Welcome

This website is devoted to ideas in Asian martial arts and culture, with a focus on Chinese Internal Martial Arts and Classical Japanese Martial Arts.

I chose the name "Aiki Inyō Hō" as a title for this website in reference to so-called "internal" ideas in martial arts. The modern jujutsu I learned was heavily influenced by Aikidō and Daitō-ryu (aiki), providing me the inspiration to seek out more classical methods. My current focus of training is largely in Chinese Internal Martial Arts that use Taoist complementarity theory (inyō), providing a path towards the realization of internal skill. Further, I am interested in the connection between these ideas and classical Japanese martial arts (heihō). This provides me the motivation to analyze internal ideas across traditions. My teaching of jujutsu has changed substantially over the years, due to my study of Chinese Internal Martial Arts, but I do not want to lose perspective of the debt it owes both early post-war Aikidō and Daitō-ryu.

Meanwhile, the name of the first internet domain this site used is "Inner Dharma" and refers to the idea of hidden meaning, following a path true to one's heart, and is also a play on words, as I used to teach martial arts near the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland and Bodhidharma is the founder of Ch'an Buddhism and (supposed) inventor of the practice of kung fu at the historical Shaolin temple.

Nèijiā

The primary focus of my ongoing training is in the study of the three major Chinese internal martial arts [nèijiā]:

The focus of my nèijiā practice is in these arts as transmitted by the Yin Cheng Gong Fa organization as taught by Zhang Yun and his disciple Paul Cote. I practice elements of Gao lineage Bāguàzhăng as taught by students in the lineage of of Hung Yimien.

Koryū Kenjutsu

I also study classical Japanese swordsmanship [koryū kenjutsu] dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. I practice a selection of the arts of Tenshinshō-den Katori Shintō-ryū as taught by Sugawara Tetsutaka (kiyoshi) and his students France Hoang and Eric Zmarzly at Katori DC. I have been practicing Katori Shintō-ryū since 2006 and hold a mokuroku license from Sugawara-sensei. I also study Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu as taught by Dr. David Hall at the Hobyōkan. I have been practicing Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū since 2008.

Modern Jujutsu

I began training in a modern mixture of kempō, judō, and aikidō in 1989 and have been teaching jujutsu since 1994. I currently do not belong to any jujutsu or aikidō organization. I remain instead commited to the idea of teaching jujutsu independently, as viewed through the lens of body mechanics and tactics I have learned in my study of nèijiā. This provides a corpus of self defense techniques (goshin waza) including locks (seigyo), chokes (shime waza), throws (nage waza), pins (osae waza), and ground fighting techniques (newaza) that can be used in combination with the strategy and tactics I have learned in nèijiā.

Vinyasa Yoga

I have been practicing Yoga since 2003, finding it to be an excellent adjunct and complement to my martial arts endeavors. In 2006, I was certified by Yoga Alliance as a Hatha Yoga instructor at the 200 hour level, receiving my yoga teacher training under Kim Manfredi. The focus of my practice is Vinyasa Yoga, which is an athletic type of Yoga which involves a balance between work on strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility.