It should be true that for each individual practioner of something like Shorinji Kempo techniques will evolve over time. However, it's not going to be a Darwinian selection in that the process of evolution is (sort of) intelligently quided and purposive. We also get to short circuit a lot of the evolutionary process by dint of being taught - one of the true meanings of hokei is that it's a damn sight more efficient than trial and error. As to what's happening to the overall corpus of Kempo knowledge, that will possibly be subject to something more like a true evolutionary process in that it's more random (i.e. subject to change which has not necessarily been willed by specific individuals or groups) and is interacting with the wider social environment. Actually, that's a thought - presumably Shorinji Kempo as a cultural entity has changed markedly since spreading beyond the confines of Japan, for all that it is based around one organisation.

One side issue here is that it seems to me that there is a danger that parts of the knowledge base might be lost over time as generations pass. One safeguard against this seems to be inclusion in the syllabus - aspects of S. K. like seiho and weapons techniques seems to me to be partiuclarly vulnerable on that basis.

Tony leith