Hope everyone is well and enjoying your Shintaido in your daily life!!

The year of the 10th international gathering of Shntaido is coming….

I am very much excited by the theme chosen for this event, which reminded me of the old teaching of Japanese Samurai Lord who was the military advisor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi*.

It is my pleasure to introduce this teaching to you and let you taste, chew, and digest an old philosophy of Japanese Worrier!

The Seven Teachings of Water by Kanbei Kuroda**

- It is water that moves others by moving itself …
– It is water that constantly moves, seeking a path …
– It is water that, when blocked, finally breaks through with 100 times the force …
– It is water that cleans itself, washes away the dirt from others, and can encompass both clean and dirty …
– It is water that runs down to the sea, turns to steam, turns to cloud, turns to rain, turns to snow, turns to fog, freezes into a mirror of ice crystals, and never loses its own character …
– It is water that cools the summer heat, refreshes thirst, heals dryness, and sustains all living things …
– It is water that always tries to go lower, shapes itself to any container, creates terrible chaos when it is angry, and permits nothing

-Ito

p.s.

My special appreciation should go to Lee Seaman & Tomi Nagai-Rothe who helped me this translation!

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroda_Yoshitaka