Shorinji Kempo

[Dominic82555]

It would be nice to have a section on "Shorinji Kempo. If you've ever viewed the many videos or attended a school (movements are basically efficient and straight to the point). It merits to be mentioned.

 

[isshinryuronin]

From the videos I saw on the web it appears to be a crisp and efficient blend of karate and jiu-jutsu. Those featured in the videos were well trained.

That said, I think it has little/nothing to do with Shaolin boxing (Arhat/Monk fist) or any other Chinese art I've seen - having much more Japanese flavor than Chinese (regardless of what their claimed backstory is). I think the Japanese Martial Art - General or just General Martial Art forums would be the specific spots for this art to be discussed.

Are you a practitioner of this style? If so, for how long?

 

[Same Trick]

Doshin-So the founder of Shorinji-Kempo I believe had studied Daito-Ryu(the forerunner of Aikido), however while stationed in China he visited the Shaolin temple(at the time almost in ruins), but no martial arts practiced there at the time except for an elderly monk who superficially knew a little, it is attested that Doshin-So basically drew inspiration from the remaining murals at the temple depicting monks in boxing postures/sparring. The two fundamental hand techniques of Shorinji-Kempo - the block/parry move the practitioners use as initial posture to any of the SK exercises, and the basic simultaneous parry-punch technique can be seen in Shaolin Xinyiba but there with a softer approach, those two techniques correspond somewhat with Xingyiquan’s splitting and cannon fists.

Find and have a look at the SK parts of the Japanese Kuro-Obi video series, looks very cool, the SK organization seems to have an amazing hombu dojo in Japan .