From: fwong@bnr.ca (Frank Wong)
Subject: Shorinji Kempo
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 18:54:23 GMT




Below is a message written by a student of Shorinji Kempo, Jenko Hwong.
It gives those not familiar with SK an idea of the art.
I also study Shorinji Kempo, in addition to Shaolin Kung Fu, and might
be able to answer specific questions about the art through email.
Shorinji Kempo , is the Japanese pronunciation of Shaolin Tse Ch'uan Fa.
(Literal English translation : Small Forest Temple Fist Way)
 
I beleive there is a SK dojo in Vancouver, I will ask around for the
address and post when I find out.  What else can I tell you about SK ?
SK is  non-commercial art (non-profit), philosophy is emphasized, as is Zen
 meditation. 
The techniques in SK are Doshin So's synthesis of the fighting arts he
learned, Shaolin Kung Fu , Jui-jitsu, Judo, Aikido. The syllabus contains
over 600 techiques as well as meditation , philosophy, accupressure
massage, and staff weapon's techniques.

Hope this gives everyone some information on SK. SK dojo's usually are
quite low key, do not advertise, and obtain their students through
word of mouth. This has been my experience.

Frank Wong


The following is Jenko's message :

-------------------------------------

I have practied Shorinji Kempo a little over 3 yrs now, and have
read rec.martial-arts on and off during that time, and yes, there
are few of our practitioners on the net. In any case, I will do my
best to explain something about our art to you.

Since our philosophy is a strong component, I shall start with a
little bit of the history of our founder:

Our founder, So Doshin, was a spy for the Japanese army during WWII.
He spent a great deal of time in China, where he learned all of his
martial arts. After 17 or so years, he became the 21st master of
Shorinji Giwamonken. At the end of the war, he witnessed in Manchuria,
the horrible sight of the Japanese army hastily retreating before the
invading Russian army while abandoning all the Japanese civilians. In
large part due to this, he was inspired with the thought, "The individual,
the individual, it's the quality of the individual that is most important."

After returning to Japan, he saw a nation and people left in ruins. The
spirit of everyone was incredibly low -- people were ready to die. In
this context, our founder started Shorinji Kempo -- in an effort to
improve the world through developing individual's potential. He found
at first that people ignored his philosophies, so he then incorporated
his teachings through martial arts.

The art itself combines techniques from different arts, and its
Chinese roots are apparent in its circular and fluid motions. Techniques
are roughly half hard and half soft though often the line between the
2 disappears (especially the longer you practice :)). By soft I mean
escapes, twists, throws, and pins in response to grabs/grappling attacks.
Pressure point techniques are also used.

The hard techniques include the punches, kicks, blocks, strikes. Officially, we
only use straight front, roundhouse, side, and back kicks. Our blocks stress
deflectioin rather than confrontation, often using circular motions to
deflecct the opponent's strike slightly off center -- just enough so that
it misses you. Blocks also are given with the forearm muscle (inner or outer)
as opposed to the bone.

Movement also stresses deflection in that we retreat and advance diagonally
 -- off the center line of attack.

All of the techniques try to stress maximum use of our body through minimum
use of strength. Hence, the emphasis on deflection. We use principles of
leverage and how an opponent falls most readily to manipulate an opponent's
body most easily.

Soft techniques incorporate a lot of joint locks on the wrist/elbow/shoulder.
Some look similar to aikido techniques. We have many escapes from a certain
grab (e.g. to wrist/arm/sleeve/lapel/collar) that have a corresponding
throw and pin.

Pressure points are used both in hard and soft. In hard techniques, we
strike pressure points in blocking and of course in striking. In soft,
we use them for additional leverage in throws, extra effectiveness in
escapes, and for pins.

Lastly, since we are a fairly recent MA (post-WWII) and of Japanese
origin, most of our 2000 clubs are in Japan. The US has maybe 25 in all.

Hope this helps.

--Jenko Hwong
-- 
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 Frank Wong                  ** * * * * *    e-mail: fwong@bnr.ca
 Mechanical Engineer
 Bell Northern Research
 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
                            
 Standard disclaimers... - BNR does not own or share my opinion!
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Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts