HISTORY
The Shodokan Legacy
Some legacies bring pride and a feeling of great responsibility to those who inherit them. The one I describe here is the testimony of the relationship between my Sensei and myself, the testimony of a sincere trust gained by a total and faithful commitment, built on fifteen years of practice with the Okada family.
The following portrait is not an exhaustive illustration of my kendo life, but its goal is to explain the origins of the name Shodokan Alsace. It is to enlightens its meaning, its value and the fundamental notion, based on humanist beliefs, that kendo can bring out the best in everyone.
This short story starts as such : kendo is an essential element in life. Of this I am convinced, but this belief takes its full meaning only if you are guided by a good Sensei, and in a place where this art can flourish.
For me, kendo quickly appeared as an evidence, - an inexplicable and organic
phenomenon- but the absence of a real sensei and a true dojo were major obstacles to my wish to grow in this discipline.
In July 1986, after a little more than ten years of practice, my first electroshock occurred when I met O sensei Okada Yasuhiko, father of Okada Morimasa, current head of Shodokan Tokyo and son of O Senseï Okada Morihiro, founder of the dojo. He was giving a seminar in Magnanville, capital of Yvelines. This experience gave me the hope of filling these gaps. A year later, I meet again with Okada Morimasa at his seminar in Val d'Isère, and this definitely confirmed my wish to follow their teachings.
In 92, backpacking, I flew to the Shodokan of Tokyo and became a disciple of Okada Morimasa Sensei.
The intense experience that I lived there changed my vision of the kendo forever.
April 2005 was my fourth trip to Japan, but also a turning point in my life. While my dojo in Mutzig had been striving to find its marks for a couple of years, following the path of a traditional kendo, Okada Morimasa Sensei then honored my dojo by giving it the name Shodokan. This transmission, evidence of a trust that transcends borders and paves the way between Tokyo and Mutzig, was for me the start of a new beginning.
Shodokan Vendée
As fast as a kakarigeiko, life brought me in Vendee, near the Sables d'Olonne.
Like the first men shapes the upcoming strikes, and remains most important, the Shodokan Vendée is the continuation of the Shodokan Alsace, whose reference remais the Shodokan Tokyo.
Jacques Muller
Sensei of the Shodokan Vendee
The name Shodokan
Translation : « The place where you progress
endlessly. »
It is interesting to note that the kanji « Sho »
comes from 2 kanjis joined together:
The first one means a window, a way through .
The second represents the passage of the air
through the first one, rising towards the sky.
Endless
The way / the path
Kanji
Do
Sho
Kan
Meaning
The Place