Shorinji Kempo
少林寺拳法A Japanese art founded in 1947 by Doshin So. From the outset it was conceived not as a sport but as a means of rebuilding people in post-war Japan.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Shorinji Kempo
About Shorinji Kempo
Shorinji Kempo was founded in 1947 by Doshin So in the town of Tadotsu on Shikoku. He had returned from Manchuria, where he spent years in a Chinese environment, and saw the collapse of post-war Japan; from the outset he conceived the system not as a sport but as a means of rebuilding people who had lost their bearings. The art is inseparable from the teaching of Kongo Zen. Its key phrase is ken zen ichinyo — fist and zazen are one; training carries the same weight as what the practitioner takes away from it. The organisation remains both a religious body and a sporting federation, which sets it apart among Japanese martial arts. Technically it is half hard and half soft, goju ittai. Goho covers strikes, kicks and blocks, juho covers locks, grips and throws, and the curriculum deliberately pairs them: every attack has an answer from both groups. Practice is mostly in pairs through set sequences called embu, which are also performed at competitions — instead of fighting, judges assess precision, timing and the coordination of the pair. The school's emblem was originally the manji, a Buddhist symbol that Western audiences confused with the Nazi swastika; the organisation replaced it with a new logo in 2005.
Styles & Branches
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Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.