Visiting Kyoto and Nara

Visiting sacred places has been an important component of my martial arts training over the years.

"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 while visiting the Gassan Dai-jinja on Mt. Haguro in 2005 that I decided to focus my efforts on classical and traditional martial arts.

I recently 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.

On this trip I had thought I might visit surviving dojo practicing Jikishinkage-ryū but in the end was not able to do so with the time I had available. While in Kyoto, especially while visiting the site of the old Butokukan and main temple of Honzan-ha Shugendō, 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 Shugendō instead of in a formal setting. Formal lines of Jikishinkage-ryū will survive on their own. While visiting Nigatsu-do I had the clear feeling I was doing something different and needed to pay attention to that realization.