by Derk Richardson

Pacific Shintaido’s Kangeiko 2026 was an exceptional event in several ways. For the first time in many years, the annual winter workshop was held as a sleep-over gasshuku. Keiko were conducted over two days, Saturday and Sunday, January 17 and 18,  in the gymnasiums of Technology Middle School in Rohnert Park (about 50 miles north of San Francisco), and most participants stayed overnight Saturday in a large Airbnb rental house in nearby Santa Rosa, a 15-minute drive from the dojo. In addition, Shintaido of America exams were folded into the program after the Sunday morning keiko, with results announced and at the end of the workshop, and members of SOA’s National Technical Council offered demonstrations from the advanced curriculums of Shintaido karate, bojutsu, and kenjutsu.

Bay Area Senior Instructors Robert Gaston and Jennifer Peringer based the teaching on their investigation of the gasshuku theme “Kumite through Time and Space” (a variation on the Shintaido of America 50^th Anniversary theme, “Kumite across Time and Space”). They focused on the concept of irimi (roughly translated as “entering”), applying it to four directions of movement—mae (forward), sagari (back), yoko (to the side), and ushiro (turning)—and incorporating open-hand techniques and weapons (bokuto, bokken, and boh).

Across the weekend, 16 people, including two attendees from the East Coast, participated in keiko. The level of experience ranged from a few years to several decades, and Robert and Jennifer shaped the curriculum accordingly. Jennifer was the lead teacher for the two morning keiko, Robert for the afternoons. Someone different led the warmups for each keiko, which added distinctive character to the sessions: Shin Aoki led a formal tenshin-jusoho; Sally Gaston emphasized stretching; Jennifer had us use boh for part of her warmup; and Lee Ordeman, attuned to the group’s levels of energy and fatigue, opened the final session with lots of slow movement and massage.

Similarly, each keiko had a unique flavor and flow. In keeping with the theme (kumite) and focus (irmi), Jennifer and Robert led a wide variety partner exercises and arrangements. They included partner-directed meiso jumping and rolling; daijodan kirikomi/kirioroshi and rolling in response to the four stepping directions; relatively basic kumitachi with swords; open-hand uchite cutting attacks and receiving, adding mae-irimi and yoko-irimi stepping and a bojutsu variation; small group practice dedicated to karate, bojutsu, or kenjutsu irimi applications (followed by demonstrations by each of the three groups); and various wakame arrangements leading to a free-flowing and ecstatic group wakame into collective tenso. The cumulative effect of the four keiko not only led to a deeper understanding the role of irimi in kumite, but also instilled a bodily sense of how timing and space (together comprising ma) are inextricably related in our practice.

The feeling of community (the collective ma) that developed over the weekend was enhanced by having lunch together in the gym, organized and prepared by Sandra Bengtsson and Sally Gaston, and by most of us staying overnight in an Airbnb house that Jason Ravitz researched and secured. Despite a few quirky hiccups in the accommodations, the spirit of the evening—fueled by a bountiful pot-luck dinner and elevated with wine (for some) and live music—was galvanizing. (Mike Sheets gallantly rode herd on the kitchen crew, managing to coordinate potentially chaotic preparations of dinner and breakfast.) A special feature of the festivities Saturday night was a visit from General Instructor Jim Sterling, who answered questions about the 50-year history of Shintaido of America and entertained and enlightened us with colorful and humorous stories of his experiences.

The “add-ons” to the Sunday proceedings—the NTC demonstrations and the SOA exams—reinforced the idea that Shintaido, as a practice and an organization, has a rich history (60 years in Japan, 50 years in America), a multifaceted and ever-evolving curriculum, and the potential for growth and expansion. In the exams, Sally Gaston, Martha Rodriguez-Salazar, Nicole Masters, and Jennifer Abajar, challenged different kyu levels of bojutsu and karate. The NTC demos were performed by Byron Russell (Hangetsu no Kata, an element in the sandan karate exam), Mike Sheets (Hojo no Kata, shodan bojutsu), Robert Gaston (Shoshi-no-Kon, shodan bojutsu), Jennifer Peringer and Shin Aoki (Soei Kumibo, sandan bojutsu), and Connie Borden, Lee Ordeman, and Sandra Bengtsson (Sannin-ichiretsu, General Instructor exam). The presentation capped the afternoon with a wave of inspiration for all of us in the audience.

In the opening ceremony, we revisited the words of Master Instructor Masashi Minagawa about the meaning of Kangeiko, which read in part, “At New Year we refresh our old selves and go back to the original beginner’s mind. Then we celebrate the coming year and ask for health and happiness. At Kangeiko especially, we try to find the real existence, our own nature inside ourselves.”

In the closing ceremony, Cheryl Williams read a poem by Pamela Joyce Randolph, “Time and Space,” which captured a certain essence of the workshop’s kumite theme:

Give me time to know myself,
and space to stand alone.
I need to get to know my heart,
and have thoughts of my own.
Give me your encouragement,
and trust in what I do,
Then I’ll uncover what was lost,
and share the best with you.

Kangeiko 2026 was likely the last gasshuku to be organized by the current PacShin Board of Directors—Shin Aoki, Cheryl Williams, Derk Richardson—which has been in place for well over a decade. We are looking forward to the next phase of the Pacific Shintaido journey.