Hello Mr Browne,
My only experience of Shorinji Kempo is watching Hiroshima University SK students training, as the aikido club members trained in aikido at the same time. From watching this SK training, I was not at all convinced that the kansetsu waza / katame waza applied actually worked.
There was also an SK club in the local taiikukan, which also happened to be the local headquarters of the Hiroshima branch of the Aikikai. I never saw SK practice here, but the SK students appeared to have high regard for the local aikido shihan, who was my teacher. However, the shihan had had some experience of other Japanese koryu and this might have been the reason why his aikido pins and joint locks were very effective.
I do not think that the aims of SK, considered as a postwar Japanese martial art, are so different from those of aikido, also considered as a postwar Japanese martial art. That is, the strictly martial aspects of both arts (as arts dedicated to killing) need to be seen in the overall context of postwar Japanese martial culture: that is, there is a more obvious compromise between 'martial' effectiveness, however this is considered, and other considerations, such as moral and spiritual improvement.
Best wishes,
P Goldsbury
Peter Goldsbury,
Forum Administrator,
Hiroshima, Japan