ESC News

ESC to support Project of Shintaido Czech
19 October 2025
ESC has approved a funding request to support the translation and editing of the Shintaido book into Czech. Once it is ready, the book will be published at a national print-on-demand platform. We are very happy about the contribution of the Czech group around David Franklin. 

This edition of the Shintaido book will help to make Shintaido in the Czech Republic accessible and understandable to everyone.

ESC Event 2025 - A review from  Svenja Wagner
01 September 2025

From August 28th to 31st the ETC (European Technical Commitee) met in Germany at Sporthochschule RUIT, Stuttgart with a European Gasshuku starting at 29th of August. The theme of the event was ma, a concept which describes the space in relationships, meaning between movement or speech, balance between things among other meanings.

The event was organized by Shintaido Germany for the first time and was the first ESC Event since Corona. Forty Students from seven national groups attended. Christine Gov organised the teachings as director of instruction, supported by Ula Chambers, Gianny Rossi, David Frankling and Stéphane Seddiki. Georg Müller was coordinator for the ESC exams on Saturday afternoon. Conny Weinem, Kirsten Reinders and Benny Decker lead the organisation team and provided orientation and connection to the facility team of the location. Sophie, assisted by Annabelle, Charles, Philippe and Aaron ensured as sensei care team for a pleasant and uncomplicated time for the instructors and Minagawa-sensei. Hakama care was done by Kim, Satya, Mirabelle, Viola and Svenja. Philippe, Honza and Frédérique documented the keiko and social times with video and photography. Benny prepared the dojo to ensure safe and comfortable keiko. While Svenja kept the group informed with regular announcements.

Meal breaks and evenings provided time for conversations, getting to know each other and finding a very own ma as a group, which was created and developed during morning meditation and keiko. Saturday evening celebrated this ma with a lively barbecue party, where Kirsten and Benny showed their skills as barbecue experts, the exam results were announced and a song in commemoration of Ito was sung.

During the three days we had three keiko of three hours. During two keiko the group was split to practice either karate or bojutsu. The final keiko, lead by Ula and Gianni, provided the opportunity to connect again as a group with applications of dai kihon and create our very own ma to take home as a European connection in Shintaido.

ESC Event 2025 Report Français
ESC Event 2025 Report English

ESC Event 2025 in Germany now open for registration
10 February 2025

We are happy to start the promotion for our next ESC event 29th – 31st August 2025 in Germany. The registration is now open. The event will be guided by an ETC pre-event on 28th and 29th August and both events are taking place 13km south of Stuttgart. The theme for this event is ma (間). 

Please visit "Next Event" in the main navigation above or click  here.

ESC scholarships announced for Dokan 2024

14 April 2024

We are happy to announce the approval of ESC scholarships to support ESC instructors to attend the event as follows:

• Instructors travelling from Europe: €200.00

• Instructors travelling from Japan: €1,000.00

Because some ESC instructors donated their scholarship for Dokan'24 we are able to offer assistants (trainee instructors) the same amount. These scholarships were made possible by profits from past IS events and IS membership payments. Instructors travelling from America have also been offered a scholarship by Shintaido of America (US$ 500). 

The automatic scholarship scheme has now closed. You can still register to attend the event until 15th July 2024. 

ESC to support attendees at Dokan 2024

1 January 2024

Registration for the much-planned IS quadrennial event, Dokan'24 opened today. You can register here.

ESC, in conjucting with the SoA (our sister organisation in America) will be supporting all shintaido instructors travelling to the event from outside England. This support will take the form of travel scholarships. As you register you will simply be asked to accept or decline a travel scholarship. The exact amounts are not yet finalised (as it depends in part on how many accept them) but will be annound in April, after the end of early-bird registrations. 

ESC Supports Bojutsu Project in France

15 October 2023

ESC has approved a funding request to support a bojutsu event taking place in Mâcon, France in March 2024. This will help pay for accommodation and some travel costs (described as symbolic assistance) and is to facilitate a gathering of 3-dan and 4-dan bojutsu instructors at the event.

The primary aim is to reintroduce a modified version of the kata shoshi-no-kon into the ESC shodan bojutsu curriculum. However, it is also hoped that such a gathering will confer many other less-tangible but important benefits. 

ESC Website Now Live

30 June 2023

The ESC Board is happy to announce that the new federation website (this site) is now live. This replaces the old ESC website which will shortly be taken down. 

The site is indented primarily to keep a record of all ESC exam results in a format which is accessible to all. However, it will also host a calendar of European events as well as information about the ongoing deveolpment of shintaido across Europe. 

The site was first created by Pierre Quettier and is currently being edited by Charles Burns.

Dokan 2024: open to all and with ESC exams

24 April 2023

International events are primarily for shintaido instructors. However, the 2024 event, called Dokan '24, will also be open to shintaido students who can attend with the support of their regular instructor.  This is an important change to the usual format. 

The next official ESC exam session will be held at this event. Although the schedule is yet to be confirmed this will probably be on a different date to the higher-level international exams which will be the main focus. 

The event is taking place at Worth School, in the UK from 16th - 20th August 2024.

International Event 2024

24 October 2022

ESC is happy to announce that the next quadrennial international shintaido event will place at Worth School, in the UK from 16th - 20th August 2024.

The event will be hosted by British Shintaido with support from both ESC and SoA (Shintaido of America).

This will be the next occassion for instructors to take more senior exams. For more information please contact your national organisation. 

Instructor Contributions Reduced to Zero

11 September 2022

The ESC Board has voted to reduce the 2022 ESC instructor contributions (previously €20 per year) to zero. 

This is because, after the dissolution of ISC (and the closure of its bank account) ESC and found itself in charge of old ISC funds. These funds, built up over many years, are to be used to fund shintaido development over the next few years. 

However, since many instructors are still suffering post-Covid financial problems, it was felt inappropriate to continue collecting more contributions. It is anticipate that this will start again after a few years when the existing funds are more depleted. 

ESC Board Inaugural Meeting

20 April 2022

Following the vote at the final ESC general member's meeting to dissolve the old member-based organisation and create a simpler-to-manage federation of national groups, members of four national groups have held an inaugral meeting to establish a board for this new organisation. 

The four groups represented were France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, who were joined by a rep from the European Technical Committee. 

They meeting began with introductions an an overview of the situation of shintaido in each country. It was decided that the new Board would meeting every two or three months and that each national rep will take turns to chair the meetings.