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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

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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

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ALL POSTS

Exploring Kuji No Ho

A few advanced black belts are taking private Skype lessons with me, studying aspects of kuji no ho “nine syllables of aspects of power”. I

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Above the Fray

I am 70, and have seen so many cultural fads come and go over the decades. WWII vets got parades; Viet Nam vets got spat

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Fire Preemptive Attack

In a third possibility, Hi no Kata fire element dynamics are the energy of committed intensity and focus. You learn to recognize a problem as

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Earth Ground Holding

Let’s review the five elements that form the base for To-Shin Do training from the inside out. In this issue of Ninja Now, we’ll look

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A Master’s Tale

Several years ago, Rumiko and I were invited as special guests to a showcase of Japanese karate instructors. These were the men who brought karate

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Ninja Evolution

I have a curriculum all my friends use in their To-Shin Do dojos, from white belt through 6th Degree. 7th and 8th Degree are somewhat

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Radiating Inspiration

Martial arts masters who share the gift of inspiration with us radiate something we feel in their presence: We pick up a quality in them

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