First edition of the SOA Ethics Handbook is available.
19 April 2026 Masashi Minagawa book Launch
I. New SOA Website
After three months of intensive work by Sarah Baker, SOA Member & SOA website contractor and SOA YouTube Manager, and Jennifer Palmer-Farrington, our new SOA Webmaster, we are announcing the new SOA Website is live.
Read our Home Page, See updated photos, and read about multiple member benefits including links to many affiliates and partners of SOA. We look forward to your comments. As with any project, there is ongoing future work as we improve our content.
II. Two New Body Dialogue articles
During our hiatus, many Body Dialogue articles have been submitted. Here are two:
Spring is here and it is time for the SOA 2026 Membership Drive. SOA membership supports instructors and keiko in the USA and Canada. Our new SOA Website is possible because of the contributions of each member. Read the membership letter (attached). Pay your membership dues here: Store | Shintaido of America
IV. SOA Ethics Handbook
Many organizations govern themselves by a code of ethics/code of conduct. SOA is introducing the first edition of the SOA Ethics Handbook. This is a resource to members and instructors for both guidance on ethical matters and as a resource for ethical consultations. Read the SOA Ethics Handbook here: Member Materials | Shintaido of America
V. 19 April 2026 is Masashi Minagawa’s book Launch
Save the date: 19 April via ZOOM; 12noon PT, 3pm Eastern, 8pm UK, 9pm Europe. More details to follow from Peter Furtado. Masashi Minagawa’s book is on Amazon and titled: Aikukan, A life in Shintaido.
Many of us are planning to wear our GTC T-shirts on the 19th: Aikukan Space of Love. Order now to have them by the 19th of April. Here is the link.
They have also added a very interesting “Technical notes” section which practitioners may enjoy.
If you enjoy their new website, please send your compliments to Charles Burns.
After more than two decades of dedicated service, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Rob Kedoin, who will be concluding his role as SOA webmaster in September 2025. Rob has faithfully stewarded our online presence since at least 2004, helping to make the SOA website an invaluable resource for both members and the public.
Under his guidance, the website has continually evolved—sharing information about Shintaido classes, our curriculum in karate, bojutsu, and kenjutsu, as well as providing vital updates about SOA examinations. Rob’s steady, behind-the-scenes support has ensured that these resources remained reliable and accessible to all.
In 2018, with the support of the SOA Board, Rob spearheaded a major upgrade that made the website fully compatible with iPhones and iPads—an improvement that drew many positive comments from our community. Most recently, in 2025, Rob worked with Board member David Palmer to successfully migrate the SOA website to Dreamhost, a new platform offering enhanced security and SSL certification. These improvements have strengthened our online presence and ensured that SOA continues to serve members with professionalism and care.
In addition to his technical expertise, Rob also contributed as a member of the SOA Board from 2006–2015. His long-standing commitment and countless volunteer hours have left a lasting mark on our organization.
Rob, thank you for your remarkable dedication, your vision, and your tireless efforts on behalf of SOA. We are deeply grateful for all that you have given, and we celebrate your many contributions with heartfelt appreciation.
Saturday the 13th was a foggy morning keiko on Ocean Beach. Eleven people attended. The sun came out in the afternoon with seven participants continuing. There were two Bojutsu keikos taught by Jennifer and Rob. Lunch was at a nearby café.
The first keiko, taught by Rob Gaston, was focused on the continuous flow of eiko attack with morote-zuki and receiver using kohan, then letting the attack pass through with ryuhi continuing into eiko dai kumibo.
The afternoon beach greeted us with blue sky and sunshine and Jennifer’s class reflected the bright feeling. We worked through basic boh toss, transferring our energy back and forth. We finished with gentle neriai with one partner that eventually combined into larger groups and a final ecstatic group tenso.
Sally Gaston challenged two SOA examinations. Sally was 9 kyu in Karate and 4 kyu Bojutsu. She is now 7-kyu Karate and 3-kyu Bojutsu. Congratulations Sally! Examiners were Shin Aoki, Jennifer Peringer and Robert Gaston.
by David Palmer, Shintaido of America Board member
We are inviting interested members of SOA and the general public to listen to David Palmer speaking on the Value of Touch on Wednesday the 1st of October at 12noon via Zoom. David Palmer, with a massage career spanning 45 years, is speaking on the Value of Touch to the San Francisco End of Life Network (SFEOL). David has been recognized as the “Father of Seated Chair Massage” and in 2007, he was inducted into the Massage Therapy Hall of Fame.
From 1982 to 1989 he was Director of the Amma Institute, the first school in the United States exclusively devoted to traditional Japanese massage. It was during this time he met and studied with H.F. Ito, Shintaido Doshu. David’s study of Shintaido, especially his appreciation for the kata of kenko-taiso (the specific sequence of gentle warmups), continues to the present. David Palmer has been a SOA Board member from March 2024 to the present.
As a colleague of Irene Smith (1946-2021), David has been entrusted with her archive of teaching materials. Smith founded Everflowing in 2001, an organization dedicated to educational outreach and teaching skillful touching as an integral component to palliative care. She also ran Service Through Touch from 1982 until 1999, through which she created massage programs for people living with HIV-AIDS worldwide.
For this presentation David will speak with Connie Borden, SOA President, and Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner about the value of touch for the seriously ill and those at end of life. Join us and bring your questions to this interview that promises to be rich with insights into the ways that human touch can transform our human existence.
We are sharing good news about the Global Taimyo Community (GTC) coming to Shintaido of America (SoA) this month. GTC brings the practice of Taimyo kata as a gateway to reflections on peace and our impact on the world around us. SoA brings 49 years as a non-profit transmitting the form and practice of Shintaido in the U.S., including supporting fledgling local and international groups. We hope this partnership helps deepen Shintaido practice around the world.
What is theGlobal Taimyo Community (GTC)? The GTC originally grew from H.F. Ito’s desire for peace, by practicing Taimyokata around the world both synchronously and asynchronously to create a field of peaceful intentions. Taimyo kata is a specific movement/meditation form from the Shintaido body of practice. Haruyoshi F. Ito and Masashi Minagawa, Shintaido instructors began teaching the Taimyo to the general public as a way of exploring and healing our inner world as well as creating healthier relationships with our outer world — people and nature — beyond time and space. As the network of students grew and became international an informal GTC was born.
How Will it Work? Since 2021 GTC has gathered people from the U.S., Canada, France, the U.K. and Japan a few times per year for practice and conversations via Zoom on themes such as healing, release and transformation, and our soul’s longing.
GTC is organized by the Planning Team – Sarah Baker, Connie Borden, Rob Gaston, Masashi Minagawa, and Tomi Nagai-Rothe – and features a website with many GTC resources including links to video and the Day Street Dojo website.
What Comes Next? As of February 1, 2025 SoA is GTC’s fiscal sponsor and will handle payment-registration for this year’s weeklong virtual gathering July 20 – 26. The GTC website and DayStreetDojo sites will continue.
We hope more folx will take the opportunity to come together across space and time to explore “The Space of Love” 愛空間 this summer. Details on the July workshop and registration to be shared soon.
