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Shinseido: A Life-Skill.

I am aware that some of our members don't really understand the nature of Shinseido.  Some members regard Shinseido as a kind of club you can attend from time to time as you feel like it, to pursue an interesting activity for a couple of hours, then go home and forget about it until the next time around.

Shinseido is a life-skill that takes a great deal of dedicated time to learn and understand.  It is not just a self-defence system; it is a way of living, a way of being, and a different mind-set.  You can’t just ‘do it’.  It is very difficult to learn and will take at least two years dedicated practice, training at least twice a week in the dojo, and with plenty of home practise 

to get the basics down with another eight years consistent practise before you even begin to perceive the real nature of the art – and that’s just the beginning. 

The ‘self-defence’ or ‘martial arts’ label is just a façade for something altogether deeper and more life changing.  You will end up living your art because you art contains all the principles and concepts required to lead a healthy, fulfilling and meaningful life.

What we did...

What we did on Tuesday 24 July 2012

This session was devoted in its entirety to Kata Hakutsuru.

What we did on Sunday 22 July 2012

Our cerebral palsy member Paul continued to practise his walking.  There are significant problems with balance, posture, length of step and confidence.  Paul told me that he doesn’t mind my videoing his progress and putting it up for the benefit of others who may have unusual problems with training.  I will try and do this soon. 

Kata Channan

What we did on Friday 20 July 2012

More work on Kata Channan.

Some members like to be hard and strong, they perceive their art as requiring them to be tense, rigid, powerful and immoveable.  They think that being so and working up a sweat is what it is all about.  It seems to be a young man’s thing that can follow him throughout life.  Hard and strong are important qualities, working up a sweat is important, but these things represent only one aspect of their respective continuums.  The way I have taught for many years is if I see a ‘hard’ practitioner I want to make him or her soft, not so that he looses his hardness but so that he can switch from hard to soft or place himself anywhere on that continuum in a moment.  If I see a ‘soft’ practitioner I want to make her (or him) hard.  The game is about balance and being able to shift one’s position depending upon the needs of the moment.  Being tense, hard and rigid most of the time is a bad and unhealthy way to be.  So most of this session was oriented to working Kata Channan in a soft, fluid mode with smooth uninterrupted transitions from one move to the next; what I often describe as a one move kata.

Kata Channan is particularly difficult initially because it requires smoothness and fluidity with the one hand and arm while at the same time delivering powerful impulse thrusts and strikes with the other arm.  It also demands an awareness of how we make use only of those muscles we need in any one moment, while those not needed should be relaxed.  Unless the practitioner can recognise and achieve a completely relaxed approach to the kata he will not be able to perform it correctly.  So it isn’t unusual for a group to be asked to work Channan in a completely relaxed, fluid way.

What we did...

What we did on Tuesday 17 July 2012

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this session because I was feeling extremely down, I was paralysed with lethargy and tiredness - a bug maybe. 

Tony sensei continued his work on Kata Hakutsuru that he started the previous Friday. 

Kata Shintai is 'Tancho'

What we did on Sunday 15 July 2012

More work on what I have been calling Kata Shintai.  The road to revealing this form has been tortuous, confusing, extremely difficult and complex.  I don’t often talk of my own perceived notions of my intelligence; neither do I often mention that I have been a member of Mensa (a somewhat dubious distinction I am the first to admit), I do so now merely to say that despite my ability to be logical and to unravel things, I do so with a great deal of difficulty.  This kata has severely challenged me in all kinds of ways.

It is clear to me now, that ‘kata’ may not be a perfect word for what I am putting together.  It is also extremely long and convoluted, it also has an ultimate randomness about it that transcends ‘form’ and becomes the subject for serious kinetic meditation.

I am aware that I will have to drastically shorten the form into what I perceive as a set of ‘keys’ that will open recesses of the mind and challenge the serious tankyusha (seeker) to discover a great deal about the nature of hand and arm movement. I am aware that it would be all to easy to loose the meaning of such a form in the sense that if a verbal or written explanation is not provided with the movements of the form it will be completely misunderstood.

One way of helping people who eventually learn this exercise to discover its real nature is to provide it with a name that challenges one to ask “Why is it called that?” without wishing to sound arrogant I suspect my intent here may well be lost on most people… it is easy to ‘see’ when you have been shown, but extremely difficult when you have not…  Nevertheless I decided today to call this exercise cum form ‘Tancho’ which means “a clue, start or beginning”. Extraordinarily it also means “Japanese red crowned crane” – I did not know that until after I had chosen the name to represent ‘keys’ or ‘clues’ to something more…

I have pretty well flogged this game to death now, and feel that I may have gone very much further into it than I needed.  But then I mayn’t have gained what I have…  In any event the game, which started out as very enjoyable has become an irksome and obsessive chore so I will be pleased to be done with all the reflection and research and boil all I have down into something meaningful.

Kata Hakutsuru

What we did on Friday 13 July 2012

Kata Hakutsuru (White Crane).  It is a rare occasion that we wheel out Kata Hakutsuru for dissemination, but tonight was one such.  Tony and I have taught Kata Shinseido Hakutsuru to only two other trusted Shinseido members in the UK thus far.  It is the ‘highest’ kata in the Shinseido system and while not the world’s most difficult form it does have some awkward moments initially.  

Traditionally (although the subject of a great deal of controversy) the kata was retained as the secret family form of the Matsumura family and handed down according to Matsumura Seito tradition from Matsumura Sokon Bushi (Machimura Bucho) (1797-1889) to Matsumura Nabe Tanmei (c.1850’s-1930’s) and from him to Soken Hohan (1889-1982) and thence to Nishihira Kosei (1942-2007) the last of the Matsumura line.  

During the late 1980’s a video of parts of Hakutsuru demonstrated by Soken Hohan was made public contrary to the agreement of those in possession of this video footage.  Since that time a number of people have attempted to re-contruct the kata from that footage.  A major problem is that the video is of poor quality and much detail is difficult to define.  Tony and myself were extremely lucky to be shown the kata by a student of Nishihira sensei, one Ted Lange of Australia when he visited London a few years ago.  Ted sensei is one of the most well informed and knowledgeable people in the world in respect of Matsumura Seito Karate.  Tony and I also have a video of Hakutsuru being performed by Yabiku Takaya (another student of Soken Hohan).  This version is alleged to have come by way of one Kojo sensei a student of Bushi Matsumura, so there are a few differences in the form. 

I made an intensive study of all the Matsumura Seito Hakutsuru material several years ago and the result was a Shinseido version that embodied all the principles of the other forms.  The now publicly known part of this kata can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oL1wM517VE   It is this version of the Hakutsuru (that contains the Nishihira version in its entirety and which is not shown on the video), that we teach to trusted Shinseido yudansha today.

Hakutsuru encapsulates the essence of Shinseido in its manner of performance, aspects of which permeate all the other Shinseido kata.

Kata Shintai.  While Tony taught the Hakutsuru I worked on what I currently call Kata Shintai, getting closer to whatever it is will be revealed by my somewhat obscure obsession with hand and arm movements of late.