Jikishin-Kai International
国際日本武道直心会

The biggest news at the moment is that the JKI has been revived and reconstituted.   After ten years of trying unsuccessfully to gain official recognition of Shimabukuro-Ha Shitō-Ryū karate-dō by the Dai Nippon Butoku-Kai or an international budō organisation of similar influence, seven former students of the late Shimabukuro Masayuki Hanshi together decided to revive and reconstitute the JKI to serve as the official worldwide governing body for Shimabukuro-Ha and to continue promulgating Hanshi's teachings.

The Jikishin-Kai International was registered as a non-profit organisation in the State of Texas on 20 September 2022.  Its organising committee is now working through all the legal, regulatory, and practical decisions and actions to make the JKI fully operational by 01 January 2023.

The revived JKI is managed by a Board of Directors elected from the leaders of its member dōjō, each of whom is a certified instructor in one or more of the budō arts overseen by the JKI.   This ensures that the JKI fulfills its purpose to serve the interests of its member dōjō.   Its major functions are maintaining the curricula and promotion standards for the arts overseen by the JKI, registration of dan rankings, training and certification of instructors, and periodic training events, such as gasshuku (training seminars) and taikai (conventions and tournaments).

In addition to serving as the exclusive governing organisation for Shimabukuro-Ha Shitō-Ryū karate-dō, the JKI also offers training, instructor qualification, and rank authentication in the arts of Kenshin-Ryū Okinawa kobujutsu, Musō Jikiden Eishin-Ryū iaijutsu, and Shindō Musō-Ryū jōjutsu as they were taught by Shimabukuro Hanshi.  However, the JKI does not claim to be the sole governing organisation or authority over those additional budō arts.

For additional information about the JKI and its purpose, activities, and services, please visit our About Us page.

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On 24 July 2021, Leonard J. Pellman Shihan was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame, receiving a Silver Life Award.

With the receipt of this honour, Pellman Shihan joins such notable past recipients as  Hatsumi Masaaki, Paul Vunak, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, Kubota Takeyuki, "Judo" Gene LeBell, Demura Fumio, and Jeff Speakman, and hundreds of others representing every imaginable form of combative art.

Pellman Shihan said of his induction:  "I deeply appreciate the fact that this recognition came from an organisation composed of such a broad cross-section of the martial arts community, representing jūdō, karate, taekwondo, boxing, kung fu, kajukenbo, sambo, MMA, krav maga, and more.  It means a great deal that people from such diverse backgrounds welcomed me as their peer."

Pellman Shihan is one of the seven members of the Organising Committee for the reconstituted JKI.

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In order to improve our services to Seishin-Kan members and our affiliated dōjō and kenkyūkai, we created a completely new website exclusively for our members and launched it on 01 September 2010.  This more contemporary, cleaner, and more easily navigable website template was created by Node Thirtythree Design, whose website now unfortunately appears to be inactive.  In addition, we acquired a more robust content management system that allows us to better manage, maintain, and update content on the new site.

Other than general information about the Seishin-Kan and its affiliates, most of the new site will be password-protected content and services exclusively available to members of the Seishin-Kan and its affiliated kenkyūkai.  Some of the features we are adding to the site are discussed in the article below.

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Among the services and features currently under development are online membership application forms for both Dōjō Members and Individual Members.  We are working to have both applications, as well as other member services, available for use on or before 01 January 2022.

Please do not use either form yet, unless you have been asked to "test drive" it for functionalilty.  We are still working out the bugs and setting up the process for review and approval of applications to ensure that we can process online applications quickly and efficiently.

Until we are ready to accept online applications, please feel free to join our Facebook Group to keep up-to-date on our progress.

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