Shintaido of America Podcast
Shintaido of America
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The first podcast dedicated to Shintaido. Produced by Shintaido of America. Narrated by David Franklin.
Available episodes
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Oct 20, 2023
Amanda Palmer: former living statue, musician, crowdfunding guru
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.
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Oct 5, 2023
Untying Knots – an American samurai and his French disciples
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.
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Sep 20, 2023
David Palmer, the ‘father’ of on-site seated massage
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.
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Jun 5, 2023
People in motion – to San Francisco
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.
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May 10, 2023
His diaphragm became a red-hot glowing vault
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.
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Apr 20, 2023
Philosophers build edifices they can’t inhabit
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.
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Apr 5, 2023
Interview with Shintaido instructor and interactive media developer Brad Larson
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.
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Mar 20, 2023
3. Untying Knots chapter 3 & 4
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.
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Mar 5, 2023
Untying Knots and an interview with orchestral conductor Kent Nagano
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.
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Feb 6, 2023
Untying Knots chapter 1 and an interview with artist Mario Uribe
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.
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Feb 2, 2023
WE ARE RELEASING SEASON TWO OF THE SHINTAIDO OF AMERICA 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.
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Aug 5, 2022
14. “How to make this age better”
“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…
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Jul 5, 2022
13. To overcome the barriers to mutual understanding”
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 activi…
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Jun 20, 2022
12. “Playing with light”
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 ma…
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Jun 5, 2022
11. “Scream to the sky: the gyroscope of Shintaido”
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.
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We are a non-profit organization depend…
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May 22, 2022
10. “Giving voice to the hidden cosmic breath”
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…
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May 5, 2022
9. “Discovering the world of true natural body movement”
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…
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Apr 20, 2022
8. “The locus of one swing of the sword is a sign”
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…
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Apr 5, 2022
7. “Putting the art back into the martial arts”
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. “……
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Mar 20, 2022
6. “An ancient sword master expands space-time”
“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 tha…
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Mar 5, 2022
5. “The martial arts and the evolution of consciousness”
“The martial arts and the history of the evolution of consciousness.” It traces developments through the history of ancient Japanese martial arts from the simplest weapons to the peak classical achievements of the 16th century, after which a dramatic change was spurred by the introduction of the rifle on the battlefields of medieval Japan. From then onward, technological developments in warfare branched off in one direction, leading to the atomic bomb and other inventions. The other branch of martial arts was nurtured by periods of peace when the samurai turned to meditation, calligraphy, tea ceremony, and other art forms. The warrior’s ‘combat’ in the spiritual world grew into the samurai philosophy of living perfectly up to the moment of death.
🔴 More info about the episode and the podcast here.
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We are a non-profit organization depending on loads of volunteer wor…
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Feb 20, 2022
4. “How is a karate master like a symphonic conductor?”
Imagine that you are watching a group of dancers, or martial artists, moving in synchronization, the group naturally breathing as one, timing synchronized to the microsecond, but not with military rigidity — they are moving with the naturalness and grace a school of fish or a flock of birds. The scene shifts to a classical orchestra, each section and each musician contributing a part, which the conductor weaves together into a spectacular whole.
Part of Aoki’s inspiration in Shintaido was gained through the perspiration as master Egami’s disciple, leading karate training in his school. The choreographer, the orchestral conductor, and the karate master all share something in common: the ability to “orchestrate” group activity, to give “gorei” (号令). Aoki describes his experience leading classes in the Shotokai karate training hall: “Once I started to lead the whole class using a gorei, I was never allowed to break my concentration even for a second.”
In Shintaido,…
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Feb 5, 2022
3. “Meeting karate master Egami-sensei”
Before Shintaido was created decades ago, its founder, Hiroyuki Aoki, was a young student of drama and visual art. It was only by accident — when his acting teacher suggested that he should study karate to improve his acting skills — that he met karate master Shigeru Egami. Aoki’s artistic approach to body movement gave impetus to the discipline that eventually became Shintaido. “As a lover of music and art, I also wanted Shintaido to have the same value as the works of Bach or Mozart in music, or as the works of Michelangelo, Cezanne or Picasso in the world of art, or as the great works of literature.… The philosophy of these artists in the modern period is as familiar to most Japanese as boiled rice and miso soup.”
🔴 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 mor…
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Jan 20, 2022
2. ”What is Shintaido?”
“As a mood or feeling, Shintaido is more religious and artistic than scientific. It is more emotional and primitive than rational,” writes Shintaido’s founder, Hiroyuki Aoki. “It involves cooperation more than competition in its movements. But it is cooperation that emphasizes individual expression, rather than passive group enjoyment.… Shintaido cannot be understood by trying to pigeon-hole it into traditional or popular categories such as martial arts, gymnastics, health fads, or religion.” The difficulty of creating an art that overcomes barriers to mutual understanding is something Aoki understands well. Shintaido grows from the soil of Japan’s ancient traditions, but it is not necessary to “turn Japanese” to master it. A child of the 1960s, Shintaido speaks to an international audience and invites everyone to experience movement that is not “…constrained by tense shoulders, …[and] clenched fists, but rather one in which our hands and bodies are open to our…
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Jan 3, 2022
Trailer to season 1
Welcome to Shintaido of America podcast! Shintaido is a unique combination of martial arts and body movement that cultivates the spirit along with the mind and body. It has been called a moving meditation. In Japanese, Shintaido means “new body way.” Shintaido’s forms exemplify openness and freedom. The movements of Shintaido provide a new way of experiencing our relationship with ourselves, others, nature, and the spiritual world. 🔴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.
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Jan 1, 2022
1. “The atom bomb inspires an avant-garde martial art”
Hiroyuki Aoki, the founder of Shintaido, has been called a “pioneer,” and the discipline he created with the Rakutenkai group in the 1960s has been called “an avant-garde martial art.” As children, Aoki and members of the group experienced the bombing of Japan during World War Two, and many lost family members to the atomic bomb. But even as the technology of war continued to increase its destructive power, these young people dove deep into the traditional fighting techniques of Japanese martial arts to transform the essence of these ancient teachings into a movement discipline for modern society.
As one of Aoki’s students, Michael Thompson, writes: “Shintaido contains elements of the martial arts which appear violent and meditation which is quite calm and peaceful. They are not any more mutually exclusive than the two hemispheres of our brain.”
Another of Aoki’s students, Haruyoshi Ito, writes: “The more violence is turned into a form of spiritual garbage through m…
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