Allen Beebe

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the Sho Chiku Bai info, this is all pretty much in-line with what was shared with me about Sho Chiku Bai and our Kenpo, and not that different from the general Sho Chiku Bai symbolic referents found all around Japan and explicated in different cultural contexts.

What I wonder is what specifically prompted the usage of the specific phrase Sho Chiku Bai no Kenpo by O-sensei? Certainly he didn't invent the term or much of its interpretation. So where did he borrow it from? Ubiquitous Japanese cultural usage? (I doubt it.) Omoto? (1,000 plumb blossoms or something along those lines?), Shinto in general?, Some other religious/cultural referent?, or was it borrowed in association with a particular school of Kenpo ,where it was used as a particular technical referent . . . perhaps to further receive Ueshiba's additional "spin?" (This wouldn't be unprecedented.) (I seem to recall Ellis relating a Sho Chiku Bai - Shinkage - Hikitsuchi connection.)

Now that I think about it I recall Takeda giving Ueshiba a Shinkage Menkyo [with no evidence of any Shinkage Ryu teaching, so some hypothesize this was an official "nod" without necessarily having any specific Shinkage linkage] I wonder if there could be a Sho Chiku Bai relationship to that?

Perhaps O-sensei identified his Kenpo as Sho Chiku Bai no Kenpo thereby cleverly (not nefariously) leveraging the authority of the Shikage Menkyo awarded him by Takeda sensei (Takeda did Jikishinkage Ryu among other things) while avoiding any awkwardness that using the famous Shinkage name might cause.

(BTW, very recently I have identified a Shinkage linkage with some (I don't know how much because of my limited knowledge of Shinkage Ryu and its multifarious emanations) of the kumi tachi taught to me. [These are multi-step kata.] I can't say for certain if these came from Ueshiba sensei, only that they were taught by my teacher. So this information may have no relevance to the present thread drift.)

Anyway, do any encyclopedic minds know what most probably prompted O-sensei to make a Sho Chiku Bai connection to his Kenpo?

Thanks,
Allen