The main art which will be taught is a conceptual art… a much more broad, diverse and complete study than many martial arts currently being taught in Karate schools or dojos today. It is the art that was taught in my teacher’s teacher’s family temple in Kumamoto Japan starting in 1235AD and was handed down from generation to generation, and actually taught in hiding from 1588 forward. (We’ll expla
in the historical reason why that had to happen in class). You will learn about the human body and how to move your body the way it was designed to, using natural laws. When you move unnaturally you are fighting not just your opponent but yourself. You will learn surprisingly simple concepts of moving your body, calming your mind and centering your spirit which lead to true happiness, peace, joy and of course safety. We do this through the study of martial sciences, meditation, traditional and non-traditional weaponry, history, philosophy, healing arts, and Japanese brush calligraphy. You will experience a balance of soft or internal training (yin) and hard or external training (yang), as we seek to help you develop a deep sense of balance in your own life. You will quickly realize that within most martial arts taught today in America, there is too much attention put on developing speed and power, when timing and positioning are actually more important in a real self-defense situation. We do work to develop these things but do so to augment our timing, positioning distancing and alignments, and to build our fitness and confidence. This will very likely not be like any other training you may have ever done, as much of our curriculum was designed by the Japanese Sohei (warrior monks) in the 13th century and was only taught to family members and those that lived at the temple in Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu, Japan. It teaches self-defense without ego, without necessarily having to “beat up” your attacker, instead seeking escape when possible, control when necessary, and complete destruction only when there is no other option. Because of this, when we do strike it is without hesitation and without regret. In addition, due to the superior use of proper body positioning and timing when we do strike it is absolutely devastating to the attacker, often and quite easily breaking the leg, back and neck with the one strike. Obviously this is why we prefer not to use the Striking Arts whenever possible. A true blend of body, mind and spirit, Kosho has been described as “Simple enough for a newbie, but powerful enough for a true master”. In addition to Kosho, we will also be teaching these four other martial arts:
Hoshin- ninjutsu based art specializing in energy sensing, meditation and no-nonsense self defense
T'ai Chi- Mostly practiced very slowly emphasizing alignments, energy flow and a full understanding of rotation and weight transfer. When done correctly it can be a devastating martial art with tremendous health and vitality as well as self defense applications
Diestro Escrima- Filipino stick and knife fighting brilliantly blended with old style European fencing systems and Chinese kuntao, Indonesian Silat and Japanese Kosho Ryu Kempo
Iaijutsu- ancient Japanese swordsmanship. This includes learning all of the positions and cuts, but particularly the draw and cut in one movement and typically followed up with a secondary cut for basically every different scenario a samurai could face. We’ll do two person sword drills, learn 500 year old sword kata, cut mats to test your cutting ability and more.
