Musician Amanda Palmer joins us for Episode 10 of the 2nd season of the podcast. With Brian Viglione she forms one half of the punk cabaret duo the Dresden Dolls, while in her solo career she is not only a songwriter, ukulele enthusiast, feminist, abortion rights activist, TED Talks superstar, and patron saint to every crowdfunded artist; she’s also been a New York Times best-selling author and a busker, earning her keep performing on streets from Boston to Berlin as a living statue calle “The Eight-Foot Bride.” We talked about singing and vocalizing and what it can do to our brains, our lives, and our communities.

Have you ever lost your temper, gone into a rage, and through that discovered something about yourself that might bring you peace? Michael Thompson’s autobiography, Untying Knots, is full of such episodes, rendered with quiet dry wit and honesty. In this episode, Shintaido instructor David Franklin reads Chapters 11 and 12.

We interview David Palmer, known as “the father of seated massage” and founder of the TouchPro organization. After a stint as director of the Amma Institute, the first school in the U.S.A. devoted to this traditional style of Japanese massage, David started developing techniques for massage with clients seated in a chair rather than lying on a table, as well as inventing the specialized chair that supports the client’s arms and head. Today you can see this type of massage being offered in airports, hair salons, and in offices worldwide. He headed up the team that brought the first on-site massage to Apple Computer in 1983, and around that time he also started studying Shintaido in the Bay Area.

In Chapter 9 of his autobiography Untying Knots, Michael Thompson describes how he first introduced Shintaido in the US at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, but then returned to Japan to deepen his practice. In Chapter 10, Michael and Haruyoshi Ito formally establish Shintaido in California and together begin to confront the challenges posed by profound cultural differences in the context of transmitting somatic teachings.

In Episode 6 you'll hear chapters 7 and 8 of Michael Thompson’s autobiography, Untying Knots: A Shintaido Chronicle. In Chapter 7 Michael describes the car accident that dramatically ended his study with his first Shintaido teacher Marc Bassis in France — and in Chapter 8, we’ll hear about the unexpected personality conflicts that occurred when a group of Japanese Shintaidoists visited a Christian commune in Massachusetts on their way to California in the 1970s.

Episode 5 of Season 2 features Chapters 5 and 6 of Untying Knots: a Shintaido Chronicle, master Shintaido instructor Michael Thompson’s autobiographical essay. In Chapter 5, he describes his first meeting with Hiroyuki Aoki, the founder of this unique movement art, in France – and in Chapter 6, Micheal travels to Japan for the first time.

In Episode 4, David interviews Shintaido instructor and interactive media developer Brad Larson. Brad has worked at the M.I.T. Media Lab as well as the Boston Children’s Museum, and has worked on exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s Zoo and the American Museum of Natural History, among others. You’ll hear about his first impressions of Shintaido practice when he was a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Education, and we talk about how he sees connections between Shintaido, ecstatic dance, haiku poetry, running through the woods carrying a stick, and interactive media design for museums.

Episode 3 of Season 2 includes Chapters 3 and 4 of Untying Knots: a Shintaido Chronicle, master Shintaido instructor Michael Thompson’s autobiographical essay. In this episode, Michael encounters Shintaido for the first time and starts practicing under the tutelage of former European karate champion Marc Bassis. He faces not only the physical challenges of the intensely demanding practice, but also the challenge of his own psychological barriers.

Episode Two Season Two includes an interview with renowned conductor Kent Nagano, who discusses the leadership skills needed to conduct an orchestra and their application to other aspects of life. He also describes the time he invited master Shintaido instructor H.F. to lead his orchestra in a Shintaido practice during their rehearsal in the concert hall. We’ll also hear Chapter Two of Untying Knots: a Shintaido Chronicle, master Shintaido instructor Michael Thompson’s autobiographical essay. In this episode, Michael returns to France with the intention of throwing himself into “...a hedonistic bohemian lifestyle, succumbing to decadence if need be.” His plans are thwarted, however, and he ends up quitting both alcohol and cigarettes – without suffering a religious conversion. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

In the first episode of Season Two, you'll hear a reading from Untying Knots by master Shintaido instructor Michael Thompson and an interview with artist and Shintaido practitioner Mario Uribe. While Micheal sets the scene for his first encounter with Shintaido in France in the early 1970s, Mario discusses his education as an artist/activist and his interest in tea ceremony - also set in the early 70s. 🔴 Find out more about the podcast and other educational materials on our website. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

In Season Two of the podcast, we will read from the book Untying Knots: A Shintaido Chronicle by the co-founder of Shintaido of America, Michael Thompson. By reading from this book, we wish to celebrate Michael´s contribution to the Shintaido community and his 85th birthday. Each month will have a reading from the book and later in the month will be followed by an interview. David Franklin will talk about Shintaido-related topics with various people who are familiar with our practice. Among our guests are visual artists Mario Uribe, rock musician Amanda Palmer and many others. Our podcast is and will be advertisement free. Shintaido of America is a non-profit organization running on volunteer donations and we wish to thank all of our followers for their support. If you are new to this, welcome! We will be more than happy if you consider your support in the future.  You can support us here.

“Creativity is not the exclusive province of artists and artistic expression. If we stop the automatic acts of daily life, surrendering yesterday’s happenings and separating ourselves from the old self of one day ago, through an act of our will, we will discover a new life of continuing satori, or many small enlightenments…” With these words, Aoki succinctly brings home the relationship between the physical movement practice of Shintaido and its meaning in the broader context of so-called ‘spiritual’ traditions, and most importantly, describes its immediate application to our daily lives. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Teaching and learning — sharing knowledge as opposed to mere information — is a profound process that changes the lives of the individuals involved. The types of social relationships that exist in Japan — Shintaido’s country of origin — are different than those in the USA or Europe. Logically, this has a powerful impact on how we understand the teaching and learning process. In this episode of the podcast, Aoki shares his insights into this question from the perspective of an author of an entire body of knowledge — a body of knowledge that grew from Japanese soil, but has taken root in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, and elsewhere outside Japan. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Imagine that in creating Shintaido, expert martial artists were asked to commit themselves fully to a partner exercise -- in Japanese "kumite" -- that was nothing like "sparring," that was completely outside the norms and standard practices of any traditional martial art. Aoki describes Hikari to Tawamureru, meaning "playing with light" like this: "All that is required is that we express ourselves as simply and sincerely as possible, regardless of our physical strength. It is not even necessary to move. It is enough simply to play or just be present. This kumite is a revival of the childhood expression that we lost by growing up." 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Imagine that you are being invited to join a series of trainings or practices that are described like this: People joining this training have to put their house in order before each practice, as if they might not return. Our purpose is to discover our physical limits and the threshold of the unknown world which begins at the end of our psychological strength. These were the conditions for the people who invented Shintaido, the Rakutenkai group, which was formed under Hiroyuki Aoki’s leadership in 1965. In the last episode, we heard about Tenshingoso, the five breaths of cosmic reality. This episode presents the other fundamental form of Shintaido: Eiko no ken, the “sword of glory,” known now simply as Eiko or “glory,” which Aoki describes as the “gyroscope” of Shintaido. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Episode 10 describes the creation of Tenshingoso, the foundational kata (a sequence of movements) of Shintaido, which Aoki calls “an embodiment of the hidden cosmic breath.” Aoki intended that the kata should be “…an embodiment and expression of the common Tao of many different disciplines, [which] simulates the cycle of a human life and even the rhythm of the cosmos.” He also intended that the kata should be concise and simple, take only a few minutes to practice, help us focus on the infinite horizon, and function as an antidote to the routine discouragements of daily life. The form that emerged after a process of research and development was named Tenshingoso, the Five Breaths of Cosmic Reality. Aoki acknowledges his debt to his former teacher Shigeru Egami of Shotokai karate-do, and to master Hoken Inoue (also called Noriako Inoue) and his art of Shinwa Taido (also called Shin’ei Taido. Inoue was the nephew of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido). In many traditional martial arts, such an essential kata would be kept a secret. But Aoki’s aim was different than that of traditional arts, and he wanted to make Tenshingoso available to everyone. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Episode 9 focuses on Aoki’s research into what constitutes truly natural movement. He identifies qualities of movement common to master craftsmen, babies, and ancient Buddhist statues and describes how he used these observations as criteria for testing the naturalness and effectiveness of many traditional martial arts techniques. This led to the signature gesture of Shintaido, the wide-open hand with palm and fingers stretched and extended. In combination with other hand positions such as a tight fist or a completely relaxed hand, the open hand was integrated into the holistic training system that was to be named “Shintaido.” 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

Aoki criticizes the many 20th-century martial artists who cooperated with the Japanese government during World War II, and finds clues in his own experience of karate clubs where “…the philosophy is very lofty, but the actual practice borders on sadism.” He questions whether many martial arts suffer from “a divorce between spiritual explanation and actual conditions.” He describes his response in the development of Shintaido: “I tried to remove all spiritual gloss until we could reach a ‘zero point’ … Finally the day came when the meaning of all techniques became zero for me…” 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

If ancient movement arts—if we widen our focus beyond martial arts to include, for example, traditional Japanese Noh theater or tea ceremony—if these ways of movement are not just “museum pieces” but are still relevant for us today as contemporary, living systems of physical training; then we might ask if they should be not just revived or preserved, but somehow re-invented. Aoki explains his goals in the process of inventing Shintaido, as he writes: “By using body movement, we could regain a measure of the genuine communication which has almost disappeared from our lives, and at the same time, repair our bodies and minds from the damaging effects of modern civilization.… “After retracing the last three hundred years of martial arts history, I concluded that just as modern art had to be created in its own historical context, the martial arts could be adapted to modern conditions, and the forms and movements would be completely different from the traditional styles. “…[T]he simple study of classical methods never produces a new way of expression. One cannot be an Andy Warhol merely by practicing drawing for a prescribed amount of time. Similarly, I did not limit my study to karate and the other martial arts in this limited way.” The purpose of Shintaido, as Aoki summarizes it, is “…not to preserve old classical forms and transmit them to succeeding generations,” but to use “…a body movement or the martial arts to examine the conditions of our own age.” 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.

“The sword technique of Hariyaga Sekiun: expanding time, space, and energy.” Sekiun’s approach, influenced by Zen, was to strip away occult practices and pre-conceived responses to an attack. Rather than winning, his school emphasized unification with one’s opponent at the instant just before the start of the fight, a moment called ainuke, which Aoki interprets as pathway to sacredness. This, and Sekiun’s concept of nyuwamubyoshi, or soft, rhythmless movement, transcend the world-view of traditional martial arts. Aoki concludes by imploring contemporary martial artists living in democratic societies to move beyond conventional attitudes, to express their opinions, and to confront social and environmental problems. 🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here. 🔴 Follow Shintaido of America on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  🔴 Donate to Shintaido of America! We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer work yet some tasks require more than that. With your support, we are able to progress in our activities, create more educational materials and work on innovative projects such as this podcast.