quite vigorous and initially painful and exhausting. Lots of paired stretching and dynamic jumping and hopping exercises (kaikyaku zenshin) in the warmups. Even cleaning the dojo floor in the traditional manner was a tough workout.
As I met and became friendly with recent graduates of the club, I had the opportunity to practice more widely, at the Main Dojo, with company clubs, at other universities, and with various other teachers and groups. I found that the flavor of Shotokai practices in Japan varied depending on the group within the Shotokai organization and the particular instructor and/or dojo. The Shotokai in Japan at the time was a big tent.
For example, one small group I regularly practiced with was very close to Shintaido, perhaps nearly indistinguishable (I’m guessing) from Master Ito’s early practices in the U.S. Lots of running kumite, tenshin goso kumite, rolling on ground, use of bokuto and bo, a dynamic, ecstatic, free (and exhausting) keiko, etc. This group had a huge influence on my karate at the time – it became more flowing and more dynamic.
Other teachers I learned from emphasized different aspects of Master Egami’s karate that had inspired or resonated for them, but the content of keiko was quite different and not Shintaido-y. Yet other groups within the Shotokai were stylistically much like mainstream Shotokan karate, but with no competitions or free sparring.
So, at that time, there was a wide spectrum of practices that co-existed within the Shotokai. And each of the university clubs that constitute most of the active membership of the Shotokai had their own unique flavor as well.
Meanwhile, at the time, the top of the organization transmitted to the university clubs and more broadly, a renewed emphasis on the traditional karate keiko/curriculum of Master Funakoshi. It seemed that the soft techniques and esoteric practices introduced by Master Egami were fine for a master practitioner or for senior students to explore in private but not appropriate to be taught broadly as Shotokai karate, especially to more junior members. Overall, practices and instruction that strayed too much from the mainstream were discouraged. In hindsight, I’m sure it was viewed as “quality control”.
My impression is that this eventually resulted in some of the “softer”, Shintaido-adjacent karate groups and practitioners splitting off. However, they continue to practice, either independently or as part of one or more groups of like-minded clubs.
After I returned to the U.S., and moved to Boston, I was not interested in the types of karate I found there, and instead started practicing aikido. I also had the good fortune to connect with a Shintaido group led by David Franklin in Cambridge. I found the practice very enjoyable and practiced with the Cambridge group for a couple of years in the late 90’s before moving overseas for work. The emphasis on heart/body opening was new to me.
I reconnected with Shintaido about twenty years later when Mark Bannon, my longtime karate-do training partner in Vermont, connected with Shintaido of New England and began attending Master Ito’s training sessions in Quebec. Mark was really inspired by Master Ito’s training and began incorporating his new learning into our training sessions.
Eventually, I joined Mark for several trips up to Quebec to train with Master Ito, Connie and Rob, and the wonderful Quebec group. In terms of open hand movements, many of the exercises were familiar to me from my days in Japan practicing karate and my earlier exposure to Shintaido, but the kenjutsu practices were completely new to me and very exciting. In addition, practices like Diamond Eight, Sunrise-Sunset, Lower Limb strengthening exercises were a revelation and allowed me to practice as I recovered from having my knee “scoped”. More recently, Mark and I were so lucky to have learned some batto jutsu (sword drawing) from Master Ito via Zoom.
My current practice is very circumscribed since I’ve torn my rotator cuff and am about to have a shoulder operation. I do Master Ito’s Lower Limb strengthening routine most days, in combination with a light one-handed karate keiko. Also, I am practicing my mae-geri and yoko-geri regularly again after a long hiatus. I join Connie and Rob’s Sunday zoom keiko. Going forward, I am looking forward to picking up the sword again this summer and getting back into batto justu and the kenjutsu curriculum with my training partner. And continuing to practice the karate techniques and kata I learned more than thirty years ago in Japan.
As I think back on the wonderful teachers of karate-do and Shintaido who have taught me, I am filled with profound gratitude and appreciation. In particular, in recent years I have been so inspired by and learned so much from Ito Sensei – he has given me a path to follow for the rest of my days. Domo arigato gozaimashita.
By Connie Borden, the Shintaido Of America Board President
Welcome Jim Sterling and David Palmer as new SOA Board Members! Shintaido of America board has had several vacancies in the past few months, so we thank Jim and David for agreeing to an interim board appointment until June 2025. Board members serve two-year terms and we appreciate that Jim and David would complete vacancies until our next board elections in August 2025.
Meet these two people:
Jim Sterling
Jim Sterling is ranked in Shintaido as General Instructor, Yondan Kenjutsu, Sandan Bojutsu and Nidan Karate. Most recently he has been serving as an officer of SOA as Editor of Body Dialogue and is a member of the SOA National Technical Committee (NTC) and International Technical and Examination Committee (ITEC). Jim has worked as a writer, consultant, and project manager in San Francisco for many years. Since Jim started practicing Shintaido in 1976 he has been a guiding force of the Pacific Shintaido group and interested in advancing Shintaido both through keiko and organizational structures.
David Palmer has been involved with Shintaido since 1984 when he met H.F. Ito and asked him to critique the first iteration of his seated massage protocol. Both Shintaido and massage are movement forms, one active (you move yourself) and one passive (someone else moves you). The interplay of these two sides of the movement coin have been foundational to his professional and personal life.
Prior to entering the field of massage, David spent ten years as a developer and administrator of social service programs for nonprofit agencies in Chicago and San Francisco. His work included the creation of the first nationwide social service hotline in 1972, the National Runaway Switchboard. While working for the Wieboldt Foundation, in 1974, he staffed the development of the first association of private family foundations in the United States, the Donor’s Forum, a model that has been duplicated in major cities throughout the country.
David began his professional massage career in 1980. Before his teacher, Takashi Nakamura, returned to Japan in 1982, he prepared David to assume operation of The Amma Institute. The Amma Institute was the first school in the United States exclusively devoted to traditional Japanese massage. It was here that David first began experimenting with teaching his graduates to work on clients seated in a chair, rather than lying on a table. In 1989 David stepped down as Director of the school to focus full-time on the development of the Chair Massage industry.
I arrived at the Petersham Town Hall with a heavy feeling the size of a grapefruit in my solar plexus. It was mostly grief with an edge of an almost stubborn need to honor the mounting deaths in our local and larger Shintaido community. I was a little afraid we wouldn’t be able to find the courage among us to fully acknowledge the impact of the missing people in our circle and the tragedy that we’ve all watched recently unfold.
When Joe Zawielski sensei died in the Summer of 2018, it was a huge loss for Shintaido Northeast (SNE) and for his students, among many others. To this day, my eyes well up every time we do bokutoh practice. I can see Joe swerving around his koshi as he gently cuts the space around him. There have been several keiko when I have felt his presence in the circle, but it’s challenged me to know what exactly to do with that feeling. Whether to acknowledge it out loud or not, and I wonder whether anyone else is noticing it too.
On November 2, 2023, we tragically lost Brad Larsen. Since then, I have spent hours on the phone, texting and talking to SNE members; trying to wrap our minds around what happened to him, and how to find peace with the sudden empty “Brad-shaped hole” that was left. For a long while, we’d named this persistent unsettled vigilance when we were checking the news daily for any indication of how he’d passed. It was difficult to find acceptance when there were so many questions surrounding why and how he’d died.
Just weeks before Kangeiko, we received the answers we’d been seeking, and they were devastating. But, it did mean we could finally move on to the task of embracing the grief that had in some ways been on hold. February 10-11, 2024, would be the first retreat where a large group of us would gather to practice since his murder.
Rob Kedoin sensei led our opening keiko, and generously helped warm up our wintered and weathered bodies, preparing us for the keikos to come. He reminded us that the sword’s movement comes from the hara and introduced the idea that the end of our bokutoh was like a radiating beam of light that made it possible for our message to be felt by our partner.
Margaret Guay sensei, who was also Director of Instruction, stepped in last minute to lead our second keiko in the afternoon. With no advanced planning, she masterfully modeled how to say yes to the unknown and trust that it will all be as it needs to be. Without a single word said, we riffed on one another to warm the group up. Although I did not have a personal relationship with Ito sensei, I had really enjoyed reading the commemorative posts and especially his rendition of Neurologic Music Therapist’s Allison Davies song “Every little cell in my body is happy.” We marched and skipped around the dojo singing this song over and over.
The Keiko progressed to bokutoh kumite trying to catch our partner’s timing without being able to see them coming. I noticed it was nearly impossible to catch the timing of a daijodan cut when my partner was shining their sunbeam from the start. Reading you loud and clear already!
Also, we did some profound investigating around tenshingoso kumite, where I had some new insights. I was experiencing the end of “Ohh” as either being a gift offered to the world or doing the offering of the gift. Like, ‘behold this amazing being!’ And feeling myself as a gift when following my partner’s “Ohh.” This was the keiko where I entered full on cosmologic consciousness.
We ran eiko dai around and around the Petersham Town Hall for what seemed like forever. For me, it was very clear we were doing this together. Not little islands of trying, but a community finding it’s voice, and the courage to keep going.
That evening we went to Matt Shorten’s beautiful rural homestead to share a meal. Many stories, hilarious, inspiring, and questionable, were told about the early days of Shintaido. People I have never met were invoked and one story led to another. It was a real trip down memory lane, especially for those at the table who have been around the longest.
It felt as though all those people, and all of us, and all of you represent a cluster of glowing threads that make up the Shintaido community. People who have experienced Shintaido’s embodied transcendence. And we all speak this language that allows us to connect without talking, more deeply than words could ever aspire to. Through the tiny electro-kinetic sun beams we cultivate within and between our bodies and then blast off into the universe as a message back to itself.
Stephen Billias sensei was the steadied goreisha we needed for our third and final keiko. We did a series of toitsukihon exercises with the boh and bokutoh which were a welcome grounding and centering after the previous day’s big opening. We did an experimental kumite with both bohs and bokutohs. We’d been instructed to bring a “Brad” stick for the weekend and, after introducing them to one another, we went out into the winter air, next to a big old tree and pointed our pure and glowing intentions up to the heavens. It was the first time it felt like we could directly bring Brad into our awareness as a group. And, I felt like Brad could sense our message. I heard the words “there are my people.”
I sometimes feel grief that, if I’m lucky and live a long life, I may very well be the last Shintaidoist in the Northeast someday. Michael Thompson sensei said something to me this weekend that brought me tremendous relief. He said “everything in a grain of sand…it’s all there.” He was referring to William Blake’s poem “Auguries of Innocence” that begins:
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.”
The universe will remember and accommodate all the exploration we’ve done in Shintaido. Nothing gets erased at death. Every action and every person leaves an imprint. As Shintaidoist, we have practices that give us tangible ways to deeply connect with one another. I think that’s one of Shintaido’s greatest gifts.
