Shintaido of America Podcast

Have you ever been in a safe, but nonetheless terrifying situation, comforting a friend who is even more neurotic and terrified than you are, only to find that by going through this together, you form a lasting bond with each other?

Michael Thompson’s autobiography, Untying Knots, is full of such episodes of existential unfolding, some disturbing, some light-hearted, all rendered with quiet wit and honesty. In this episode, Shintai...

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...

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 hea...

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 somati...

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 ...

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...

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 psycholo...

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...

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.

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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...

“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 S...

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 insight...

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 pos...

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 Ra...

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, ...

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 ...

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 tr...