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"It is something that stops the conflicts between person and person, that contributes to peace and culture, and that has a moral content which expresses the path of harmonious cooperation (bringing minds into harmony and uniting efforts). It never injures an opponent carelessly, seeks conflicts, or seeks solely the goal of winning against an opponent." Moreover, "budo conforms to the above meaning of 'bu,' and is a path to achieving that goal." And, "it is a path that is capable of contributing to humankind's peace and well being."

Doshin So, The Founder of Shorinji Kempo

Doshin So

Doshin So, The Founder of Shorinji Kempo (1911-1980)

Born in 1911 in Okayama prefecture, the eldest son of a customs officer, Doshin So was sent to live with his grandfather in Manchuria upon the death of his father.

From the age of 18, he travelled extensively in China and studied many of the scattered remnants of Chinese kempo . In Beijing, Doshin So studied under Wen Laoshi, the 20th Master of the Northern Shorinji Giwamonken School. At a ceremony held at the Shaolin Temple in 1936 Doshin So became Wen-Laoshi's direct successor, the 21st Master.

On the 9th of August 1945, Doshin So was in Eastern Manchuria when the Russian army broke their treaty with Japan and crossed the border. On the 15th of August, the war ended in Japan's defeat. During the next year, under the occupying Russian army he experienced the misery and suffering of defeat in a foreign land, where the interests of nations had come before the claims of ideology, religion, and morals. Nations had fought, and victory went to the country best able to organise its people to defeat and kill others. The strongest ruled, and the defeated Japanese in Manchuria were on the wrong side of that rule.

Amidst this bitter reality, Doshin So found a lesson which shaped the principles of Shorinji Kempo. He realized that it was neither ideology, religious differences nor national policies which determine the course of events, but rather the character and the way of thinking of the people involved. He put words to this realisation saying, "The person! The person! Everything depends on the quality of the person".

The defeat of Japan in the war brought about the repatriation of Doshin So and indirectly became the cause of the transmission of kempo to Japan. On his return, in June 1946, he found a people in turmoil, confused and lacking any hope or sense of purpose. Doshin So could see that they were lacking in morality and pride, so he set about teaching the arts he had learnt.

Though termed Shorinji Kempo (literally translated as 'The Way of the Shaolin Temple Fist'), his art is not a collection of Chinese kempo, but rather a fusion and re-arrangement of all the martial disciplines studied by Doshin So in China and Japan. It is kempo re-examined and amplified by the addition of a religious philosophy.

Doshin So founded Shorinji Kempo in Japan in 1948 and became known as 'Kaiso', which roughly translates as 'founder'. Kaiso established Shorinji Kempo headquarters in Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. In 1951 the Kongo Zen Sohonzan was established, with Shorinji Kempo as its main teaching. In 1953 he founded the Japan Shorinji Kempo Federation. By 1969 its membership had spread throughout Japan, and numbered over 300,000. In 1974 the World Shorinji Kempo Organisation was established. To date Shorinji Kempo is the most popular single form of martial art in Japan, with over 3,000 branches. There are over 1.5 million members worldwide and it is practiced in 29 countries, including 11 in Europe.

Doshin So, The Founder of Shorinji Kempo

Sadly, on May 12th 1980 Kaiso died of heart disease. Since then, his daughter, Yuuki So, Shike Doshin So, has continued his work as the head of Shorinji Kempo. She is Kancho of Kongo Zen Sohonzan Shorinji and President of the World Shorinji Kempo Federation.

The Principles of Shorinji Kempo

The principles of Shorinji Kempo have their base in "people" and "peace."

The value Kaiso placed on "people" was transformed by his experiences around the time Japan was defeated in war, and afterwards when he examined social changes he established a way of seeing that would examine the "quality of the people" involved.

Also, Kaiso hated war, the symbol of all of humanity's foolishness, he loved peace, and he sought for the development of a real peace for humankind. Moreover, he contended that "countries and society must transform by the improvement of human hearts and by peaceful means."

To make that hope reality, he set as goals "the enrichment of people and the establishment of ideal places" when he created Shorinji Kempo.

What this phrase, "the establishment of ideal places," means is the building of societies that, while free of wars and conflagrations, are bright and plentiful both physically and spiritually.

Then, the meaning of "Shorinji Kempo's enrichment of people" is the educating of people who can live their lives as described below.

(1) People who can live with faith in their own individual potential.
(2) People who can guide their lives from their own standpoint.
(3) People who can act with consideration for the happiness of others.
(4) People who can act with justice, courage, and compassion.
(5) People who can lead lives of cooperation, making community with strangers and acquaintances alike.

One of Kaiso's sayings is, "half for one's own happiness, and half for the happiness of others." This is a representative principle of Shorinji Kempo, and expands on the phrase, "self construction and happiness for self and others."

The Crest of Shorinji Kempo

"Self establishment" means being able to realize the nobility of the wondrous potential one possesses, to have a standard for how human beings should live, to possess the confidence to build on oneself, and to be able to live a life worthy of pride.

"Happiness for self and others" means recognizing the existence of both oneself and others, and living in a way that consistently seeks the improvement and development of oneself as well as others and society.

The Root Nature of Martial Arts and Shorinji Kempo

Kaiso taught the term "bu" (martial) in "budo" (martial arts or path) in the following way.

In this way, Shorinji Kempo is not simply a technology of self defense, but a method of cultivating one's character, and moreover a martial art that considers the happiness of people as individuals, and that can further contribute to the peace and well-being of humankind.