Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 135

Thus, during the twelfth century,
in the Kamakura period, four lost
v i l l a g e s , k n o w n a s K a w a , Ta y o ,
Yabu and Yama, were consolidated
in the lush forests setting up the
germ of a new hope for the Shizen
people. Rebels and outlaws
a g a i n s t t h e Ya m a t o i n v a d e r s
started adhering and increasing the
number of villagers, although they
accepted as Shizen after ordeals
only the worthiest, because for
them, being a Shizen didn't
depend on race or place of birth
but the attitude and the honor of
the person. In this way it was
gradually developed not only a rich
military culture, but also a culture
with deep spiritual forms, known in
their language, Shizengo, as Ebunto (O-chikara in Japanese),
which means "The Great Force".
The villages were at least twice
destroyed. Groups of them, however,
infiltrated among the Yamato, at first
as spies, and eventually, after the last
defeat and annihilation of villages, it
was finally produced an integration of
survivors in the Japanese society.
Being a people that had been
persecuted for so many centuries,
they didn't find strange to main tain
secret their customs, language and
cultural forms, becoming hidden
groups and networks of power and
influence in the Japanese society. The
relationship and coexistence between
the two cultures, far from producing
an acculturation of their traditions,
favored the enrichment of the Shizen
arts. Since many of their members
had mixed with the Japanese
aristocracy, the most sophisticated
arts such as the Tea Ceremony,
Ikebana or Sumi-e became part of
their heritage.
The fierce Shizen warriors quickly
adopted the martial arts of war of
the Japanese samurai, known as

Bugei, developing their own style in
such disparate subjects as Jujutsu,
Iaijutsu, Kenjutsu and Aikijutsu, but
ret aining memo ry o f their mo re
peculiar, devastating and old forms
g at hered in the Uchiuu S hiz en,
which were highly appreciated by
the best Samurai scholars of the
time. But the Shizen culture was not
t he o nly o ne to benefit in this
process of integration. Its myths and
s piritualit y co ntaminated the
Japanese culture through its rich
mythology. The open disposition
itself of the Japanese in front of the
relig io us fo rms was the fertile
breeding ground for that event to be
established in various ways.
Rendering cult to Tengu became
part of Japanese culture, although,
given that it was secret, it came to
settle in a rather extemporaneous and
confusing way. To this day, the
Japanese culture speaks of Karassu
Tengu, especially in its warrior
traditions, but the information they
manage, it is often a cumulus of
legends and inconsistencies. The
development of Bugei attached to
spirituality led to impressive results,
the ability to concentrate and selfknowledge of the warriors was such
that they could do feats that made
them legendary.
Thus, they were able to deflect
arrows and even catch them in the
air, make perfect cut s wit h t he
katana where others only managed
to do scratches, etc. When the spirit
merges with the body and they both
act as one, you can do anything.
Over time, the Shizen society was
integrated into the Japanese culture,
alway s t ry ing to keep al iv e i t s
language, culture and spirituality. It
was in this way that in the early
twentieth century, in the era of the
large Japanese migrations to Brazil,
a group belonging to the lineage of

the v illag e
of
K awa
arriv ed
in
Brazilian lands, in
search of a better
fate.
One of them, Hiroshi
Ogawa sensei, stablished
the first Shizen school
outside Japanese land, as a
means of self-defense and in
response to the attacks that the
Japanese population was suffering
from a group of fanatics who didn't
accept the defeat of Japan in World
War II. This episode in the history of
Brazil was recently reflected in the
movie "Dirty Hearts". It was at this
school where a pupil, Shidoshi Jordan
Augusto, after 20 years of total
immersion in the knowledge of the
Shizen culture, graduated as the first
non-Japanese Shidoshi in history.
From that moment, Shidoshi Jordan’s
dedication to the maintenance of the
Shizen culture was complete and
most fruitful. Fate brought them to
Europe eight years ago and since then
the seed of the Shizen culture has
rooted again with strength and from
here it is being exported to the many
countries that today integrate the
Buguei International Society, a group
aimed at teaching the Shizen cultural
forms.
F ro m t h e s e pa g e s e i g h t y e a rs
ago, countless videos and articles
have been favoring this process
a m o n g t h e m a r t i a l c o m m u n i t y,
which today professes a respect
justly ear ned with their job. Our
director Alfredo Tucci has already
written two books about the
i n c re d i b l e k n o w l e d g e o f t h e
Miryoku, the Shizen priests and
shamans, and the E-bunto, feared
for centuries, has begun today to
be admired and recognized as a
legacy of a unique culture.