Shorinji Kempo
was originated in 1947 in the Japanese town of Tadotsu.
Shorinji Kempo's
founder, So Doshin, faced Japan's defeat at the end of the Second World War in
what was then called Manchuria (now the Northeast Region of China), and there
he experienced fully the wretchedness and sorrow of a defeated people. In such
times it was not ideology, religion, or ethics, but rather the interests of
nations and peoples that took priority, and the harsh reality of international
government was that it operated as if only power constituted righteousness.
Amidst that experience, Kaiso saw that the way law and government worked was
not determined simply by distinctions of ideology or religion, or of national
policy, but that a great difference was made by the character and way of
thinking of the person in the particular position of authority. What he had
noticed was that "everything depends on the quality of the person."
Later, Kaiso
returned to Japan, but the aftermath of war had left Japan in turmoil, and he
found that people's spirits were in ruins. So, in order to put his beloved home
country back on its feet, he resolved that he would dedicate the remainder of
his life to educating youth with the spirit and the backbone that the country needed.
Because it was the youth who would take care of the future, he had them train
both indomitable spirits and sturdy bodies, gave them strong confidence and
courage, and cultivated many true leaders who would rebuild their native Japan.
To construct a world in which everyone could live in happiness, he took the
Chinese and Japanese martial arts that he had studied and reformulated them
into a single, unique technical structure, thus originating Shorinji Kempo.
Kaiso used the
historical Buddha's teaching of building the self and Boddhidharma's (the
founder of Zen's) teaching of indestructible and indomitable spirit to make the
foundation of Kongo Zen, and he located Shorinji Kempo within Kongo Zen as its
primary discipline.
Afterwards,
however, these teachings and techniques could not be contained within the
boundaries of religion, and Shorinji Kempo expanded to become a Way which
anyone could study so long as they desired to improve in good balance both mind
and body, to mutually affirm one another's value, and to construct society as
best as possible together with comrades whom they could trust. This change was
recognized within Japan and broadly around the world.
Then, the World
Shorinji Kempo Organization was formed as Shorinji Kempo' global framework, and
people of truly diverse religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds have joined
the organization. Going beyond national borders and generational differences,
these members seek to become people who can contribute to world peace and well
being by working hard at their daily training.