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Indian forms of yoga have spread throughout the world due to their objectives of promoting health and harmony. Japan is but one of many countries that have received these ageold teachings. While Indian yogic disciplines Hatha yoga in particular have become well known, not everyone realizes that certain distinctive Japanese versions of Indian spiritual paths have evolved. Perhaps the first of these unique methodologies is the art of Shinshintoitsudo, which was developed by Nakamura Tempu Sensei 1876–1968. In fact, Nakamura Sensei is often considered to be the father of yoga in Japan. Nakamura Tempu Sensei was born Nakamura Saburo in Oji in northern Tokyo, a member of the aristocratic Tachibana family, part of the Yanagawa clan of Kyushu. The young Nakamura’s mother and father enrolled him, starting at the age of six, in judo and kendo a swordbased martial sport classes. He excelled in both. He also studied Zuihen Ryu battojutsu, a classical system of swordsmanship, for many years. Always interested in things of a spiritual nature, young Nakamura practiced a variety of native Japanese Ways Do, and he investigated traditional Japanese healing arts. He would remain interested in both of these throughout his life. After completing his primary education he traveled to his father’s place of birth in Fukuoka. There he attended a fairly prestigious school renowned for its instruction in English, a language skill that would prove useful on his journeys later in life. But despite his active participation in various Do forms, young Nakamura had a violent temper that worried his family. Hoping to curb his behavior, his parents encouraged his involvement in the Genyosha, a political organization. As a result of this association, just before the SinoJapanese War broke out in 1894, Nakamura went to China to engage in Japanese reconnaissance. He went on another reconnaissance sortie to Manchuria just before the onset of the RussoJapanese War of 1904. Due to his prior training in Japanese swordsmanship, the agent Nakamura earned quite a reputation for fearlessness in battle. Real understanding is not the mere accumulation of knowledge. Understanding cannot be realized bylistening or reading about the realization of others. It must be achieved firsthand via substantive direct perception in the moment. On a subsequent trip to China, he contracted tuberculosis, which in those days was frequently a fatal disease the army doctor who made this diagnosis gave him only six months to live. Despite Nakamura Sensei’s knowledge of certain traditional Japanese healing methods, his condition worsened. He went to the United States in the early 1900s to receive Westernstyle medical treatment, and initially it seemed to cure him. Impressed with the effectiveness of the treatments he received, Nakamura Sensei enrolled in Columbia University, where he studied medicine. A Search Begins Nakamura Sensei, however, began to cough up blood again. Despite his past training in various Japanese spiritual paths, he had over the years become almost totally preoccupied with the body—his body in particular. Realizing this, and perhaps feeling that he had gone as far as he could with different “bodyoriented cures,” he decided to explore the mind as a possible means of curing his illness. Inspired by Thomas Edison’s claim that his famed discoveries weren’t due to academic training but were the outcome of carefully observing the true nature of everyday events, Nakamura Sensei felt that his cure might lie within his own mind, and that it might be discovered in daily existence. He renewed his study of different Japanese spiritual paths. Yet after his medical training in America, he felt that truth was not limited to Japan. He began to read a variety of what are known today as “selfhelp books,” including How to Get What You Want by Orison Swett Marden. There was no real change in him. He tried a health improvement system called Motion Motive with little result. He heard of a philosopher who had successfully treated an illness that had befallen Edison using psychosomatic medicine. Through this philosophy, Nakamura Sensei formulated a theory of spiritual transformation and nonmaterialism that would stay with him for the rest of his life … but he was still plagued by a lifethreatening illness. Nakamura Tempu Sensei even traveled to England to study with H. Addington Bruce, who had evolved his own formof personal growth. Bruce encouraged himto transcend worry and forget useless things. It was, again, something that he would later transmit to his own students … but he was still coughing. Since he was already in Europe, he decided to explore the depths of the newly developing field of psychology, and he would later use the general concepts he had learned in his teaching of Japanese yoga. His study of psychology spanned France, Germany, and Belgium … but he still couldn’t shake the tuberculosis. Despite believing even more strongly in the possibility of a psychosomatic cure, Nakamura Sensei met with no success. Despondent, he decided to return to Japan. But he would stop in Egypt first. A Turning Point In Cairo, while staying in a local hotel, an Indian yogi named Kaliapa also, Kariappa befriended him. Upon the urging of his new mentor, Nakamura Sensei decided to make a quick detour—a detour that resulted in his traveling to the Himalayas around 1916. It would be about three years, and a new life later, before he returned to Japan. Nakamura Sensei and Kaliapa ended up on Mt. Kanchenjunga, at 28,146 feet the third highest mountain in the world. Kaliapa taught various yogic methods, but more than this, he created an environment in which Nakamura Sensei ceased to look for answers in books, theories, or the belief systems of others. Kaliapa, using psychological techniques that Nakamura Sensei recalled as being severe, encouraged his student to search for firsthand understanding that was not dependent on any authority or system. To summarize Kaliapa’s position is fairly simple we are one with the universe, we are therefore imbued with the energy of the universe ki in Japan, prana in India, and, as a result, we can learn directly fromthe universe itself. Kaliapa told Nakamura Sensei that he depended too much on the teachings of others, and his illness was actually a blessing in disguise since it forced him to consider the real nature of his existence. Nevertheless, if he was to go any further in life, it was time to forget about living and dying. Kaliapa observed that since it was impossible to know exactly when one would die, Nakamura Sensei should stop worrying about death and live each day fully. What’s more, Kaliapa noted that the body reflects the mind and emotions. In a way, the mind is comparable to the source of a river, and the body is like the downstream currents. Consequently, Kaliapa stressed that even if the body falls ill, the mind must remain positive and vigorous or our physical condition will be further debilitated by our attitude. He even suggested that the specific condition of certain internal organs was an indication of related emotional problems. Kaliapa frequently offered up questions but provided no answers to be memorized. Among these inquiries was a single question that Nakamura Tempu Sensei would reflect on incessantly, and which had a tremendous transformative effect on him “What are men and women born into this life to do” Nakamura Sensei’s realization led him to state that human beings are “lords of creation” because only humans are aware of their births and their mortality. Even more important, while plants and animals are undoubtedly one with the universe, equal to men and women, only humans have the capacity to consciously realize this fact and act upon it. Within humanity are reflexive characteristics common to plants and emotional characteristics witnessed in animals, but unlike plants and animals, humans have a highly evolved capacity for reason that is rarely duplicated in the animal world. This “thinking ability” can lead humanity away from its original, naturalistic state, but it also gives us the capacity to consciously and directly realize our innate unity with the universe, an ability that Nakamura Tempu Sensei called uchurei, the “universal mind.” In 1919, Nakamura Sensei returned to Japan …and he never coughed up blood again. A New Beginning and a New Teaching Nakamura Sensei entered the business world of Tokyo with his characteristic zeal. In time, he would become the Chief Director of the Tokyo Jitsugyo Chozo Bank and serve on the Board of Directors of the Dai Nihon Seifun Milling Company. He taught a synthesis of the various arts, skills, and meditations he had learned, but only on a private basis. Gradually, however, he began to teach more and more publicly. Each morning, he would offer free instruction in Hibiya and Ueno parks. His first organization was called the Toitsu Tetsuigakkai. Eventually, the TempuKai, or “Tempu Society,” grew up around him, and it was formally inaugurated in 1962. Since he stressed the unification of mind and body, he termed his teachings “Shinshintoitsudo,” literally, “the Way of mind and body unification.” Practioners of this form of Japanese yoga sometimes refer to it is as just Shinshintoitsu “mind and body unification”, as Shinshintoitsuho “the artmethod of mind and body unification”, or as Toitsudo “the Way of unification”. Despite building a following and an organization, Nakamura Sensei was adamant that Shinshintoitsudo be an examination of the very essence of spirituality as opposed to an organized religion of any kind. What was it that Nakamura Tempu Sensei taught Based on the fact that the mind and body are one, his comments to others were usually not only of a spiritual nature, but also rather downtoearth. Here are a few of the topics that he frequently discussed While we can learn or study techniques for almost anything we might want to accomplish, real understanding is not the mere accumulation of knowledge. Understanding cannot be realized by listening or reading about the realization of others. It must be achieved firsthand via substantive, direct perception in the moment. By means of personal experimentation and observation, we can discover certain simple and universal truths. The mind moves the body, and the body follows the mind. Logically then, negative thought patterns harm not only the mind but also the body. What we actually do builds up to affect the subconscious mind and in turn affects the conscious mind and all reactions. The young should not think of themselves as immature and the elderly need not view themselves as feeble. Our minds control our bodies. Have no age, transcend both past and future, and enter into nakaima—the “eternal present.” If we fail to realize our full potential as human beings, we live more on an animalistic level. This is fine for dogs, cats, and chimpanzees but doesn’t work quite so well for women and men. Without the capacity to freely shape our own lives, much as a sculptor might carve stone, we inevitably slip into negativity and depression. Using the combined, integrated force of the mind and body is more efficient than using one without the other. Since the body can only exist in the present, that’s where the mind should be too unless we deliberately choose to contemplate the past or future. At the same time, the body needs to be healthy and in optimum operating condition so that it can respond effectively to the mind’s directives. Mental and physical health is more important than money or possessions. Nakamura Sensei had material wealth and was still unable to cure his tuberculosis. Human life power is more meaningful than either cash or houses. A strong life force can be seen in physical vitality, courage, competent judgment, selfmastery, sexual vigor, and the realization of each person’s unique talents and purpose in life. To maintain a powerful life force, forget yourself, forget about living and dying, and bring your full attention into this moment. Nakamura Sensei did teach certain techniques of mind and body unification, meditation, breathing exercise, and health improvement that served as simple tools for living a fuller life but should not be thought of as magic secrets of enlightenment. Considering the experiences of his life, we can trace the various influences of Nakamura Sensei’s methods. Historical Influences Naturally, influences from Indian forms of Hatha, Raja, and Pranayama yoga can be detected, albeit in a usually modified structure. Both anjo daza ho and muga ichinen ho meditations, which we’ll explore later, have been influenced by yogic meditation. And while Nakamura Sensei developed his own forms of stretching and physical training, he would periodically teach certain asana postures from Hatha yoga, and some types of Pranayama breathing exercises such as the “alternate nostril breath.” I’ve made a decision in writing this book not to include these practices as they’ve previously been covered in a variety of works on Hatha yoga and Pranayama. Nakamura Sensei’s emphasis on experimentation and understanding via direct perception echoes his training in Western science and medicine. He frequently conducted actual scientific experiments to study the effects of Shinshintoitsudo, and to this day leading Westernstyle physicians in Japan are prominent practitioners of Japanese yoga. Jiko anji, his method of autosuggestion which you’ll also have a chance to read about later, is derived from his experiences in the Himalayas, but the explanation is directly borrowed fromhis study of Western psychology in Europe. Certainly, various native Japanese influences can be felt in Shinshintoitsudo. Shinto, the indigenous Japanese religion, emphasizes purity and unification with nature, and its influence has permeated every aspect of Japanese culture. Likewise, Zen Buddhism has had a dramatic impact on Japan since its arrival from China around a thousand years ago. Since Nakamura Tempu Sensei grew up and lived within a cultural matrix imbued for centuries with Zen and Shinto, it should come as no surprise that some of the elements and aesthetics of these religions can be encountered in Japanese yoga. What’s more, certain “Japanized” Chinese influences can be found as well. Chinese Taoism has always stressed living in harmony with nature and oneness with the universe. Over time it evolved various meditations and health exercises that aimed at not only enlightenment, but also longevity and in some cases, outright immortality. Centuries ago, like many aspects of Chinese culture, these teachings migrated to Japan, where Taoismbecame known as Dokyo. Taoist mystics, who had attained a high degree of spiritual development and physical vitality, were called hsien in China. In Japan, this Chinese character was pronounced sen practitioners were called sennin. Esoteric Taoist meditative practices and healthmaintenance techniques sometimes come under the general heading of Sennindo, while arcane Taoistderived healing arts can be generically termed Sennin Ryoji. The influences of these Taoist methods, which are sometimes dubbed Senjutsu or Sendo, extend to Shinshintoitsudo. More than one author has written that the Taoist sennin, with their meditative practices and healthmaintenance techniques, were the Japanese equivalents to the Indian yogi, and their effect is particularly felt in some Shinshintoitsudo breathing exercises and selfhealing arts. In particular, the emphasis on the development of life energy in Shinshintoitsudo is paralleled in Chinese Taoist chikung kiko in Japanese. Shinshintoitsudo in fact can also be thought of as a formof Sennindo. It’s useless to merelycopythe original arts that Nakamura Sensei studied or to amass a collection of such arts ourselves. Rather, we should directly discover the truth for ourselves as he did. While Japanese yoga is certainly not a form of martial arts, Japanese budo nevertheless has had a strong effect on Shinshintoitsudo. Nakamura Sensei was an advanced practitioner of Zuihen Ryu battojutsu, a form of Japanese swordsmanship, and the influence of the martial arts can be felt in certain moving exercises, or forms of dynamic meditation, taught in Japanese yoga. He was also froma samurai family and a descendant of Lord Tachibana, a daimyo feudal lord in Yanagawa, an area where the martial arts were extremely popular in ancient times. During the RussoJapanese War, he used his sword in battle and earned the rather dubious nickname “ManCutting Tempu.” Yet after returning from India, he stressed love and protection for all creations, and during World War II saved the life of a downed American pilot whom Japanese villagers were beating. While Nakamura Sensei continued to practice solo sword forms for the rest of his life, he was quick to emphasize that he envisioned no enemy while performing battojutsu as moving meditation. His skill with the sword was so great that he frequently demonstrated how he could cleanly cut through a thick piece of bamboo armed with only a wooden sword. Impressive yes, but more impressive still was the fact that the bamboo would be hung from holes cut in two strips of rice paper suspended by two upturned knives held by a couple of assistants. The bamboo would be broken without tearing the suspending top and bottom holes in these strips. The bamboo was cut in half with such speed that the outer ends would slip from the holes without damaging the paper. Even more impressive and significant was the fact that Nakamura Sensei was able to teach the average person—including people who had no training in swordsmanship—to do the same thing. He explained that the secret didn’t lie in sword technique but rather in coordination of mind and body. As a side note, when I first met Hashimoto Tetsuichi Sensei, one of Nakamura Sensei’s senior students, he demonstrated a similar feat at the ryokan Japanese inn where my wife and I were staying. Hashimoto Sensei asked me to hold a pair of chopsticks in both hands. He then produced a postcard and, in one sudden swipe, cut cleanly through the chopsticks. The postcard was not damaged. According to Hashimoto Sensei, the secret is either to visualize ki passing through the chopsticks or to believe simply that they had already been broken. After that, it’s a matter of relaxing completely and cutting downward without hesitation. This, he taught, would result in a unification of mind and body that was extremely powerful. After a couple of false starts, my wife was able to break the chopsticks as well. Moving from and focusing power in the hara, a natural abdominal center, has a long tradition in both Zen meditation and budo. In some of Nakamura Sensei’s moving meditation exercises we can see traces of judo movements as well. And since Nakamura Sensei was a friend of the founder of aikido and had a number of prominent aikido teachers as students, it isn’t surprising to see aikido influences in Shinshintoitsudo, particularly in the art’s more recent offshoots. The mere synthesis of the various arts mentioned above does not, however, result in Shinshintoitsudo, which has as its true goal the direct, immediate perception of existence. We could practice all of the different things that Nakamura Sensei did and yet still not arrive at realization or even come up with the same exercises. Nakamura Sensei had already studied a plethora of unrelated disciplines before going to India. They did him little good. In fact, it was only when he stopped looking for a new “magical cure or teaching” to add to his arsenal of holistic health methods and spiritual arts that he was able to see the bona fide Way of the universe for himself. More than anything, Kaliapa served as a catalyst for this transformation. Without the capacityto freelyshape our own lives, much as a sculptor might carve stone, we inevitablyslip into negativity and depression. Nakamura Sensei’s Continuing Influence It is this direct perception of reality that made Nakamura Sensei helpful to others. To express this perception, he used various exercises and arts with which he was familiar, but this is almost incidental. Every person he moved with his words was swayed more by the power of his direct connection with reality than by anything else. It’s useless to merely copy the original arts that he studied or to amass a collection of such arts ourselves. Rather, we should directly discover the truth for ourselves as he did. Affectionately and informally known to his associates as Tempu Sensei, Nakamura Sensei’s unique insight drew a number of famous people to Shinshintoitsudo classes, although not all were well known at the time. Among his students were former Emperor Hirohito, Matsushita Konosuke Chairman of Matsushita, Kurata Shuzei President of Hitachi Manufacturing, Sano Jin President of Kawasaki Industries, Hara Kei former Prime Minister of Japan, and even John D. Rockefeller III, whomNakamura Sensei probably met at the bank he ran. Many years ago, Nakamura Sensei adopted the name Tempu, meaning “the Wind of Heaven.” He derived this name from the SinoJapanese characters ten and fu pu that are alternate pronunciations of the characters for amatsukaze. The amatsukaze is a formal technique kata in Zuihen Ryu swordsmanship, at which Tempu Sensei was particularly expert. This appellation also seemed to appeal to his sense of spiritual purpose. Nakamura Tempu Sensei passed away on December 1, 1968. He is buried in Otowa, Tokyo, not too far from where he grew up. For the vast number of people who have knowingly and unknowingly been influenced by his teachings, the Wind of Heaven is still felt rustling through their lives. The real essence of the teaching cannot be contained in a name. In recent years, perhaps the designation Toitsudo is used less frequently, to avoid being mistaken for Toitsu Kyokai—the Japanese transliteration for the Unification Church. Tempukai is a nonprofit educational corporation. It is not a church or temple. More than one version of Shinshintoitsudo now exists. Nakamura Tempu Sensei’s direct students, not all of whomuse the label “Shinshintoitsudo” to describe their teachings, formed most of these offshoots. The Ki no Renma of Tada Hiroshi Sensei is but one example. As a side note, a few years ago, a Japanese delegation of Tempukai members traveled to the Himalayas to research the Indian roots of their practices. They traced Nakamura Sensei’s journey, and after some difficulty they found the area in which he lived. They even found a statue of Kaliapa and practiced Japanese yoga in the same locations that their teacher had so many years before. While all of this made for interesting reading in Shirube, the Tempukai magazine, no member of the delegation appears to have experienced the same realization as Nakamura Sensei. True understanding cannot be copied. NO “talent and ability.” Nakamura Tempu Sensei listed noryoku, the capacity for wideranging ability, as an essential aspect of life, indicating that it could be found via unification of mind and body.