Harvard Grapples With Shintaido

Although Shintaido has had an active following on campus since the spring semester of 1984, few members of the Harvard community would probably define it as anything other than a sci-fi film or a sushi dish.

But, in reality, Shintaido is a martial art which focuses much more on coordination than on combativity. Its presence at Harvard is made more remarkable by the fact that the sport is only 20 years old.

Mitsuharu Hadeishi '87 founded the Harvard-Radcliffe Shintaido club in his freshman year. Already, Shintaido has gained the status of an official Harvard athletic club, of which there are now eight permanent members.

Michael Thompson, who instructs the club, introduced Shintaido to the United States nine years ago. He is also the highest ranking instructor in the country. Hadeishi started practising Shintaido with Thompson in the first club that was created in the United States.

Shintaido was created by Karate master Hiroyuki Aoki in the early 1960's. According to members of the club, Aoki wanted to develop a martial art that reflected our time.

"Shintaido incorporates the full variety of expressions," says Ben P. Schireson, an assistant to an instructor in San Francisco, "We start out by being open and vulnerable and then we express the full series of emotions of a lifetime."

Schireson also points out that Shintaido is not competitive; it offers neither colored belts nor competitions. He says that the level of a Shintaidoist is determined by an examination which measures his knowledge of the art.

Shintaido participants explain that the Shintaido practice, called Keko, reflects the experience of living--the practice is ritualistic, centering on three main ideas, Tenshingoso or Eiko, Kumite, and the "theme" that the instructor assigns to the practice.

Tenshingoso, which expresses the different stages of our life, is a series of movements, practiced at the beginning and at the end of the Keko.

Eiko is another sequence of movements which expresses the descent of the ideal world on to ours. Eiko can be substituted for Tenshingoso. After Tenshingoso or Eiko the shintaidoists work on Kumite.

Kumite is a two-person exercise in which the aim is total communication. Eva Thaddeus '86, president of the Shintaido club, describes Kumite as a "response to your partner's movements."

According to the experts, after the Kumite stage the instructor assigns a theme to the practice--this theme, practitioners agree, can define the quality of the workout experience. Such themes include softness, friendship, aggression. The students express the theme through their Shintaido.

Club members explain that there are four main styles of Shintaido: Open-Hand Shintaido, Bohjitsu, Kenjitsu and Shintaido-Karate. Open-Hand Shintaido is pure Shintaido without the use of a weapon, while both Bohjitsu and Kenjitsu both involve the use of a wooden sword or of a staff respectively. Shintaido-Karate combines Shintaido and Karate.

The use of a weapon in Bohjitsu and Kenjitsu is not aggressive, says David E. Franklin '87, vice president of the club, adding that the weapon should only serve as an auxiliary to expression.

"Some people view the weapon as a hindrance to expression by feeling that it is external and some people view it as a focus of extension of their own hand," says Franklin.

In the spring and in the fall, the Shintaidoists go on a two to three day retreat--called "Gasshuku"--to study their art intensively. During the retreat, club members say, there are two Kekos a day, each lasting approximately three hours. The New England Gasshuku was held two weekends ago at Spring Hill Farm, 40 miles northwest of Boston.

Recent Shintaido Club initiate Claudia L. Brett '88 describes Shintaido as "fun to practice but difficult to master."

Practices are held at the Q-Rac Wednesday evenings at 6 and Sunday mornings at 11.