Goshinkan is composed of three Japanese words: Go, Shin and Kan. As with many Japanese words these have many translations, since the meaning of Japanese words often depends on the situation they are put in.
Go means the five virtues of a warrior, according to Bushido, as well as the five virtues of a Goshin student. It also represents the five steps to a confrontation response, which are: exit or talk, distract, move in, takedown, & hold-down. Lastly, it can be interpreted as hard techniques and movements.
Kan is the hall or school for the stuy of the way. Kan is also the meaning for Canadian Style of Ju-Jitsu.
Goshinkan - is the home of self preservation; home of the strong spirit and school of self-defense.
Goshinkan Ju Jitsu is not a “style” of Ju Jitsu. I find it very hard to say that one individual can invent a style. I believe many people contribute to all martial arts, style or not. I have studied both modern and traditional arts; there is something from every art I have studied in our syllabus. The more we try and refine one set style and claim it as our own the less the art has left. I even wonder how many of the traditional arts I have studied were as accurate as the Sensei said they were. Techniques often have the influence of the Sensei and this is only natural. If you have ever been in a classroom where one person tells a short sentence to the person next to them until the whole group has passed on the sentence, the original topic is completely different than the last person’s topic. That being said, how could one individual pass on a martial art from generation to the next generation and say it never changed?
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