八光流護身道 Hakko-ryū Goshindō Magazine
Issue #57, June 1968 Featuring Kaiden Shihan James Benko
English Translation by Billy Ristuccia
I’m going to start a section on my website dedicated to the collection and translation of Okuyama Sensei’s Hakko-ryu Goshindo magazine issues. They seem to have been released every other month starting in the mid-1940s, soon after the public announcement ceremony proclaiming the founding of Hakko-ryu to the world in 1941.
八光流護身道 Hakko-ryu Goshindo
塾統奥山龍峰講述 Jukuto Okuyama Ryūhō Kōjutsu (Lecture by Ryūho Okuyama, headmaster of the private school)
八光流全国師範会 Hakko-ryū Zenkoku Shihan-kai
The magazine issues are typically broken into four major sections:
- Section 1: Included a report of a new Shihan’s test. Their bio, testing photos, and other background info about that particular Shihan and their school, if they had one, are included.
- Section 2: Okuyama included a medical section dedicated to regular reports about his Koho Shiatsu clinic and training.
- Section 3: Included articles by members of the school’s Shihan-kai. It records the Shihan’s names and has their articles.
- Section 4: This included history and other articles the founder wished to include from his many lectures and other important Honbu Dojo news.
The first issue I will write about is from June, 1968 issue #67. This issue features the Kaiden Shihan test of James Benko. It included photos from his test demonstration, some of his background, articles published in the USA, and photos of his early teaching.
皇方指圧臨床錄
Koho Shiatsu Rinsho Roku
(Clinical Record)
病気ではない高血圧と低血圧 Byōkide wanai kōketsuatsu to teike tsuatsu (High and Low Blood Pressure Without Illness)
指圧で治る低血圧 Shiatsu de naoru teike tsuatsu
(Treating/Curing Low Blood Pressure with Koho Shiatsu)
Clinic Report Translation:
Acupressure becomes active. At the same time, the nerves in other parts of the body contract and cooperate in sending blood to the stomach. Therefore, the amount of blood circulation in the brain decreases. Therefore, it is natural to feel sleepy and sluggish. Exercise immediately after a meal is prohibited, and it is ideal to lie down quietly for about 30 minutes.
High blood pressure, which has been mentioned several times in this article, is said to be a person’s constitution and not a disease.
The function of our aorta, middle artery, and small artery is simply to transport blood, but the aorta has the important task of regulating the amount of blood flowing through the internal organs and tissues at the same time as transporting it.
Once you are ready to fight, the aorta in the brain and limbs expands to let in blood and prepare for the next intense activity. On the other hand, the arterioles in the internal organs contract, and barely a single drop of blood remains.
When a baby’s stomach is full, he falls asleep immediately. Even obese adults always begin to doze off after eating. Similarly, after eating, many people’s minds slow down, and it is impossible to read or think. When food enters the stomach, the arterioles distributed in the stomach reflexively expand, blood flow becomes active, and the stomach’s digestive function
In order to effectively and appropriately distribute a limited amount of blood to the parts of the body that need it, it is absolutely necessary to circulate the blood and, at the same time, to expand and contract the arterioles depending on the location.
In other words, the arterioles throughout the body expand and contract depending on the symptoms and changes in the environment at the time. However, this function is not related to the human will, and the arterioles reflexively and automatically contract and expand as needed. However, people with high blood pressure are born with high tension in their arteries, so even the slightest pressure can easily cause the arteries to contract.
