Executive Summary
Shindenkan World Heritage - 1,000 Year Toolbox
Shindenkan in Denmark was founded in 1965-67 by a young Japanese of 28 years. He was seconded by his Japanese company and had been commissioned to establish Gensei-ryu Karate-do in Europe by Gensei-ryu's founder; Shukumine Sensei and had been sent on Shugyo Shosha – trial trip by his famous Budo and Bujutsu grand master; Minouchi Sensei.
The young Japanese was called Yukio Noro, later Yukio Tonegawa due to marriage, and came from an ancient Japanese lowly samurai and Shinto priest family. Gensei-ryu Karate-do was a style of karate that arose in the wake of the end of World War II and 300-500,000 allied soldiers in Japan.
1998 Iwaki, Soke Sensei Tonegawa Noro (SST, 1937)
Yukio Noro had met Shukumine at an American base near Tokyo, where they were both teaching Japanese martial arts. They became very good friends, but Yukio Noro continued to train under his old Budo and Bujutsu grandmaster; Minouchi Sensei, who encouraged him to "test himself" and experience the world so that he could better understand it. So he did.
After an extended tour of Europe from 1965-1967, Yukio Noro visited his cousin, Noro Masamichi in Paris, who had established Aikido in Europe and Africa from 1961 with more than 200 dojos, on behalf of Morihei Ueshiba, Aikido's founder.
They both agreed that Scandinavia would be the most suitable place and as fate would have it, Yukio Noro was stationed in Denmark in 1967. Yukio Noro felt very comfortable in Denmark and called Denmark "The Viking Samurai country".
In Shindenkan we are therefore talking about an establishment in 1965, when SST held his first training camp in Denmark with five participants during a 2½ month summer stay, where he also worked on a chicken farm. And about a formal foundation in 1967, through a fixed platform when SST was employed as a Japanese Karate instructor in the Budokan from 1967-1970.
In 1986, the ring closed and at the age of 48, Soke Sensei Tonegawa (SST) returned to his family roots, as the 34th Soke Sensei in his family's more than 1,000 year old Shinto multi-track martial art system; Yashin Mon. Yakami no Taijutsu.
It is the martial arts system Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do that we train in Shindenkan since 1988, while honoring our heritage from 1965-67; BKK Gensei-ryu Karate-do.
From 1988-2018, SST founded the International Martial Arts Organization; Jokokan International with three separate overlapping columns; Japan & the Far East under Nishiwake Hidetoshi (1988), South Africa & the USA under Abdullah Ibrahim (1997) and Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe (1990) under Kimu K. Bjarkmann.
Nishiwake's background was Shorenji Kempo (Japanese Shaolin kungfu) and Buddhist priest, where he was one of the late Doshin So's absolute top students.
Abdullah Ibrahim trained in Budokan from 1967-1970s, where he lived ad hoc in Denmark and the USA due to Apartheid. After Apartheid he moved back to South Africa.
Seiken Shukumine Sensei (1925-2001)
2010 Japan Tokyo, Soke Sensei Tonegawa
He participated several times in the Danish training camps with SST in the period from 1992-2000, where Kimu K. Bjarkmann, among others. taught him Yakami Iai, Kenjutsu and Taijutsu at SST's request.
Jokokan International was a gigantic success both in the competency-based laboratory, and as a derivative of that, the direct and indirect affiliations and number of members; It created a great demand, so SST decided to establish the international martial arts organization, Bujutsu Kodosoku-kai.
Both Kimu K. Bjarkmann and Nishiwake Sensei voted against, but SST and Abdullah Ibrahim voted for. All three were Jokokan Honbu Dojo's top students with at least the densho degree Menkyo Kaiden – Initiated Grandmaster of all the Martial arts.
Both Nishiwake and Kimu K. Bjarkmann knew that Jokokan, in its form, would have 10 years of life left, as the 30 year mark at its establishment would have been reached in 2018. Nishiwake Sensei became Menkyo Kaiden in 1989 and GOKUDEN – Unlimited Initiated Great Grandmaster of all the Martial arts in 2006, and had its own sub-organization under the Jokokan.
Kimu K. Bjarkmann became the Menkyo Kaiden in 1996, but deliberately opted out of applying for the traditional and formal sub-organization permit. It only happened in 2008, when Shindenkan was formally established after he was the first to pass the INKA degree in Japan. He was also the first to get the Sodenke title in 1998 in Japan before Nishiwake Sensei.
In 2018, Kimu K. Bjarkmann – Yamana-Itotani Sodenke Sensei got the recognition and confirmation, and thus the Shindenkan, as an independent Budo and Bujutsu organization, and unlimited permanent and independent Worldwide license by SST.
Honbu Iwaki Japan 1998; Jens Hanshi-dai, Yamana-Itotani Sensei, SST, Nishiwake Sensei the brothers.
Honbu Tokyo Japan 2013; Ibrahim Sensei, SST, Yamana-Itotani Sensei, Shintaro Matsuda Sensei and Honbu instructors
The Danish organization from 1965-67 therefore developed from the single-track Gensei-ryu Karate-do from 1953 into an ancient multi-track Japanese martial arts system from 1988, which the old Japanese elite samurai have been trained for over 1,000 years. It was clearly a giant leap forward and a gigantic quantum leap up the international top level ladder!
But it wasn't easy and free! The General Assemblies sent Kimu K. Bjarkmann – Yamana-Itotani Sensei out into the world to fulfill the construction of the cultural-historical 1,000-year multi-track martial arts skills in Japan and China. It turned into 2 x 47 intensive training camps, of which 42 were in Japan and China under SST and the best martial arts masters in their fields. It cost blood, sweat – and debt financing for more than 36 years now, but the result and the investment in an internationally recognized top level of competence has resonated internationally!
In 1990, Kimu K. Bjarkmann was appointed as Jokokan International's official system competence representative (Kaicho) with responsibility for Europe, Scandinavia including Denmark. Kimu K. Bjarkmann immediately nominated Jens Iversen as the second part of the partner pair and the approved SST immediately with the title Shihan-dai in Jokokan Honbu dojo. They are the only two core powers from the beginning. Jens Hanshi-dai is today (2023) 6th dan Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do and 7th dan BKK Gensei-ryu Karate-do.
We are the fifth generation since 1965. We have been the generation since 1988 which has been at the head of almost 2/3 of Shindenkan's more than current (2024) 59-year history in Denmark, and managed the quantum leap from the single-track Gensei-ryu Karate-do to the more than 1,000-year-old cultural-historical multi-track system Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do.
We have emphasized preserving the Scandinavian background in the best way in our teaching and form of communication in a symbiosis with an intact 1,000-year-old cultural-historical multi-track Japanese samurai martial arts system.
We call this Scandinavian-Japanese community and learning symbiosis; "The Way of the Viking Samurais", which cheekily refers to SST's designation from 1965-67 about Denmark "The Viking Samurai country".
Japan Tokyo, selected from last decade, SST, Yamana-Itotani Sensei
Honbu Denmark & EU 2003; Yamana-Itotani Sensei, SST, Jens Hanshi-dai
