Visiting sacred places has been an important component of my
martial arts training over the years.
It was in 2005, 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
modern goshin-jutsu.
There were several small NYC area
Aiki-jujutsu schools inspired by the teaching of Daito-ryu Kodokai by
Yonezawa Katsumi, especially the dojo I trained at from 1989 to 2001, which centered its practice around a mixture of early post-war Aikido and
Nippon Shorinji Kempo and included techniques drawn from Daito-ryu.
It was not, however, an official lineage of any of these arts, and in 2005 I decided to focus my efforts on more traditional approaches.
