Shorinji Kempo and Haji Takeda

Perhaps 20 years ago when we were living in Derry, NH a group of Japanese students visited for 2 weeks to gain experience in English. They were placed in various homes around town. One of the English teachers stayed at our home. He was Haji Takeda. I very quickly discovered his passion, Harley Davidson Motorcycles and he took me to every Harley dealer in the area over that time, having contacted them before they were all ready for him. He filled his suitcase with Harley parts to take home.

 

We did many things including going on a Whale Watch off of Portsmouth of course after visiting the local Harly dealer first. He even gave me an English/Japanese dictionary he published in Japan for his students.

 

When he was in college he was in a Shorinju Kempo club there. This is not karate but a different art (though there are similarities. No longer practicing he still showed my karate adults an impressive array of locks he remembered.

 

He had never really looked at karate. I was able to show him my copy of the Karate Do Taikan by Nakasone  as he could read Japanese. What interested him most were the chapter by Funakoshi Ginchin.

 

So I explained a bit about what karate was in general.

 

And everyone enjoyed  that visit to Derry.

 

A year later he returned to take a bike trip with friends nearby, to travel to Deadwood SD by motorcycle. He also saw me and gave me a gift. I received a 2 books, 1 a large Japanese book on Shorinju Kempo and a smaller English version of the same book. The large Japanese version is more extensive than the English version. But the English version better presents Shorinji Kempo for me. The Japanese version with more photos and techniques I can follow well enough.

 

The art of Shorinji Kempo if extremely dynamic and contains many karate concepts to think about. For one thing they have no chambering, just strike from position. Another thing is the throws they use coming from their use of their locks, and those throws are extreme for the attacker.