Kyu-Shin-Do is not a Martial Art

By Henry Ellis

6th Dan International Birankai (Aikikai Hombu)

I became involved initially in Judo in 1956 and Aikido in 1957 as a direct student of the legendary Budo Master Kenshiro Abbe Sensei 1915 ~ 1985. I was a student with Ken Williams Sensei at the now famous `Hut Dojo`.

I am now involved with a few of the remaining direct students of Abbe Sensei in an attempt to protect the legacy and proud lineage left behind by this great man of Budo who was our teacher and mentor. We now have two informative internet sites which we hope will give any ` genuine ` student the truth about Kenshiro Abbe Sensei and his life’s dedication to the study and philosophy of Kyu-Shin-Do. The sites are the very popular ` Kyu-Shin-Do Blog ` and the ` Kenshiro Abbe Blog `. It has taken a great deal of effort to collate the history and facts that we trust will one day be of benefit to future generations who will see through the fog of fraudulent claims by so many of some kind of association with Kenshiro Abbe Sensei in what can only be an attempt to gain some form of credibility.

The worst Kyu-Shin-Do abusers has to be the Mayo-Shin-Do group who make endless claims, the most bizarre of all is the claim that the late Mr George Mayo is the founder of Kyu-Shin-Do…A claim that is totally disrespectful to the memory of a great Budo master.

I could not have achieved what has been done so far without the support of my long time friend Gerard Gyngell Sensei, a sincere student of Abbe Sensei since his arrival in the UK.  Working in the London office of the British Judo Council (BJC) in the early 1960’s alongside Abbe Sensei. Gyngell Sensei was in Abbe Sensei’s 1964 Olympic Judo squad, he was also three times Welsh Judo Champion. As one can imagine a great source of factual information.

When writing articles such as this and others concerning the life of Abbe Sensei, fraudulent claims and facts are cross checked between our close associates so that we set the records of history straight.

Sadly we have to accept that we cannot fight every single bizarre claim as they are on the increase almost daily.

The only way is to promote the truth and expose the frauds by writing articles for the researchers that are genuinely interested in the truth, and hope that perhaps with our help they will eventually find it.

It is not the intention of the author to rewrite the history of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei in this article, the life of Abbe Sensei is already well documented. The purpose of this article is to state that ` KyuShinDo ` is not a martial art,

It never was a martial art... Kyu-Shin-Do was the life’s work and study from the late 1930s of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, who stated that it was a philosophy of his study of Judo, a concept that had made him the Champion of all Japan and one of the few Judoka to ever beat Masahiko Kimura Sensei.  It was this philosophy that he tried so hard to impart to his British students; he often despaired that these personal students could not fully grasp this deep yet difficult theory which had made him such a great Judoka.

We are saddened today to see so many people using the name of Kyu-Shin-Do, whilst at the same time intimating a connection with the name of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei.

Now to the true purpose of this article…As stated earlier ` Kyu-Shin-Do` is not a martial art, never was and never will be, simply because it is a theory or a philosophy as applied to Kyu-Shin-Do Judo.  We now see people claiming to be teaching ` Kyu-Shin-Do Karate ` ……..Let me make it clear, Abbe Sensei never ever applied his Kyu-Shin-Do to any other art than Judo..  Abbe Sensei has no association what so ever with these people or their claims, one can only assume that the name Kyu-Shin-Do was abducted and raped because it sounded so very Japanesy.

It gets worse!  There are people who are claiming to be Dan grades in Kyu-Shin-Do, I would like to laugh at the stupidity of it all, I can’t because it so sad and disrespectful to the memory of our teacher.

I recall Gerry Gyngell Sensei recently saying to me in astonishment,   “Harry! How on earth can one have a Dan grade in a philosophy? “..

Having gone through the excruciating pain of traumatic heart bypass surgery, I thought that nothing could surpass such horror until I watched some so called Kyu-Shin-Do Karate videos on Youtube; they were horrendous to say the least... I just trust that students will visit the great collection of Kenshiro Abbe videos on my video site at “Aikido Ellis Videos “before they accept that the ``Japanesy Kyu-Shin-Do `` is the real thing...

Take note, Kenshiro Abbe Sensei only ever taught Kyu-Shin-Do Judo. NOT Kyu-Shin-Do Karate ~~ NOT Kyu-Shin-Do Aikido ~~ or any other Kyu-Shin-Do claims that arise whilst I am writing this article.

Look for the next article coming soon “Kenshiro Abbe Sensei ~ The Myths and the Lies “.

Henry Ellis

http://kenshiroabbe.blogspot.com/

http://kyu-shin-do.blogspot.com/ 

About the author.

Henry Ellis Sensei 6th Dan Aikido ~ International Birankai ~ Aikikai Hombu.

Diplomas signed by Morihei Ueshiba O’Sensei and the present Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba.

A direct student of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei from 1957. Henry Ellis is one of three surviving pioneers of British Aikido from its inception in the 1950s. He is also the co-author of the book “ Positive Aikido “ and author of many martial arts articles printed in International Magazines. Teaching Aikido in Europe ~ Australia ~ USA.