Shintō Musō Ryū Jōdō

Katsu

“Concentration, Spirit”

Shinto Muso Ryu Training Notes

Mark Taylor

Introduction

Firstly, I must say a huge thank you to my Sensei, Kees Bruggink for all his help and patience. He is a very generous man and I am very grateful to have been able to spend time with him and the group at Haarlem in Holland.

Secondly, I must say thank you to Pascal Krieger Sensei for his help and for creating the FEJ in the first place which we are all very grateful for.

Finally, I must say thank you to Nishioka Sensei for his enlightening instruction which we are still trying to understand today. I am very grateful that Watabe Sensei has taken up the gauntlet of keeping Sei Ryu Kai alive, so that Nishioka Sensei’s ideas and spirit will live on.

What follows is a set of notes that I have taken from weekly Keiko and various seminars.

It is not necessarily a book which explains the techniques or Kata on a point by point basis but more a list of corrections which I have received.

My view is that if I make these mistakes then so must others.

Any student is but a reflection of their teacher and I hope that I give the correct example of my teachers teaching.

Next, I must explain why I called it “Katsu”. Initially I thought this meant “knack” which seemed to fit with my ideas. It was only recently whilst visiting a Zen temple in Kamakura that I saw a hand-written poster with Katsu on it and it is this version of the kanji which is on the front of this book.

Katsu or Concentration, Spirit is like a Kiai but within a Zen meditative practice. Probably it sounds better if you refer to focusing the spirit.

It is this idea that I had for the book in the first place, to focus on the spirit of Shinto Muso Ryu taught within Sei Ryu Kai.

I really hope you enjoy reading what lies within and that you gain some insight into where it comes from.

Mark Taylor

Yokohama, Japan

March 2019