This is the Shorinji Kempo manji, or symbol; it is also the Japanese symbol for a Buddhist temple. At first sight, the manji can be easily mistaken for the Nazi swaztika.
However, the manji represents the opposites of the world: heaven and earth, good and evil, life and death.
This contrasts with the misrepresented use of the manji (in reverse form with the brackets facing the opposite way) by Adolph Hitler during World War II; he inverted the manji's design in an attempt to use its meaning for his own selfish reasons: power and greed.
Shorinji Kempo was developed in Japan by "Kaiso" (which means establisher) Shike Doshin So in 1947. His essential goal was to combine the teachings of Buddhism with a martial arts form borrowed from China called "Shorin-giwa-mon" in order to counter what he saw as the moral decay present in Post-World-War-II Japan.
This particular style of self-defense was first practised by Chinese Buddhist monks as far back as the fifth century. Kaiso combined Buddhism with this classic form of "Shorin-giwa-mon" to create a completely unique practice, one encouraging Japan's youth to excel spiritually, physically and socially.
The World Shorinji Kempo Organization is located in Kagawa Prefecture and has many training centers located around the world. Today, the organization is headed by Kaiso's daughter, also named Shike Doshin So.
Shorinji Kempo is a martial art form of Kempo that was invented by Doshin So (1911-1980) in 1947, who incorporated Japanese Zen Buddhism into the fighting style. This form of Kempo can be both a religion and a fighting form at the same time much like Shaolin kung fu, on which it is based (is the Shaolin Monastery).
Looked at from a Japanese martial arts perspective, it could be described as a combination of karate, judo, and aikijujutsu built on a Kung Fu framework, except that this art generally has no killing moves because of its respect for life. It is a form of Kempo that tries to get its practitioners to move through life doing minimal damage whenever possible.
The Buddhist influences of Shorinji Kempo emphasize cooperation and is almost exempt of the bias that competition brings - turning martial arts into sports. Instructors are forbidden from making profit from their tutelage and there are no ladder-based competitions. Shorinji Kempo competition relies on paired demonstrations called embu where the accuracy, the rhythm, and the realism are noted and compared (with something like "technical" and "artistic" marks, as in gymnastics or ice skating).
Shorinji Kempo has grown into a popular art form in many countries outside of Japan; United States, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sweden, the Philippines, Iran, France, United Kingdom and Australia being the most notable. The practitioner of Shorinji Kempo is known as a Kenshi.
Principles: The three main aims of Shorinji Kempo are:
Healthy Body - Improved physical
fitness and health
Healthy Mind - Spiritual development
Self-Defense
Shorinji Kempo teaches a wide variety of techniques, ranging from goho (hard techniques) such as kicks and punches, juho (soft techniques) such as grappling and throwing, to seiho (correcting methods) acupressure techniques for revival of unconscious persons. These three types of techniques are further divided into kogi (offensive techniques), bogi (defensive techniques), shuho (defence methods, mainly against soft techniques), tai gamae (body position), sokui ho (foot position), umpo ho (footwork), and tai sabaki (body movement).
Techniques are seldom practiced in isolated form. Often a technique is put into a context, or pattern, also known as hokei. The hokei is typically a defense paired with an attack.
Hokei is practiced either in isolated form, or during randori (free fighting, a more literal translation being "to bring Chaos under order", which is philosophically rather different to simply fighting for its own sake).
The relationship between technique, hokei and randori is similar to that of the relationship between words, sentences and essays. A word forms the basis of the sentence, just like the technique forms the basis of hokei. The sentence forms the basis of the essay, just like hokei forms the basis of randori. In order to master the art of writing good essays, one must first have a good vocabulary (words), and how you put them together to form sentences that conveys meaning. Similarly, in order to master the art of randori, one must know how to perform techniques, and how to put them together into hokei.
