SHIN - GYO - SO

During the October 2013 KNBK seminar in Pensacola, Carl Long Sensei introduced us to the the Shin-Gyo-So practice forms of the Ono-Ha Itto Ryu Kiriotoshi

The words 'shin, gyo, so' come from the three ways of writing in Shodo (Calligraphy), 'kaisho (equivalent to shin), gyosho and sosho'. Shin is a formal non cursive form, Gyo a semi-cursive one, and So is the cursive form.

" 無 " - MU - Nothing - brushed in the 3 styles

In the Itto Ryu practice, the distance between opponents (Mai) and the target of the cut are different for each one of the 3 different ways: Shin (真), Gyo (行) , So (草).

	SHIN (真)	GYO ( 行 )	SO ( 草 )
MAI	Long	Medium	Short
TARGET	Solar plexus, Suigetsu (水月 )	Throat, Nodo ( 喉 )	Head, Men ( 面 )

Practice intensely and repeatedly...

 

Samadhi in Action

Samadhi can be achieved through various means : Meditation - Dhyana in Sanskrit, Chan in Chines, Zen in Japanese, Son in Korean - is one of them.

Samadhi can also be achieved through action. Asian disciplines such as Budo (all martial Arts); Shodo - the art of Calligraphy; Chado - the Art of Serving Tea... are ways to achieve Samadhi through action.

The term DO (at the end of Budo, Judo, Shodo, ... etc actually means "Way". Budo is the Way of Martial Arts, Shodo the way of the Brush, Kyudo the way of the bow... This means that these disciplines : Martial Arts, Calligraphy, Archery are used as a way to realize Samadhi.

These ways were not developed exclusively by Asian cultures.Individuals and groups in the Christian and Muslim words have practised various ways to reach Samadhi. And it is also very probable that other cultures also developed them. However Asian people and among them the Japanese more particularly, have developed them in a more particular and systematic way than other cultures have.

This video of Mioko Shida is a perfect example of a non traditional Samadhi at work...

Enjoy.

HAPPO GIRI

Happo Giri - 8 directions cuts of Kenjutsu, is an exercise related to Eiji Happo : the eight brush strokes of Japanese brush calligraphy (shodo). 

 

The basic EI or YONG character is to calligraphy what the practice of Do Re Mi is to music.

Although not executed in the same order, the eight strokes needed to brush the EI  (Eternity) Kanji are the same as the eight cuts of the Happo Giri exercise.

In this video, a group performance of Happo Giri during our Kendo - Kenjutsu Class at the YOSHUKAI DOJO in Dothan, AL