is a Japanese author and practitioner of

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

. Tokitsu has also written a scholarly work about the legendary swordsman

Musashi Miyamoto , also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship a ...

. He holds

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

s in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

and in

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

and

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

Biography

Kenji Tokitsu was born on 1 August 1947 in Yamaguchi,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. A practitioner of

Shotokan karate is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" throug ...

since youth, in 1984 Tokitsu started his own school, the Shaolin-mon ("door to Shaolin", compare the

Mumonkan ''The Gateless Barrier'' ( Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen mast ...

) school in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, where he had taught Shotokan karate since 1971. The Shaolin-mon teachings were a hybrid of Tokitsu's dissatisfaction with Shotokan karate combined with what he learned of

Chinese martial arts Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to comm ...

. Still later, he founded the Tokitsu-ryu Academy in 2001. He was interviewed for his thoughts on Japanese culture in

Chris Marker Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are '' La Jetée'' (1962), '' A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''Sans Solei ...

's 1996 documentary film ''Level Five.''

Books

*Tokitsu, Kenji, ''The Inner Art of Karate: Cultivating the Budo Spirit in Your Practice'', trans. 2012, *–––––, ''Ki and the Way of the Martial Arts'', trans. 2003, *–––––, ''

Miyamoto Musashi , also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship a ...

: His Life and Writings'', trans. 2004 by Sherab Chödzin Kohn (from the French ''Miyamoto Musashi'', 2000), Boston:

Shambhala In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the Puranas, it is named as ...

, (1st ed., hbk)

References

*Shambhala
Biographical article and bibliography
at

Shambhala Publications Shambhala Publications is an independent publishing company based in Boulder, Colorado. According to the company, it specializes in "books that present creative and conscious ways of transforming the individual, the society, and the planet". Man ...

*Tokitsu, , www.tokitsu.com *Tokitsu, , www.tokitsu.com *Tokitsu, , www.tokitsu.com ;Notes

External links

* www.tokitsuryu.it (new official website)
YouTube video of Kenji
1947 births Living people Japanese writers Martial arts writers {{japan-writer-stub