Seido

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Seido (disambiguation).

Seido Juku

Japanese Name
Japanese	誠道塾
Kana spelling	せいどうじゅく
Rōmaji (Hepburn)	Seidou Jyuku

Seido (more fully Seido Juku) is a style of karate founded by Kaicho (Grandmaster) Tadashi Nakamura in 1976.

1 History
2 Philosophy
3 Syllabus
4 References
5 See Also
6 External links

[edit] History

In 1976 Kaicho Nakamura withdrew from the Kyokushin-kai and after surviving an assassination attempt, Kaicho began to build Seido Juku, "the school of the Sincere Way", citing differences in philosophy with his longtime mentor, Sosai Mas Oyama. Seido is headquartered in New York City at 61 West 23rd Street, but has branch dojos around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and also other parts of the U.S. such as Maryland, New Jersey, California and more. Altogether, there about 200,000 members.

[edit] Philosophy

The name "Seido" means "Sincere Way". It comes from the Chuyo (Confucius's book "The Middle Path", or "The Doctrine of the Mean"), which says

Sincerity is the way of heaven.
To follow this sincerely
Is the way of mankind

The Seido philosophy is encapsulated in three words: sonkei (respect), ai (love), and jujun (obedience). These three principles are represented as the three circles within the ume blossom logo of Seido Juku. These principles were suggested to Kaicho Nakamura by a congratulatory letter his mother sent to him after his marriage, which read "Each day I pray for both of you. I want you to live a long life, without regrets, respecting each other, nurturing your love for one another, and always holding feelings of obedience to each other."

As this philosophy is an important part of Seido, Kaicho Nakamura has founded the Seido Juku Benefit Foundation as the charitable arm of the organization.

[edit] Syllabus

Like other forms of Karate, seido has a graded syllabus which is required to master in order to promote to the next level.

10 Kyu White Belt
9 Kyu Adv. White Belt
8 Kyu Blue Belt
7 Kyu Adv. Blue Belt
6 Kyu Yellow Belt
5 Kyu Adv. Yellow Belt
4 Kyu Green Belt
3 Kyu Adv. Green Belt
2 Kyu Brown Belt
1 Kyu Adv. Brown Belt
1 Dan Shodan (at this point, the student receives the title senpai) *
2 Dan Nidan*
3 Dan Sandan
4 Dan Yondan (the student becomes sensei)
5 Dan Godan (the student becomes kyoshi)
6 Dan Rokudan (the student becomes jun-shihan)after 5 years of obtaining tis rank they becaome (Sei-Shihan)
7 Dan Nanadan (the student becomes Shuseki Shihan)
8 Dan Hachidan (the student becomes Hanshi)
9 Dan Kudan- the level Kaicho Nakamura is at now; the highest level attained so far in Seido Karate.

Because the shodan promotion is rigorous, younger students can become shonen shodan and shonen nidan, which is just a junior level, but when the come of age, the still must pass the shodan promotion.

As the student progresses, they learn 5 types of training until Shodan: Kumite, Kata, Self Defense (basic, intermediate, advanced), Kihon Kumite, and Yakusoku Kumite.

Kata: students must learn several new katas at each level.