Interesting Indonesian version of Shorinji Kempo history.. any Kenshi to clarify?

[jujutsu_indonesia]

Hello! This is a question for Shorinji Kempo stylists (So Doshin style). In the World Shorinji Kempo official website, the history of Shorinji Kempo goes like this:

"Shorinji Kempo was originated in 1947 in the Japanese town of Tadotsu.

Shorinji Kempo's founder, So Doshin, faced Japan's defeat at the end of the Second World War in what was then called Manchuria (now the Northeast Region of China), and there he experienced fully the wretchedness and sorrow of a defeated people. In such times it was not ideology, religion, or ethics, but rather the interests of nations and peoples that took priority, and the harsh reality of international government was that it operated as if only power constituted righteousness. Amidst that experience, Kaiso saw that the way law and government worked was not determined simply by distinctions of ideology or religion, or of national policy, but that a great difference was made by the character and way of thinking of the person in the particular position of authority. What he had noticed was that "everything depends on the quality of the person."

Later, Kaiso returned to Japan, but the aftermath of war had left Japan in turmoil, and he found that people's spirits were in ruins. So, in order to put his beloved home country back on its feet, he resolved that he would dedicate the remainder of his life to educating youth with the spirit and the backbone that the country needed. Because it was the youth who would take care of the future, he had them train both indomitable spirits and sturdy bodies, gave them strong confidence and courage, and cultivated many true leaders who would rebuild their native Japan. To construct a world in which everyone could live in happiness, he took the Chinese and Japanese martial arts that he had studied and reformulated them into a single, unique technical structure, thus originating Shorinji Kempo.

Kaiso used the historical Buddha's teaching of building the self and Boddhidharma's (the founder of Zen's) teaching of indestructible and indomitable spirit to make the foundation of Kongo Zen, and he located Shorinji Kempo within Kongo Zen as its primary discipline.

Afterwards, however, these teachings and techniques could not be contained within the boundaries of religion, and Shorinji Kempo expanded to become a Way which anyone could study so long as they desired to improve in good balance both mind and body, to mutually affirm one another's value, and to construct society as best as possible together with comrades whom they could trust. This change was recognized within Japan and broadly around the world.

Then, the World Shorinji Kempo Organization was formed as Shorinji Kempo' global framework, and people of truly diverse religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds have joined the organization. Going beyond national borders and generational differences, these members seek to become people who can contribute to world peace and well being by working hard at their daily training".



The URL is here:

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/history/index.html

So we can safely says that the official party line in WSKO is that Shorinji Kempo is a martial art created from scratch by So Doshin by combining Chinese and Japanese martial arts.

However, the history of Shorinji Kempo in the WSKO Indonesia branch here is very different:

http://www.perkemi.or.id/history_shk.asp

It is written in Indonesian language though, but the basic theme of the Indonesian website version of Shorinji "history" is basically like this:

- So Doshin is the sole inheritor of the true arts of Shaolin, and he is the 21st grandmaster. He learned true Shaolin from the 20th grandmaster Wen Tay Son.

- The art of Shorinji Kempo is the oldest martial art in the world, and was the father of Jujutsu, Aikido, Thai Boxing and Okinawa-Te.

I am just curious, but does the Indonesian webmasters simply spinning a tale of their own, or was that the accepted version of Shorinji Kempo history in the 1960s? The person who founded Shorinji Kempo in Indonesia, Mr. Kartasasmita, studied with So Doshin in Tadotsu at the late 60s.

This is not an attempt to flame, I just want to hear from (non Indonesian) Shorinji Kenshi about this matter. No disrespects intended. Thank you!

 

[jujutsu_indonesia]

Oopss!! so sorry for the unintentional double-thread! This must be some kind of connection/PC error. Mr. Moderator please delete the doubled thread. Thank you!

 

[Tripitaka of AA]

I would go with the WSKO version, as it is closer to source and the website is created and maintained by Headquarters staff who are paid employees. I can't read Indonesian, and have only your summary to go on, but I would say that this version sounds closer to the kind of word-of-mouth transmission that is so common on websites created by enthusiastic amateurs.

I don't see any major problems with the Indonesian version, as long as you see a distinction between the historic chu'an fa of Shaolin and the Shorinji Kempo of SO Doshin. Many people will claim that the monks of Shaolin are the "fathers" of some, many or all subsequent martial arts, although scholars are gradually disentangling the myths from reality and some of the stories are being dropped. SO Doshin inherited the title of Grandmaster of one school of Shaolin, at a time when there were already many schools/styles of Shaolin... and none of them were being practiced or taught at the Shaolin temple. It is a family tree thing, the stuff about "father of" the other arts is a reference to the previous generations, way back. No-one is saying that SO Doshin created anything other than the art named Shorinji Kempo, created in Tadotsu, Japan, in 1947.

 

[jujutsu_indonesia]

I would go with the WSKO version, as it is closer to source and the website is created and maintained by Headquarters staff who are paid employees. I can't read Indonesian, and have only your summary to go on, but I would say that this version sounds closer to the kind of word-of-mouth transmission that is so common on websites created by enthusiastic amateurs.

I agree with you 100% sir!

I don't see any major problems with the Indonesian version, as long as you see a distinction between the historic chu'an fa of Shaolin and the Shorinji Kempo of SO Doshin. . No-one is saying that SO Doshin created anything other than the art named Shorinji Kempo, created in Tadotsu, Japan, in 1947.

Unfortunately, most of Indonesian Kenshi does not think that way. They have this attitude that Shorinji Kempo is the best and oldest martial arts, that other martial arts are incomplete and crippled and the only complete martial art in the world is Shorinji Kempo.. and the only person in the world who has the true knowledge of Shorinji Kempo was So Doshin.

I think what happened was intentional blurring of history for the purpose of elevating the status of Shorinji Kempo in Indonesia above all martial arts.

I am sure So Doshin Kaiso himself will not agree with this practice.

 

[Tripitaka of AA]

Oooooh, OK!

At this point may I introduce a post made to a different forum by an Indonesian Kenshi now resident in the US. He said he planned to reply here but I guess he's been busy. Here is what was written on the other forum;

The history section in the Indonesian Federation website is devided into 2 parts: History & Development of Shorinji Kempo and Philosophy of Shorinji Kempo (the history of the birth of Indonesian Federation is presented in separate section). In the first part there are 3 sub-sections i.e. "Kempo & Budhism", "The Effect of The Boxer Rebellion", and "The Development of Kempo after WWII".

The writer in that forum referred to a statement in the 3rd sub-section but the translation is not accurate. The english version should be: " Kaiso So Doshin learnt Shorinji Kempo from the 20th Grandmaster Wen Tay Sun" and was given the the title of the 21st Grand Master (by Wen Tay Sun)". It does not state Kaiso is the sole inheritor of the true arts of Shaolin.

The 2nd translation from the writer referred to a statement in the 2nd sub-section but this section refers to the history of Shaolin Temple after Boxer Rebellion, not Shorinji Kempo. It basically says that after the Boxer Rebellion, many shaolin monks went to all other countries and influence the other martial arts in Asia.

I guess the writer is confuse about the definition of Shaolin Temple Boxing (Shaolin shi chuan'fa) & Shorinji Kempo but I may be wrong.

So now we've got the quotations back in bed, let's get down to business. You've met some passionate people who think they are studying the best art in the world. They may not be the highest graded (most educated) members of their club, so they have a great sense of pride but might not have had much exposure to all the other Arts (which have similarly ardent fans). Would you prefer to meet people who hate their own art?

I don't see a blurring of history. I see an interpretation that has been promoted through the oral method of teaching, by people who love what they're doing, to people who love what they're studying. I think you'll find the same sort of thing goes on in a lot of Arts. Indonesia seems to have adopted ShorinjiKempo into the heart of the nation more than anywhere else outside Japan. Elsewhere in the world, we are still faced with blank expressions and "Show-ringy-thingy.. what?!". Seems to me that whoever introduced ShorinjiKempo to Indonesia has done a pretty amazing job, as it seems to be available everywhere!

If you meet any more Kenshi, that would like to post on here, please encorage them to do so


PS. Denny, not sure if you realised, Kaiso SO Doshin died in 1980. His daughter SO Yuki has been the head of the organisation ever since. SHe is referred to as Sousai (Sosai - long "o").

 

[jujutsu_indonesia]

Yes sir! Even though I am not practicing Shorinji Kempo (but have lots of friends who does), we as Indonesians are very proud about SK in Indonesia. You know, we have the biggest official Dojo in Indonesia (Pondok Gede area, Bekasi, near my shihan's dojo), we are told that this SK dojo is the biggest in Southeast Asia as well. And the persons who brings Shorinji Kempo to Indonesia, Mr. Indra Kartasasmita and his brother Ginanjar Kartasasmita, were very important persons here (Mr. Ginanjar K was the Minister of Energy). We have SK branches in almost all of our 27 provinces, and SK was one of the biggest organizations (under WTF Taekwondo, Shotokan Karate and Aikikai Aikido in terms of followers and popularity, but still very large!).

That is why I am very disappointed when I realized that the history I read at the official WSKO site and the Indonesian site does not really agree note-to-note, and this caused much (almost all actually) of our Kenshi has wrong ideas about SK history.

With that being said, I hope other Indonesian Kenshi's read this thread too and will understand true SK history

Thank you for the discussions!