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.
Greetings from the board of Shintaido of America! It’s time to renew your membership. This past year has seen many changes for our organization. The most important were the loss of our beloved co-founder, Ito-sensei on 30 December 2023, and the sad passing of our Treasurer Brad Larson in November 2023.
As we move forward in a world filled with an urgent need for peace, we rededicate ourselves to our practice of Shintaido.
The annual membership subscription of $60 has not changed for several years, and it now offers more benefits than ever.
Alternately, a check for $60 payable to SOA can be mailed to: Shintaido of America 426 Day Street SF, CA 94131
We strive to support our community of practitioners by providing members with:
Full access to the Shintaido of America Website. Check it out! New things are happening all the time! We now feature a media page that includes all our newsletter, YouTube and Podcast links.
Body Dialogue is now completely digital and appears in real-time as postings on the website.
Access to episodes of the Shintaido of America podcast. We are now in the third season of the Shintaido Podcast! The podcast is available on all the usual platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and many others. On the podcast, producer and host General Instructor David Franklin hosts interviews on Shintaido-related topics with various people around the globe.
General Instructor and SOA Board President Connie Borden hosts a monthly podcast discussion group on the last Tuesday of each month. Please contact Connie Borden at president@shintaido.org if you’d like to join in!
Several senior instructors – from the UK and the US – hold regular classes on Zoom which members can attend. A full listing of these is available on the SOA website.
Access to the most up-to-date changes to the curriculum, which continues to develop, especially the Kenjutsu curriculum.
Support to our instructors and the National Technical Committee.
Communication with International Shintaido Technical and Exam Committee (ITEC)
Leadership by SOA and ESC as the organizing and sponsoring organizations for international activities.
SOA examinations and SOA Diplomas.
Access to grants for travel and education scholarships for Shintaido events worldwide. British Shintaido is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and hosting an international gasshuku in August in England. Grants are available from SOA to help with the cost of attendance at this significant event. Please contact Connie for details.
For ALL of the benefits listed above, your annual membership works out to only $5 a month, or 16 cents a day!
We sincerely hope you will consider renewing your membership, and join us as SOA moves into the future!
Connie Borden, Chair SOA Board of Directors Robert Gaston, Chair SOA NTC Sandra Bengtsson, Treasurer pro tem Nancy Billias, Membership David Franklin, Podcast Michael Thompson, co-founder
Over the 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Pacific Shintaido hosted its annual Kangeiko workshop in the Claremont Middle School gymnasium in Oakland, California.
Master Ito Sensei died on December 30, 2023, just a few weeks before Kangeiko 2024, and his spirit infused the entire weekend.
General Instructor Connie Borden and Senior Instructors Robert Gaston and Shin Aoki were our instructors, guiding us through four keiko (two on Saturday, two on Sunday) and each, in their own way, developing and leading kenjutsu-based curriculum inspired by the theme “Finding Center.”
By inviting Connie Sensei, Rob Sensei, and Shin Sensei to instruct, the Pacific Shintaido board (Shin Aoki, Cheryl Williams, and Derk Richardson) was providing them the opportunity to share some of what they had gleaned from their recent international travels—Connie Sensei and Rob Sensei to British Shintaido Daienshu 2023 last August, and Shin Sensei to a gasshuku in Japan last October.
The PacShin board came up with the theme as a general, rather than prescriptive, concept, and in his opening remarks on Saturday morning, Derk mentioned a few ideas that came to mind when the Board conjured the theme: We live in increasingly polarized times when finding center is essential; Shintaido movement originates from the center and returns to the center; in kumite, we find out partner’s center, find our own center, and connect the two, becoming one; the center can be a slippery target, requiring our concentration, awareness, and sensitivity to find it; the sword (bokuto, bokken) can be a compass to help us find center; finding center is connecting with our true selves; finding center enables us to take refuge in stillness.
A dozen Shintaido practitioners, from the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and also from Oregon and Florida, participated during the weekend. Each keiko was taught entirely by one instructor. On Saturday morning, after Sandra Bengstsson led warmups, Shin Sensei led the class through tachi jumping, wakame kumite that involved sensing the layers leading to the partner’s center, and irimukae—stepping forward and backward holding the bokuto perpendicularly and “entering” the sword and letting the sword “enter” you. The keiko also included Tenshingoso with sword, both individually and facing a partner; stepping practice (steps number three, four, five, and six), adding chudan cutting with sword, and kumitachi—daijodan versus chudan kiriharai.
After a midday potluck brunch hosted by Shin Sensei and Robert Friedman at their home in the Oakland hills, keiko two began with Nao Kobayashi leading warmups. Rob Sensei introduced a form of renki kumite to foster connection, with one partner using an open palm to receive the other partner’s fist. After pushing back and forth, the receiver would draw and send the attacker away. The next stage was for the receiver to apply the other hand to the back of the attacker’s arm or shoulder while sending away. The keiko concluded with daijodan versus chudan kumite first with open-hand cuts and then with sword. The differing levels of Shintaido experience among the participants allowed for a wide variety of partner-pairing.
On Sunday morning, Sally Gaston led warmups (fulfilling one element of her Shintaido Assistant exam, which she would successfully complete the next day). Connie Sensei then led the group in tachi jumping with increasingly quicker partner changes, the frenzied pace had everybody laughing. She settled us down with standing meditation before instructing us in Diamond Eight cut sei, using bokken, both stationary in place and with a triangle stepping pattern. The final exercise Connie Sensei introduced involved the opening three steps of Okuden no Kata, receiving/avoiding a daijodan cut from behind.
After lunch at a local restaurant, Derk led warmups for the final keiko, which Shin Sensei taught as a kind of synthesis, summation, and extension of the preceding curricula. We again did renki kumite, this time stepping back and forth, remaining connected by the backs of our wrists, and searching for one another’s center. After individual open-hand toitsu kihon (daijodan, jodan kirikomi, and chudan kirikomi cuts), we proceeded to kirioroshi kumite with various partners. Following that, Shin Sensei led us in Kyukajo #2 (nikajo) and #3 (sankajo), two of the nine-plus techniques fundamental to classic Shintaido Kenjutsu practice. Kyukajo #2 is daijodan sword cut versus jodan, #3 is daijodan versus chudan.
Those of who had attended Pacific Shintaido Kangeiko 2020, “Rediscovering Kyukajo,” might have recalled that Master Instructor H.F. Ito had shared his understanding of three elements basic to formal Kyukajo practice: It should be done with bokuto; stepping sequences all end by drawing the feet into musubidachi stance; and each kumite begins with partners bowing to each other, drawing their swords into shoko position, lifting their swords in tandem into tenso, and returning together down to shoko. The partners repeat shoko-tenso and bow at the conclusion of kumitachi, as well.
The energy level of the keiko escalated dramatically with several rounds of Eiko Dai kumite with sword, partners running toward one another from opposite corners of the gym, one cutting with daijodan, the other cutting jodan or chudan. We concluded the keiko with Tenshingoso kumite, first in partner pairs and then all together.
Upon reflection, it is clear that every exercise and technique led by our instructors—Connie Sensei, Shin Sensei, and Rob Sensei—during Kangeiko 2024 advanced our understanding of and brought us physically closer to “finding center.” We extend our gratitude to them for deepening our understanding, polishing our techniques, strengthening our relationships within the Shintaido community, and inspiring us to take our practice out into the world in our everyday lives.
In the closing ceremony, Derk read a poem by the Chinese-American poet Ha Jin:
A Center You must hold your quiet center, where you do what only you can do. If others call you a maniac or a fool, just let them wag their tongues. If some praise your perseverance, don’t feel too happy about it— only solitude is a lasting friend.
You must hold your distant center. Don’t move even if earth and heaven quake. If others think you are insignificant, that’s because you haven’t held on long enough. As long as you stay put year after year, eventually you will find a world beginning to revolve around you.
