Goshin (Omote) & Go Shin (Ura)

As will be noted from the two names above there is a division between Go and Shin in this second naming of the style of Martial art practised.

It is intended here to show the relationship of these two terms: Nihon Goshin Kage Ryu and Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu and how they emphasise different aspects of the martial art practised. This is most easily done by translating the individual terms and providing a summary based on those translations.

Martial arts may be divided into two levels of actual practice.

The first of these two levels is called Omote and means the front or surface level of technique, by this it is meant the external manifestation or outside of technique.

The second of these divisions is its Ura, that which exists behind technique, its Ri, intuitive principle or in some systems the Okuden: the inner secret of technique.

The terms Goshin and Go Shin in the order above stated can similarly be divided in accordance with the principles of Omote and Okuden, in that Goshin represents the Omote and Go Shin the Ura or Okuden aspects.

GO: The term Go has various translations in the martial arts, such as in the Okinawan Karate style Goju Ryu founded by Miyagi Chojun based on the arts of Naha Te (Higaonna 1985) and Minghe Quan Chaun Fa or Whooping Crane Gong Fu and Luohan Quan or Monkfist boxing (McCarthy 1995). The term Go in the translation of Okinawan Goju Ryu here means Hard, (where as the Ju means soft or yielding). Chojun Miyagi is believed to have taken the name Goju from the Bubishi in which there is a paragraph that states the way of breathing is hard and soft. Kempo is often translated at Law of the Fist or Fist way, though sometimes it is called the way or law of the hard fist. Nihon Goshin Kempo Ju Jutsu Kai was a Kempo based Ju Jutsu that followed the Go (or hard way). There are however other translations of the term Go depending upon the context in which this word is used. See further below.

Goshin often refers to modern day forms of Ju Jutsu which may or may not be based on the teachings of Japanese traditional and non traditional schools of martial arts.

Goshin is a term that refers to civil self defence systems of the modern era. Where the term Nihon is used in Nihon Goshin Jutsu this means that it is a Japanese form of civil self defence system, as opposed to a martial arts system that belongs to the battlefields of ancient Japan. Nihon Goshin Jutsu as civil defence system also includes restraint techniques such as seen in the art of Taiho Jutsu.

Most Nihon Goshin schools are Japanese martial arts systems which are usually based upon earlier unarmed forms that developed in Japan after the Meiji Restoration, for example Hakko Ryu, which had its foundation in Daito Ryu. Daito Ryu itself having evolved out of Takeda Ryu, a battlefield system.

There are also those civil defence grappling systems that form part of the Okinawan Martial Arts, often these days known as Tuite which have also been called Goshin Jutsu. 

The basic meaning of the term Goshin Jutsu is the art of self defence, this is the focus of many modern Ju Jutsu styles that are seen in the west.

Nihon Goshin Kempo Ju Jutsu Kai in the late 1980's and early 1990's was associated with two Ju Jutsu groups, one of which practised a hard Goshin Ju Jutsu style with a heavy Kempo emphasis and another that whilst practising the type of non Japanese style Ju Jitsu that is common to the United Kingdom also provided the opportunity to gain some exposure to more traditional Japanese arts such as Japanese Ju Jutsu, Aikido and Weaponry.

Go No Sen (To Respond to an Attack)

Go as a form of Yielding
There is a saying in Karate Do, the modern way of the empty hand that there is no first attack in Karate or 'Karate Ni Sente Nash'. This saying is epitomised in the term Go no Sen, which can be applied to many martial arts traditions. However this does not mean that because an art is called Ju Jutsu (Pliable or yielding way) that there are no attacking moves. The attacking moves in Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu however come from Hakuda Ryu Kempo Jutsu, where as our Ju Jutsu is characterised by Go No Sen.

Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu is characterised by Go No Sen

Hakuda Ryu Kempo Jutsu is characterised by Tai no Sen and Sen no Sen  

See further Kobu Ittai below. 

There is also another side to the term Go in Go Shin at the Shoden level. This has already been hinted at above in the discussion of Go in Goju Ryu, an art which has its basis in one of the Crane (Tsuru) martial arts systems of mainland China. The striking arts (Atemi Jutsu) in some Sogo Bugei (Composite martial arts) systems are often believed to have come from China.

When a student is training for Shoden level (5th Kyu Green Belt) in Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu the Kempo Kata which we call the Ko Kami No Kata is introduced. The Ko Kami No Kata Shodan (The first of a series of three Kata's) from Hakuda Ryu Kempo Jutsu (based on Shorei Ryu Kempo) consists of a variety of striking, locking and sweeping and throwing techniques that make up the Atemi Jutsu of Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu. Thus a student studying at this level is introduced to the concept of Go; the hard of Kempo and the Ju of Ju Jutsu. Whilst at the same time within the Ju Jutsu learning how Go can also mean yielding as in Go no Sen.

SHIN: This term has a variety of meanings depending on the ideogram that is used.

1. The term Shin as coined by Matsumoto and Kunii of the Kashima Shinto Ryu meant Divine or Deity.

Both Matsumoto and Kunii both attended the Kashima shrine in Hitachi and had received divine oracle through paying devotion to Takemikazuchi no Mikoto the demi god who engaged in hand to hand combat with Takeminakatano no Kami thus heralding the birth of the Japanese martial arts (Humitake and Friday 1994).

2. The term Shin as coined by Kamiizumi Nobutsuna of the Shin Kage Ryu meant New.

Kamiizumi Nobutsuna the founder of a style called Shin Kage Ryu changed the ideogram for Shin to mean New and in a document to his senior student Yagyu Muneyoshi used the term Shin to mean True or Sincere (Muneyoshi/Saito 1986. Humitake and Friday 1994).

Kamiizumi no Hidetsuna had learnt a style of swordsmanship called Kage Ryu from Aisu Ikosai Hisatada and it is believed that as Nobutsuna had modified his teachers style that he used the term Shin to describe that it was the New Kage Ryu.
It is known that the Shin Kage Ryu was practised in China (See the book called Sword and Same) as well as in Japan and that from Nobutsuna's Shin Kage Ryu came the Taisha Ryu and from that the Jigen Ryu, the latter is the martial art practised by the Satsuma Samurai that invaded Okinawa in 1609.

3. The term Goshin means New.
When the term Shin is combined with Go to make the single term Goshin it simply means new or non traditional, where it is separated in Go Shin, as two words it can take on a different levels of meaning.For example Mu Shin corresponds to an aspect of the divine and communication with it by mediative means. The heart (Shin) is believed to be the place where the human spirit is housed.

4. The term Shin in Bushindo Kai means Spirit.
The term Bushindo Kai means Warrior Spirit Way Society which was set up by Danny Connor.

5. The term Shin in Shinte Do
Shinte Do means Heart or Spirit so can be translated as Heart or Spirit Hand Way, this was the name of Mike Powell's Karate and Te Group based at Devon House in Chelmsford, the name was chosen by Mark Bishop who was Mike Powell's Te and Shiatsu teacher.

The term Shin may therefore to stand mean New, True, Sincere, Heart, Spirit or Divine depending on the context and the

Kamiizumi Ise no Fujiwara no Hidetsuna, generally shortened to Kamiizumi no Hidetsuna (aka: Nobutsuna) is accredited with being the first person to use the name Shin Kage Ryu. He had original learnt his martial arts from from many different schools including Kage Ryu from its founder Aisu Ikosai Hisatada (1452-1538?).

We know little of Aisu Ikosai Hisatada, except that he was a native of the Iga region and travelled to Kyushu in Southern Japan and Kanto in the North as well as Ming China in order to further his ability in the martial arts (Kiyota 2002). Many Samurai historians claim that Aisu Ikosai was a pirate. Ikosai makes reference in his style of swordsmanship to the animals and natural phenomenon such as the movement of the wind and the rhythm of the waves (Kiyota 2002). The techniques of Kage Ryu shadowed or reflected those of an opponent in battle and the natural elements in practice. There is some evidence to suggest that this style of swordsmanship gained popularity in Ming China and may even have been influenced by Chinese martial arts. The term Kage itself can literally be translated as Shadow or Reflection, this can have a variety of different levels of meanings.

KAGE: This term Kage means reflection, silhoutte or shadow.

RYU: Simply means school and describes a tradition of a particular school to which the name is prefixed.

The term Nihon Goshin is often suffixed to Ju Jutsu to create one of three categories of Ju Jutsu schools which are regarded as Japanese non traditional Ju Jutsu.

The term Nihon, like Nippon, means Japan or Japanese
The term Goshin means non-traditional. Nihon Goshin is the middle category of three ways of classifying Ju Jutsu schools. The first category is traditional Ju Jutsu based on Samurai arts, usually old Samurai art of unarmed combat (Kumiuchi), so these are Ko Ryu Bu Jutsu Systems (Old schools of martial arts), where as the last category is Gendai Goshin Jutsu. The three categories are thus:

1. Sogo Bugei Ryu Ha: True military arts which were composite battlefield systems
2. Nihon Goshin Jutsu: Modern Japanese grappling and weapons systems based upon older schools.
3. Gendai Goshin Jutsu: Non Japanese systems which may or may not be influenced by Nihon Goshin Jutsu.

The term Nihon Goshin here means that the school is newly established, but this does not mean that it is not founded upon the ideas, principles or techniques of the more traditional schools. For example Soke Okuyama in his formulation of the Hakko Ryu (the eight light) school of Ju Jutsu had first studied various martial arts traditions including Daito Ryu, (which has its origins in the Aizu clan Sogo Bugei Ryu Ha) and combined these with his studies in Acupressure and Shiatsu to create Hakko Ryu Ju Jutsu which has since influenced many Goshin Jutsu styles.

It may therefore be summised that the name Nihon Goshin Kage Ryu may be translated as:

Japanese Non Traditional Yielding New Shadow School.

This school also has its Omote and an Ura aspects. The Omote level of Nihon Goshin Kage Ryu is Nihon Goshin Ryu Ju Jutsu Kai.

The name Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu, may be translated as:

Japanese Yielding Divine Reflection School.

The Divine refers to those teachings in the Okuden level which have been informed by the teachings of Takuan Soho and his work the Fudochishinmyoroku (Divine record of immovable wisdom). Such teachings may be found in the first move of the Kata Nippon Me, performed at the Shoden level, where the concept of Katsujin Ken (Life giving sword) may be found in the first move. The deeper principle are of Shin Myo Ken

This is the Okuden level of principles and techniques, this is the deepest, and inner most level of the art that we practice. It consists of those techniques that are based on and around training with wooden versions of:

Traditional bladed weapons:
Tanto (Knife),
Shoto (Short Sword),
Bokken (Long Sword)

and

Weapons with shafts:
Jo (4ft Staff),
Tanjo or Hanbo (3ft Stick).

Weapons with Blades and Shafts:
So-Jo (Short Spear a Jo is used for practice)

Muto Dori (No Sword techniques)
Associated with the bladed weapons is a grappling aspect is known as Muto. Muto describes a strategy and its set of principles which are based on the concept of No Sword (Mu To) The term Muto describes a strategy when one is unarmed and has to deal with an armed or unarmed adversary. (Divine sword).