饒静思

Mark Raugas

Internal Martial Arts

I began training in baguazhang in Maryland in 2004 and over time was introduced to a number of traditional groups practicing near Washington, DC. I now continue my study of traditional Bagua, Xingyi, and Taiji as part of Yin Cheng Gong Fa North America. I became a formal lineal student of these arts under Zhang Yun laoshi in Princeton, NJ in 2015. My ongoing internal martial arts practice is recorded under the name Yuèshān Guǎn [ 月山館 ] in the catalogue of Yin Cheng Gong Fa practitioners — that name is pronounced Gassankan in Japanese.

YCGF Seminar Photos

Kenjutsu

I first studied Yagyū Shinkage-ryū in NYC under Kato Kazuo in the mid 1990s in Port Washington. I later studied Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu at the Hōbyōkan, receiving a chuden [ 中伝 ] license in 2018. The Hōbyōkan maintains an unofficial line of practice of both Jiki Shinkage-ryū and Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. I revisited my practice of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū with my Hōbyōkan sponsor, learning naiden and honden kata from 2014 to 2022. Since moving to Seattle in 2016, I have maintained a practice of the kenjutsu I learned at the Hōbyōkan. Initially this consisted of solo practice and pressure testing with fellow martial artists. In 2018, I began leading a small class in traditional Jiki Shinkage-ryū kata at Lonin League. I passed that activity to my two senior students in 2024 — I continue to mentor them both as an advisor to their practice.

Lonin League Kagami Biraki

Aikidō

I trained in NYC from 1989 to 2001 at a dojo that maintained a goshin-jutsu practice incorporating early post-war Aikidō techniques common to the teaching of Tohei Koichi and Saito Morihiro along with elements of Daito-ryū aiki-jujutsu. These approaches were integrated with a form of atemi-jutsu derived from Nippon Shorinji Kempo and self-defense methods popular in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s derived from early American teachers of Sosuishi-ryū, Isshin-ryū karate, and Tomiki Aikidō. In NYC I also attended seminars in Daitō-ryū Takumaki; after moving to Baltimore I began training at Capital Aikikai in a kenjutsu study group focused on a branch of Shintō-ryū, reaching the level of mokuroku — my conversations with the Aikidō yudansha there helped me diagnose the composition of the Aikidō I had first learned in NYC.

Shintō-ryū Kenjutsu

Contact

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