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Japanese Martial Arts Studio in Ravenswood Offers 'Harmonizing Way'

By David Byrnes | December 9, 2014 5:24am
 Shinkjinkai Martial Arts Society at 3717 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Shinjinkai Martial Arts Society
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RAVENSWOOD — It's a recent Wednesday night in Chicago and the temperature’s dropping. The traffic is horrible, and people are shouting, honking, pushing and cursing in their rush to get home from work and out of the cold.

But in a modest warehouse suite at 3717 N. Ravenswood Ave., the atmosphere is reverent and quiet.

This is the Shinjinkai Martial Arts Society — a small organization, founded in 2002, first conceived of by the late Zen master Fumio Toyoda and dedicated to the study of Japanese martial arts. It also shares its floor space with The Daiyuzenji Zen Temple, which offers courses in Zen philosophy and “Zazen” — the practice of seated meditation.

The students here are practicing a martial art called “Aikido,” or “Harmonizing Energy Way,” which is known for its dynamism and emphasis on spiritual reflection. One of several martial arts taught at Shinjinkai, it's a rough-and-tumble activity: The participants grunt and throw each other across the room and slam hard into the padded ground. Everyone seems completely absorbed in what they are doing.

Shinjinkai’s director and Zen Buddhist priest, Meido Moore, said Shinjinkai’s goal is the idea of “shugyo:” an intense dedication to study and training that leads to a greater awareness of self and others.

“We’re trying to maintain a very old, very traditional style of training here," Moore says. "We’re interested in self-development through very severe, very hard training.”

“Severe” may be putting it lightly: In pairs and as a group, the students are pulling off maneuvers that would make a choreographer take notes. The air smells like incense and body odor, and more than a few faces are marked with signs of painful exertion.

But when there’s a lull in the class, or Moore stops the action to demonstrate a new technique, all those pained faces reset to a look somewhere between determination and giddiness.

“I usually start my training around 5 a.m., just getting warmed up,” assistant instructor Algirdas Sindaravicius said. “At 6 a.m. I’m training myself, as well as with Sensei [Moore]" or helping other students.

Sindaravicius, 24, who aspires to become a police officer, spends as much time as he can — on and off the practice mat — training in his art.

“I mean, you’ve got 24 hours in a day, right? And I’m young; I don’t need much sleep. … It’s like, if you have time to sit on Facebook, you have time to train. That’s how I see it.”

Still, not everyone interested in Shinjinkai or Daiyuzenji’s classes is necessarily looking to become a modern-day samurai, or to learn the ideals of Zen. And that’s OK with Moore.

“Many folks are here for fitness, many are here because they want to learn to defend themselves, some are here because, unfortunately, they’ve had to defend themselves, and realized their own limitations in that department,” he said.

New student Dawn Vandever was motivated by her 6-year-old son.

“I enjoy the philosophy behind all this, but really I wanted my son to see discipline in a different way,” she said. “I wanted him to see that discipline doesn’t have to be bad, or a punishment … It’s preparing my son for his future.”

Membership fees with Shinjinkai depend on a number of variables including age, veteran and/or student status, number of classes one would like to participate in, and willingness to commit to longer membership periods. Fees are between $45 and $110 per month.

Moore pointed out, though, that “arrangements can be made for those with financial difficulties. We generally don't turn anyone away if they're sincerely wanting to practice.”

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