SoCal Tai Chi

The Tao never does.  Yet through it everything is done." - Laozi

An Interview With Riichi Kitano, Founder of Shinkiryu Bujutsu

People study the internal martial arts for various reasons.  Some do it to improve their health, others to improve their posture and coordination.  Still others are interested purely in the martial aspects.  Very few actually take up these practices for spiritual attainment. 

For some fortunate practitioners gaining enlightenment may happen over the course of many years of rigorous practice.  It is the result of a process that requires not only dedication and persistence but the proper positioning and timing as well.  For Riichi Kitano, enlightenment came when he realized physical force would not take his skill to the next level.  Instead, he repositioned himself to master internal power, and the 25 year-old karate practitioner soon realized that which takes many masters a lifetime to achieve.

Riichi Nikano began his practice of Budo when he was twelve years old.  That was some fourteen years ago. In his first year he studied judo.  Then a year later, he took up kempo.  A year after that, he began karate and combined all three styles into his practice. Then at the age of fifteen he joined the Japanese national team to continue his training and to compete with international opponents. 

During the next four years he practiced many different styles of martial arts including coperia and jujitsu to improve his karate skills.  Once he felt ready to take on international competitors, he came to the U.S.  His dream was to win the All-American Championship. He was 19.

After competing for a year, he entered the All-American Championships but lost.  That loss was the beginning of a new journey for Riichi, one that would lead him to enlightenment at the young age of 24. 

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Paul: How did the loss at the All-American Championships affect your practice?

Riichi: That loss made me realize that at 5-4 and 142 pounds, I could not win with physical power.  But I knew that there must be some way to master my opponents.

I had heard about great masters in ancient times who used their internal powers to become adept at Budo.  So, I switched from physical power to internal power. 

Paul: How did you go about that?

Riichi: At that time I turned to aikido, where you use internal power rather than physical power.  I knew of only one great master, Gozo Shioda.  (Master Shioda, the founder of Yoshinkan Aikido, one of the stronger styles of Aikido, died in 1994). Master Shioda had studied under the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba.  I was attracted by Master Shioda’s technique and character.  So, I joined Yoshinkan Aikido.  Through them, I met several great teachers. 

Paul: Who are your main teachers?

Riichi:  The main focus of my martial arts now is Saotome Sensei, also Shiroma sensei.  Because of them I am where I am right now, and I discovered how to use ki and reached an initial level of enlightenment.  But there are even higher levels that I must achieve. 

Paul: What have you learned so far on this journey?

Riichi: I learned how to harmonize with opponents and how not to fight. Instead of how to fight.  And I’ve learned how not to hit instead of hitting.  And I’ve learned winning without fighting. 

Paul: Can you explain what you mean by how not to fight?

Riichi: I call my martial art Shinkiryu Bujutsu.  Shin is koro and Shinki is kokoro or spirit.  The power I use is not physical.  It’s not masculine.  If you use masculine power, when you get old, you cannot do anything.  So, real feeling, kokoro or spirit is the most important thing and that’s what my marital art is all about.  If you can use it, you’re not going to fight with anybody.

Paul: How did training with your senseis lead to this idea?

Riichi: When I discovered ki and how to use ki, I went to the teacher and asked what do I need to do to improve it because I wanted to be strong physically and combat-wise as a martial artist. He told me that, if you want to be strong, you have to have Omoi (compassion), caring for others, to sense what others feel. 

I asked why?  I had asked him how to be strong.  What is strong?  It’s not caring for others.  But then I realized, if you care for others, you know their feelings.  That means you can sense others’ feelings before they tell you.  That’s going to lead to taking the initiative of others movements, so stopping before the fight (begins).

Paul: What exactly does stopping before the fight mean?

Riichi: You can seize the moment when they try to hit you.  You can just pick the moment and stop it without touching them or anything. 

Paul: Using ki?

Riichi: Yes, using ki.  But the thing about ki is that a lot of Japanese people don’t believe in ki any more. They think it is something supernatural. But I believe ki is something everybody has.  If I asked the question: do you have ki, a lot of people will say no. But if I asked them, do you have kokoro, which is spirit, a lot of people say yes.  Kokoro is the same thing as Omoi, a sort of feeling.  And if I asked, do you have feelings, everybody says yes.

There’s a Japanese saying: “Kiwa kokoro,” whick is ki equals kokoro. Kokoro equals feeling, Omoi.  Everybody has it (ki); they just don’t know how to use it.  They just don’t see it.  It’s like gravity.  It’s like electricity, too.  You cannot see it.  Like X-rays and all that stuff, you cannot see it, but you have it.

Paul: What is the relationship of martial arts to your daily life?  Has it changed at all since your enlightenment?

Riichi: At that time I learned how to relate martial arts to my daily life. Before then, when I was a karate competitor, my karate life was only my karate life and my martial arts was only my martial arts life, and my daily life was different.

Paul: Would you say that aikido is the style that you favor the most?

Riichi: Actually my core is karate, aikido and ti, which many people don’t know about.  Ti is an ancient form of karate, which was influenced by the Chinese.  I believe that no matter what style of martial arts you do, it’s like climbing up a mountain.  There’s not only one way to climb up the mountain.  There are a lot of ways. You just need to figure out how to climb it.  

A lot of great masters can show you what the mountain looks like.  But you are the one who has to climb up.  And that’s what I have learned from my senseis.  They have shown me a lot of different ways, a lot of different styles, but the basic principal is the same.  So, I don’t think aikido and karate are different.  They are the same.  And ti is the same.  And deep down I think judo and all the other martial arts have to have the same principal. 

Like Chinese martial arts, the (Shaolin) monks study martial arts. That’s got to mean the martial arts are meant to discover and achieve enlightenment and to help others.  That’s what I think and that’s what I hope, rather than just using it for combat.  

Paul: How did you learn to transmit your ki to heal others?

Riichi: It’s all of a sudden.  One minute you don’t know anything about it (ki), but one minute later you know everything about it.  I couldn’t do anything before I achieved enlightenment and discovered how to use ki.  But after I’m in it, I could do a lot of things that you just know (how to do) before you do it.  It’s just a sense of what you can do like before you ride a bicycle.  You know you can ride it.  So, it’s that type of thing.  You know beforehand.

Paul: What do you have to do to replenish your ki after you transmit it?

Riichi: I’m not using my ki.  Ki is everywhere.  The Japanese word is kuki, which is air.  But there’s a tamki in it.  It’s like empty air, empty ki.  So, ki is everywhere.  You breathe in and you breathe out.  So, I don’t use my ki.  I use nature. I use the power of earth.  It’s not my power.  So, I don’t get tired from doing it.  It’s like being in harmony with everything. 

Because everybody has ki, I have to respect others.  Otherwise I cannot use it.  So if you want to get respect, you have to respect others first.  If you want to fight, you have to respect others feelings and try to harmonize with them rather than fighting against them. 

 Paul: Enlightenment and discovering their k or chi is the goal of many martial artists.  What advice can you give practitioners to help them refine their practice?

 Riichi: I would say you have to combine your daily life with the martial arts. Martial arts is not only martial arts. The martial arts are generally physical combat.  You don’t need to learn it (to protect yourself); you can just get a gun.  But martial arts are really for others, to protect others.  It’s not only self-defense.  Protecting others is more important. 

 If you’re only going to protect yourself, you can do it very easily.  But for others, that’s the time when martial arts becomes important.  To improve that skill, like my teacher said Omoi - to care for others.  Because you care for others, because you throw away all of your ego, then people care for you.  If you do that, there’s no enemy, and there will be no fight.  I think that’s the highest you can get as a martial artist.  You don’t need to fight.

Paul: Are there any postures techniques that practitioners would find helpful?

Riichi: Yes, how you walk because you walk a lot every single day.  If you do that wrong, that’s going to be a problem. Also what the Japanese call seida, this style of sitting is really good.  But the really important thing is people think you can stand, you can sit, you can walk, right?  I thought so. But now, even when I’ve discovered ki, I’m always questioning do I walk right, do I stand right, do I sit right, do I use the chopsticks right.  That kind of questioning yourself is the key to improve yourself, to really look internally.  People don’t think (about) if they are walking right.  They walk, and that’s fine.  But if you really walk (correctly), that’s really different.  You have to always question yourself if you’re doing it right.

People look at only the shape, but the really important thing is on the inside of the shape.  Something you cannot see is more important than something you can see.  It’s like love, which is really important, but you cannot see it.  Your spirit, you cannot see it, but you know it’s there. 

So you have to see your inside.  I think it’s more important than how you practice.  Because there are a lot of different styles of martial arts, and I don’t disregard any martial art.  I think every single martial art is really great.  And the form I think that’s good.  But the important thing is what you can find in the form.

Paul: How has this influenced how you teach your Shinkiryu Bujutsu?

Riichi: I can give you the outside of the form.  It’s like giving somebody the Bible.  All the words are there, but what others can get from the same book is different. Your knowledge is different.  So, you have to really deepen your soul or spirit in order to get it.  I can just get the word and get the shape and give that to my students, but they’re not going to get the same thing that I did.

 I cannot get the same answers from the same shape (posture) as my sensei. Everybody has a different personality, and I respect that.  If there are a hundred people, there should be a hundred different ways than (the way) I do (the form).  That’s how I learned.

Paul: What supplemental practices like do you prefer?

Riichi: I have always tried to care for my diet.  I eat what I want to eat when I want to eat.  But meditation is really very good for my health and my feelings, and feelings are very important.  So, meditation-wise, people only meditate when meditation time comes, when you sit.  But to me every single movement is meditation, and every single movement is martial arts.  And that’s practice.  And you have to practice 24/7 in order to get ki.