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FEATURED POSTS
Year End “Big Clean”
Ō-sōji (literally, “big cleaning” at year end) is a significant tradition in Japan. This ritual symbolizes purification and renewal of one’s home, workspace, dojo, and environment. Transcending mere physical cleaning, it assumes a spiritual dimension. Take time to clean areas that may usually be passed over. Get rid of things you don’t use. Use a super sensitive eye to re-see cluttered areas you have become blind to. In particular, make sure your dojo shrine shelf sacred area is cleaned and renewed. Clean and declutter the entrance to your dojo. A fresh entry will welcome positive energy. Cleaning is a symbolic act of bidding farewell to the old year (and problems or impurities it brought). By thoroughly cleansing your home and
Dealing With Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Violence
The purpose and methodology preserved in our To-Shin Do kata were not created to address mutually consented fighting, where we agree to fight another martial artist until one of us quits. Our practice methods address handling non-consensual violence. That means self-protection, or stoping harm when attacked with criminal violence. The purpose determines the strategies used to achieve the goal. The strategies dictate the tactics. The tactics determine the choice of techniques. “Winning a fight I agreed to take part in” is not the same as “eliminating harm from invasive criminal violence”. You can’t take the strategies, tactics, and techniques used to achieve one goal and put them into action to achieve a different goal. This is not a value judgement
ALL POSTS
The Many Facets of Ninja Taijutsu
Last year at Festival 41, we emphasized training in a very advanced ninja style combat called Santo Tonko no Kata, or “Method of the escaping
Secret Winning Power Within
I was talking with a student recently who expressed some pretty conventional negative thoughts about how her life had gone from childhood. Somewhat unhappy relationship
Who is Your Teacher?
Best advice ever given to me as a martial artist? “Know yourself and exactly why you are training in the martial arts, and then carefully
The Worst Advice I Ever Got
Worst advice I ever got? “Shut up and train. Don’t bother me with silly questions about people or techniques. Just do what I say. Practice
Same Conclusion, Different Endeavor
I read this recently, from an interview with Olympic fencer Daryl Homer by Clay Skipper, July 13, 2021, and it absolutely paralleled what we do
Kyo-Jitsu Ten-Kan Ho
It is said that the ninja uses the juxtaposition of falsehood and truth (kyo-jitsu ten-kan ho) as one of his options for winning. Ostensibly this
A Dream Life Indeed
Going on 72, at this stage of my life and career, I am happy to say I am accomplishing what was most motivating and stirring
Moving Like a Ninja
The martial art of To-Shin Do is an up-dating of the ancient art of Japan’s ninja. 1500s Japan had its own distinct culture, legal system,
Force of the Killer
I used to teach this a long time ago. But then I sensed that people could not really understand or grasp it. Anyway, here it
Codes in Martial Arts Training?
A friend wrote critically of codes and creeds in martial arts schools. He feels people just want fitness and self-defense and do not sign up