Shugyō: Reflections on Practice

One challenge I have faced over the last ten years is, having moved to Seattle, what exactly to preserve from my training. I've done my best to continue my internal martial arts training, and I wound up sharing some of my knowledge of kenjutsu with a small number of people.

While I have had short correspondence with masters of Jikishinkage-ryū in Japan, I never succeeded in developing a strong enough social connection with any of them to approach them to learn more of the art than I had first been exposed to at the Hōbyōkan. I instead incorporated free-practice in to my kenjutsu and attempted to bring the insights I had obtained through internal martial arts practice into the art. Over time, my practice became something unique. This made the barrier to joining an orthodox group higher. Instead, I have continued to work independently.

The sentiments I expressed above arose strongly during a trip to Kyoto and Nara in the fall of 2024. Then, during the summer of 2025, my kenjutsu instructor suddenly died. Not only did I not have my own connection to Japan, I lost the one resource I could go back and ask questions of and get feedback from within Jikishinkage-ryū.

As part of sorting out my thoughts on kenjutsu after that tragic event, I began collating my notes and diving into the historical documents and Japanese books I had access to. I wanted to write a summary of my understanding of the art — that understanding eventually became a small book:

The Truth of the Calm Spirit: The Practice of Shinkage-ryū Heihō as Taoist Internal Alchemy, M. Raugas, 2025.

In it, you can get a glimpse of my view of what was at one point in time a quite deep martial art that had great influence. This is a fitting place to pause and take stock of my own efforts and progress.

My hope is that work might serve as a point of departure that inspires talented individuals to learn more of the art than I have been able to. Jikishinkage-ryū, as I discovered over time, was clearly a deep and rich body of teachings. Its echoes reverberate in several arts, both old and new.