WSKO Web Requirements

[luar]

Just heard from Sensei last night that during the Branch Master's meeting in Taikai, WSKO is requesting that all branch web sites take down their historical content. That is WSKO does not want independent versions of the story of Kaiso and how ShorinjiKempo came to be.

Can someone please fully elaborate what this means? Needless to say while I understand this, I am not comfortable with it.

[jailess]

Sounds dodgy to me. It'd only be acceptable if they replaced it with an authentic definitive history of Shorinji Kempo. Have they done this?

Having said that, one of the two Davids put up a thread a whlie ago pointing to an Indonesian SK site's history of SK: noticeably different to ours, to say the least...

Damn Bureaucracy: They've already said to take out the Kongo Zen. Now it's the history. Next it'll be the techniques, then the Seiho, and soon we'll all just stand facing shomen for 2 hours. Which they've already changed to the Mark. Are we still allowed to wear Dogi?

[luar]

At this rate we might as well all use the WSKO web site and then expand the branch listings to include individual photos, directions, class schedules, etc.

Also heard from Taikai that WSKO will try to produce a cheaper dogi.

[Steve Williams]

What was actually said was that you should copy or give a link to the WSKO's history of Shorinji Kempo.....

You can give the history of your branch or of your federation in your own words, but not the history of WSKO or Shorinji Kempo in Japan... this is to stop the "hearsay" and supposition that sometimes accompanies certain "histories"......

[nuu]

I am being horribly reminded of the infamous rewriting of Japanese history school textbooks, which conveniently rewrote history and certain activities in China, so that everything looked rosy and squeaky clean. Is one still allowed to mention Nanking and "comfort women" on E-budo or will I be soon be banned?

It's my recusant tendencies, but I have no intention of taking out the UCL website history page and replacing it with a link to a "purified" (or in SK speak "unified") version of history. There are some darker sides to the history of SK. Live with it. But trying to erase this truth is not acceptable.

urrgh.. here's another *shudder*

[Gary Dolce]

I have no sympathy for those who want to rewrite history, but I am not convinced that it what is happening here. The fact is that most of us do not have access to original sources about the history of Shorinji Kempo and we all frame the history in our own way when we speak or write about it. The result is a fair amount of variation in the story. While rewriting history is a bad idea, trying to make sure that the facts are presented correctly isn't. It might be a good idea to suspend judgement until we have a clearer idea what this policy is trying to correct.

By the way, I looked at the UCL site and see nothing about the "darker side" of the history of Shorinji Kempo. Unfortunately, I can't seem to access the WSKO site tonight to compare the two descriptions, but based on memory I can't believe they are very different.

Anyone else having problems with the WSKO site? My access to it has been spotty for weeks now.

[Tripitaka of AA]

Gary, I haven't been able to access the WSKO history page for ages. It was the one I had bookmarked and would offer to anyone interested to find out more... I think it was taken down during the build up to the new logo, and needed some reworking since then. It is possible to find it by following onscreen links from some of the other pages (the ones with a satellite-type view of SouthEast Asia and loads of Japanese text).


Most (all?) of the webpages take their history from WSKO sources. Most of them are/were created by keen, enthusiastic, dedicated kyukenshi under guidance from their Sensei.. from the information provided on the WSKO site (or the Swedish site, that has collected some of the best articles from the WSKO site). Writing out the history again, tailored for local consumption is a good exercise for the Kenshi... but it does lead to occasional differences of accuracy or interpretation. Personally, I like to read each new take on the story and it helps me to understand it more. After you've read a few though, it does become apparent that "regurgitation" is unavoidable unless the sources have more direct contact with events. Is the history in the Tokuhon?


The WSKO site has been the definitive source for years. Linking to it would seem like the best thing to do, to avoid errors creeping in. But there is still a place for "local" transmission, as different elements of the story may or may not appeal to the potential Kenshi who may be reading the information for the first time. The websites are, in some cases, simply advertising the classes and attempting to draw in students to the local clubs - putting a link to the WSKO site would save webspace and avoid wasted time.

[Sami Elkhalifa]

Tripitaka of AA Gary wrote:
I haven't been able to access the WSKO history page for ages.

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/history/index.html



Gary Dolce wrote:
I have no sympathy for those who want to rewrite history, but I am not convinced that it what is happening here.

Indeed.



Gary Dolce wrote:
The result is a fair amount of variation in the story

A couple of months ago, I wrote a short piece on SK origins for a Mayfair Dojo flyer. Mizuno Sensei suggested that another Kenshi (Japanese) double check for consistency. Given that the piece was fairly short, there wasn't much to be rewritten and it wasn't. However, one interesting correction: Shorinji Kempo was founded in 19XX...the sites/publications I looked at (including some as authoritative as the BSKF one) list Shorinji Kempo as being founded in Tadotsu in (a)1946 (b)1947 or (c)1948!! I guess agreeing on when Shorinji Kempo was founded is probably not a bad start for getting the history right regardless of who writes the piece.





P.S. It's (b)

[Tripitaka of AA]

Good point Sami - and thanks for the link.

Here are some links to old threads that could have benefited from an "authoritative source";

"a committed Christian could never train in this style with a good conscience" (http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22330) - where an online article is discussed, and the "1972 court case" gets mentioned. Oct 2003.

modern bujutsu and budo book (http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24589) - Where someone asks about the negative slant on Shorinji Kempo in the book (by Donn Draeger :)). Feb 2004.

Some criticisms of Shorinji Kempo based on... yes Draeger's book! (http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29379) - Where the story is repeated, in the hope of getting some clear cut answers, with an interesting comment from Ellis Amdur. Jan 2005.

[luar]

What was actually said was that you should copy or give a link to the WSKO's history of Shorinji Kempo.....

You can give the history of your branch or of your federation in your own words, but not the history of WSKO or Shorinji Kempo in Japan... this is to stop the "hearsay" and supposition that sometimes accompanies certain "histories"......

OK this I have no problem with and thus will copy their text verbatium.

[satsukikorin]

Good: authoritative standardization.

Bad: potential loss of the excellent history at the Swedish Fed's website (cheers, Anders!). It's such a good complement to the short WSKO intro.

Confusing: change of policy from "every branch website must provide a What is Shorinji Kempo? page" to "only WSKO shall explain what Shorinji Kempo is". Of course, one can argue that the new policy applies only to the history, not to the What Is? profile in general. One can also argue that the two are linked.

In any case, will WSKO be sending out a written announcement of the new policy, or was the Taikai announcement as much as we can expect to receive?

[luar]

Good: authoritative standardization.

Bad: potential loss of the excellent history at the Swedish Fed's website (cheers, Anders!). It's such a good complement to the short WSKO intro.
[QUOTE]

I've already mirrored his web site.

[QUOTE]
Confusing: change of policy from "every branch website must provide a What is Shorinji Kempo? page" to "only WSKO shall explain what Shorinji Kempo is". Of course, one can argue that the new policy applies only to the history, not to the What Is? profile in general. One can also argue that the two are linked.

In any case, will WSKO be sending out a written announcement of the new policy, or was the Taikai announcement as much as we can expect to receive?

And how does this make us less cult-like?

[JL.]

Gassho!

Why, exactly, would we want to be less cult-like? :p

Kesshu,
______ Jan.

[Joerg]

In any case, will WSKO be sending out a written announcement of the new policy, or was the Taikai announcement as much as we can expect to receive?

From what I understood, there will be information on that and extensive information on how to use the new sysmbol on the November mail from WSKO.

Also I understood (and please someone who was also there correct me if I understood this wrong), that the different federations can get some webspace on the WSKO homepage to have a place to explain on the history in the respective language, although I don't know if this is also true for all the english-speaking countries.

[Joerg]

There has been an update on the WSKO homepage on the website issue, have a look:

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/webmasters/index.html

On the history issue it says:

However, please do not include anything that may harm the image of Shorinji Kempo, or statements that may lead misunderstanding or confusion about our philosophy, techniques, and history.