yuu - shin -kan

The name Yushinkan was given to the dojo in 1998 by Vitalis sensei. The Japanese characters mean so much as excellence or courage (yuu), belief or self-confidence (shin) and dojo or club, in other words the place where a budo discipline is being practised (kan). Yagyu Munenori elaborated on the virtue of yuu and what it means to a swordsman in his treatise Go Ho Ken. Yushinkan is also the name of the dojo of Nakayama Hakudo in Tokyo. Nakayama sensei was the sixteenth headmaster in the tradition of Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu (in the Shimomura branch), and is the founder of contemporary Muso Shinden Ryu iaido. Yushin, which also means having confidence in what you do or 'ambition,' is one of his epithets: Nakayama Hakudo Yushin Hiromichi. Finally, yushin also means 'new again.' The original calligraphy was made for Yushinkan by Richard Boel.