Hiseki Davey Sensei is an internationally acclaimed author, artist, and teacher of Japanese cultural arts. His books are sold in many different countries under the name H. E. Davey, and his training began as a child in the United States, and it continued in Japan.
The Director of the Sennin Foundation Center for Japanese Cultural Arts in Northern California (http://www.senninfoundation.blogspot.com/), Davey Sensei has worked fulltime as a professional teacher of Japanese yoga and meditation, healing arts, martial arts, and fine arts since 1981. (The title sensei is an honorific term meaning “teacher.” It’s traditionally placed after the family name of instructors of Japanese calligraphy and other art forms.)
An Introduction to the Arts of Japan
Davey Sensei’s introduction to a traditional Japanese art form came through the martial arts. His late father Victor was one of the first Americans to study judo and jujutsu, practices that he began in 1926. While living in Japan after WWII, his training intensified, and Davey Sensei began learning authentic Japanese jujutsu with him when he was around five years old. Based on his jujutsu training, which took place in the USA and Japan, he would write Unlocking the Secrets of Aiki-jujutsu (McGraw-Hill) in 1997.
Davey Sensei grew up on a street where few children resided, and being an only child, his parents wanted him to spend more time with other children. As the result, he enrolled in a judo school. At the time he joined, people outside of the Japanese community rarely practiced martial arts, and Davey Sensei was pretty much the only non-Japanese student. Consequently, many of his childhood friends were from Japan or Japanese-Americans, which exposed him to this language and culture from an early age.
Discovering Shin-shin-toitsu-do
When Davey Sensei was in middle school, a friend in judo introduced him to a Japanese teacher of Shin-shin-toitsu-do, a unique system of meditation and physical development created by Nakamura Tempu Sensei in the 1920s. Nakamura Sensei lived in India, where he practiced Raja yoga—the yoga of meditation. When he returned to Japan, he combined what he had learned with his past training in Japanese martial arts, healing arts, and meditation systems. He also drew on his previous studies of Western medicine and psychology to create Shin-shin-toitsu-do, the “Way of Mind and Body Unification.”
This art is based on the idea that human beings only arrive at self-harmony and realize their ultimate potential when the mind and body are coordinated. It includes mind and body unification principles that enhance performance in most activities, and these principles completely transformed and improved Davey Sensei’s martial arts practice, which by then included judo, jujutsu, and aikido. The breathing exercises and methods of physical development in Shin-shin-toitsu-do cured a severe and longstanding case of asthma as well. Owing to this, Davey Sensei started studying healing arts that are an adjunct to Shin-shin-toitsu-do. And all of these experiences led to his writing Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation (Stone Bridge Press) in 2001, which received a number of positive reviews in magazines like Yoga Journal in the USA and Tempu magazine in Japan (http://www.japaneseyoga.blogspot.com/).
More than this, however, Shin-shin-toitsu-do opened his eyes to the fact that universal principles actually do exist. In other words, there really are certain things working “beneath the surface” that connect people all over the world and which likewise link different endeavors in life. In discovering the universal principles of mind and body coordination, Davey Sensei also began to unearth ubiquitous traditional and little understood concepts that give life to most Japanese art forms and which could be related to daily living. And this understanding led to his book Living the Japanese Arts & Ways: 45 Paths to Meditation & Beauty (Stone Bridge Press) in 2003. It details a variety of Japanese arts, including calligraphy, flower arrangement, and martial arts, as well as universal principles that underlie these disciplines, which can help us in life (http://www.japaneseartsandways.blogspot.com/).
Learning Shodo
An Introduction to the Arts of Japan
Davey Sensei’s introduction to a traditional Japanese art form came through the martial arts. His late father Victor was one of the first Americans to study judo and jujutsu, practices that he began in 1926. While living in Japan after WWII, his training intensified, and Davey Sensei began learning authentic Japanese jujutsu with him when he was around five years old. Based on his jujutsu training, which took place in the USA and Japan, he would write Unlocking the Secrets of Aiki-jujutsu (McGraw-Hill) in 1997.
Davey Sensei grew up on a street where few children resided, and being an only child, his parents wanted him to spend more time with other children. As the result, he enrolled in a judo school. At the time he joined, people outside of the Japanese community rarely practiced martial arts, and Davey Sensei was pretty much the only non-Japanese student. Consequently, many of his childhood friends were from Japan or Japanese-Americans, which exposed him to this language and culture from an early age.
Discovering Shin-shin-toitsu-do
When Davey Sensei was in middle school, a friend in judo introduced him to a Japanese teacher of Shin-shin-toitsu-do, a unique system of meditation and physical development created by Nakamura Tempu Sensei in the 1920s. Nakamura Sensei lived in India, where he practiced Raja yoga—the yoga of meditation. When he returned to Japan, he combined what he had learned with his past training in Japanese martial arts, healing arts, and meditation systems. He also drew on his previous studies of Western medicine and psychology to create Shin-shin-toitsu-do, the “Way of Mind and Body Unification.”
This art is based on the idea that human beings only arrive at self-harmony and realize their ultimate potential when the mind and body are coordinated. It includes mind and body unification principles that enhance performance in most activities, and these principles completely transformed and improved Davey Sensei’s martial arts practice, which by then included judo, jujutsu, and aikido. The breathing exercises and methods of physical development in Shin-shin-toitsu-do cured a severe and longstanding case of asthma as well. Owing to this, Davey Sensei started studying healing arts that are an adjunct to Shin-shin-toitsu-do. And all of these experiences led to his writing Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation (Stone Bridge Press) in 2001, which received a number of positive reviews in magazines like Yoga Journal in the USA and Tempu magazine in Japan (http://www.japaneseyoga.blogspot.com/).
More than this, however, Shin-shin-toitsu-do opened his eyes to the fact that universal principles actually do exist. In other words, there really are certain things working “beneath the surface” that connect people all over the world and which likewise link different endeavors in life. In discovering the universal principles of mind and body coordination, Davey Sensei also began to unearth ubiquitous traditional and little understood concepts that give life to most Japanese art forms and which could be related to daily living. And this understanding led to his book Living the Japanese Arts & Ways: 45 Paths to Meditation & Beauty (Stone Bridge Press) in 2003. It details a variety of Japanese arts, including calligraphy, flower arrangement, and martial arts, as well as universal principles that underlie these disciplines, which can help us in life (http://www.japaneseartsandways.blogspot.com/).
Learning Shodo
In 1981, Davey Sensei established the Sennin Foundation Center for Japanese Cultural Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he offered instruction in Shin-shin-toitsu-do and related healing arts as well as martial arts training in Saigo Ryu aiki-jujutsu (http://www.senninfoundation.com/). He was happy teaching these arts that he’d studied since he was young.
Still, when he was training at his childhood judo dojo (judo school), Davey Sensei admired pieces of Japanese brush writing hanging on the walls. He later saw similarities between the watercolor painting he was studying as an art major in college and Japanese ink painting, leading to a desire to practice shodo and/or sumi-e. But he couldn’t find a suitable teacher.
In the 1980s, a friend from Nagoya introduced him to Kobara Ranseki Sensei, one of the top shodo artists living in the United States. Kobara Sensei was the Shihan, or Headmaster, of the Ranseki Sho Juku system of shodo. Davey Sensei asked to learn shodo from him, but he was turned down, as Kobara Sensei rarely accepted new students. Undeterred, Davey Sensei returned more than once to his class, until Kobara Sensei allowed him to join the Wanto Shodo-Kai (“East Bay Shodo Association”), One of the locations where in taught in the San Francisco area.
With Kobara Sensei’s help, he started exhibiting his artwork annually at the International Shodo Exhibition in Urayasu, where he’s received a number of awards, including Jun Taisho—the “Associate Grand Prize.” In 1990, Kobara Sensei honored Davey Sensei with the art name Hiseki, meaning a “Flying Stone,” by combining the “seki” character from his name with the sound “hi” that’s used to write Davey Sensei’s first name phonetically in Japanese. In 1993, he received Shihan-Dai teaching certification from Kobara Sensei, the highest rank in Ranseki Sho Juku calligraphy.
With Kobara Sensei’s help, he started exhibiting his artwork annually at the International Shodo Exhibition in Urayasu, where he’s received a number of awards, including Jun Taisho—the “Associate Grand Prize.” In 1990, Kobara Sensei honored Davey Sensei with the art name Hiseki, meaning a “Flying Stone,” by combining the “seki” character from his name with the sound “hi” that’s used to write Davey Sensei’s first name phonetically in Japanese. In 1993, he received Shihan-Dai teaching certification from Kobara Sensei, the highest rank in Ranseki Sho Juku calligraphy.
Upon receiving teaching certification, Davey Sensei began offering his students instruction in shodo at the Sennin Foundation Center. Like Shin-shin-toitsu-do and other Japanese arts, shodo is a Way to spiritual realization. In short, it’s more than just brush writing.
Yet many Americans are intimated by the “foreignness” of shodo, and few grasp how it functions as dynamic meditation that leads to concentration, willpower, and calmness. To counteract this, Davey Sensei authored Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind & Body Harmony in 1999 through Stone Bridge Press (http://www.brushmeditation.blogspot.com/).
Shodo Awards
Davey Sensei's artwork has been accepted for exhibition at the Kokusai Shodo-ten (“International Shodo Exhibition”) every year since 1988. The Kokusai Shodo Bunka Koryu Kyokai (“International Shodo and Cultural Exchange Association”) and the Japanese Ministry of Education sponsor this prestigious event. It’s one of few shodo exhibitions to receive a stamp of approval from the Japanese government, and in recent years it’s been held in conjunction with a sister exhibition in China, hosted by the association’s Chinese members. In addition to his numerous Kokusai Shodo-ten awards, Davey Sensei’s calligraphy has also been selected out of several thousand entries for inclusion in the Sankei newspaper’s famed annual shodo exhibition. He's received many awards in these international exhibitions, including Jun Taisho, or the "Associate Grand Prize."
Preserving the Arts of Japan
Since the early 1980s, Davey Sensei has preserved and promoted traditional Japanese art forms as meditation. His calligraphic art, ink paintings, and writings have appeared in Japanese and American books, magazines, and newspapers. Some of these publications are:
· The Nichibei Times
· The Hokubei Mainichi
· Gendo
· Furyu
· Yoga Journal
· The Journal of Asian Martial Arts
· Karate-Kung Fu Illustrated
· Designing with Kanji (Stone Bridge Press)
· Shinto Meditations for Revering the Earth (Stone Bridge Press)
In 2000, Davey Sensei wrote The Japanese Way of the Flower: Ikebana as Moving Meditation (Stone Bridge Press) with Ann Kameoka Sensei, a flower arrangement expert (http://www.japanesewayoftheflower.blogspot.com/). He’s also the President of the Sennin Foundation, Inc., a federally tax-exempt nonprofit corporation devoted to the preservation of Japanese cultural arts. The Sennin Foundation, Inc. sponsors Michi Online (http://www.michionline.org)/, an Internet journal of Japanese art, culture, and philosophy.
Davey Sensei has taught Shin-shin-toitsu-do at many different locations in the USA. His demonstrations of martial arts have also taken place throughout the United States and on several occasions at Otakumin Plaza in Tokyo. And he’s demonstrated shodo numerous times around Northern California, in San Francisco’s Japan Town, and during San Francisco’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival.
His commitment to the Japanese cultural arts has been recognized in the form of awards from John B. Callahan, Mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Lisa M. Boscola, Senator for Pennsylvania; the Shudokan Martial Arts Association; the Kokusai Budoin (“International Martial Arts Federation”) of Tokyo; and others.
His latest book is The Japanese Way of the Artist (Stone Bridge Press). You can read more about it here: http://www.japanesewayoftheartist.blogspot.com/.
