Gassankan Jiki Shinkage-ryū

I began training at the The Hōbyōkan in 2007 and continued until I moved to Seattle in 2016. I received a Hōbyōkan chuden menjo in 2018 and have since worked with a small number of people in order to continue training, including Jake Harlin, Nicky Sayah Sina, and Anthony Nehls-Smith.

Anthony graduated from UW and now lives and trains in Japan, while Nicky and Jake have progressed to the point where they have a firm understanding and practice of Jikishinkage-ryū foundations and now coordinate a weekly practice (keiko) of their own.

At the Gasssankan, we focus on a core set of Jikishinkage-ryū kata and then analyze their application in a process of deconstruction called kuzushi. Having developed a foundation and then explored variation, we are in a good position to begin a free practice we call tameshi ai, where students can test themselves in order to bring out the spontaneous and intuitive mindset necessary for developing higher levels of skill.

For those interested more broadly in the historical and contemporary Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū in Japan, I have a list of film footage available representing some surviving groups.

Tōsha Dōjō

Tōsha Dōjō ( 闘者道場 ) practices as part of a non-profit martial arts cooperative called Lonin League in Seattle.

The characters in that name are a reference to the lion dogs (komainu 狛犬) that often guard shrines and temples in Japan. One usually has its mouth open, the other closed. This represents the concept of a-un, which is the fundamental breathing in Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū. In esoteric martial practice, the syllable "tō" is associated to the outer (gai) Lion with its mouth open and the syllable "sha" is associated to the inner (nei) Lion with its mouth closed. Literally, sha means person and tō means battle or war, but you usually don't see them together in common language.

Practice at the Seattle Budōkan, 2021