Byakuren and Giwa Schools

[luar]

Gassho,

Is there such a thing as a Byakuren and Giwa school of SK? I came across this when looking up Elemental Techniques at http://homepage1.nifty.com/shorinji/gihou/waza-ef.htm.

Any background information would be helpful.

Thanks,

[Gary Dolce]

Raul,

Gassho,

Byakurenken, Giwaken, Tennoken, etc. can be thought of as families of techniques with some common element. I believe they were originally supposed to have been derived from different schools of Chinese martial arts studied by Kaiso, hence the reference to Byakuren and Giwa "schools". This is a historical reference and does not refer to current practice. There are no separate "schools" of SK, in the sense of different groups of Kenshi practicing fundamentally different techniques. I hope this helps.

[luar]

Gassho Gary,

Thank you for the reply. I wonder if the URL I mentioned above is somewhat misleading. For example, Hasso Gamae is listed as being one of the 8 postures of the Byakuren school whereas Ichiji Gama is listed as one of the 9 postures of the Giwa school.

As a side note, I remember when I was choosing a MA style one of the things I found confusing and frustrating because of all the politics was what exactly made one style of karate different from another one.

[Gary Dolce]

Raul,

Gassho,

I don't know why ichiji gamae is considered "giwa" while hasso gamae is "byakuren", but I wouldn't necessarily assume this is incorrect. While I consider the systematic organization of a huge number of techniques to be one of the brilliant things about SK, I have also learned that there some things about naming and organization of techniques for which there seem to be no obvious reasons.

Can someone who can read the Kyohan add anything here?

BTW - this URL may work better than the one in your orignal message:
http://homepage1.nifty.com/shorinji/engindex.htm