Shintō Musō Ryū  Jōdō

Katsu

“Concentration, Spirit” 

Shinto Muso Ryu Training Notes

By

Mark Taylor

Introduction

Firstly, I must say a huge thank you to my late Sensei, Kees Bruggink for all his help and patience. He was a very generous man and I am very grateful to have been able to spend time with him and the group at Haarlem in Holland.  Wil Bruggink Sensei is now teaching at the Munen Muso Dojo in Haarlem.

Secondly, I must say thank you to Pascal Krieger Sensei for his help and for creating the FEJ in the first place which we are all very grateful for.

Finally, I must say thank you to Nishioka Sensei for his enlightening instruction which we are still trying to understand today. I am very grateful that Watabe Sensei has taken up the gauntlet of keeping Sei Ryu Kai alive, so that Nishioka Sensei’s ideas and spirit will live on.

What follows is a set of notes that I have taken from weekly Keiko and various seminars.

It is not necessarily a book which explains the techniques or Kata on a point by point basis but more a list of corrections which I have received.

My view is that if I make these mistakes then so must others.

Any student is but a reflection of their teacher and I hope that I give the correct example of my teachers teaching.

Next, I must explain why I called it “Katsu”. Initially I thought this meant “knack” which seemed to fit with my ideas. It was only recently whilst visiting a Zen temple in Kamakura that I saw a hand-written poster with Katsu on it and it is this version of the kanji which is on the front of this book.

Katsu or Concentration, Spirit is like a Kiai but within a Zen meditative practice. Probably it sounds better if you refer to focusing the spirit.

It is this idea that I had for the book in the first place, to focus on the spirit of Shinto Muso Ryu taught within Sei Ryu Kai.

I really hope you enjoy reading what lies within and that you gain some insight into where it comes from.

Mark Taylor

Yokohama, Japan

March 2019

© Mark Taylor 2019