Japan Pilgrimage

Visiting sacred places has been an important component of my martial arts training over the years. It was in 2004, while visiting the Dewa Sanzan area, including Gassan Dai Jinja ( 月山大 神社 ) on Mt. Haguro and the Haguro-san Kōtakuji Shōzenin ( 羽黒山荒沢 寺正善院 ) Kogane-do in Haguro-machi associated to Haguro Shugendō, that I realized I needed to study classical and traditional arts instead of continuing to teach the modern goshin-jutsu I had learned in NYC.

"Moon Mountain Hall" (月山館) – read as Gassankan in Japanese and Yueshan-guan in Mandarin – is the name I use for my ongoing training activities. It was chosen in homage to Gassan and Dewa Sanzan.

Twenty years later, I spent time visiting Kyoto and Nara including the seat of Honzan-ha Shugendō, not far from the Kyoto Budōkan (the site of the Meiji-era Butokukan), the shrines and temples at Kuramadera associated to historical figures such as Yoshitsune and Kiichi Hogen and the Todaiji in Nara.

While in Kyoto, I realized I needed to continue to train in the manner I have been doing: focusing on an expression of Shinkage-ryū in a manner that is driven by Taoist principles and informed by my study of internal martial arts and Esoteric Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, instead of in a formal setting. Formal lines of Jikishinkage-ryū will survive on their own. While visiting Kuramadera I had the clear feeling I was doing something different and needed to pay attention to that realization.

In June 2025 I visited Koyasan Tokyo Betsuin 高野山 東京別院 in Shinagawa as well as the Tokyo National Museum to see exhibits of nihonto, including examples from Masamune, and early Buddhist sculpture from India.