Shintaido Instructors

Shintaido Master Instructor, Bojutsu 5-dan, Karate 5-dan

Masashi was one of the founding members of Shintaido in Japan. He lives in Bristol, and is very much the centre of Shintaido in the UK. He is one of only four doshu in the world, and so we are fortunate to have him here in the UK. As well as his work with British Shintaido he is the coordinator of the European Shintaido College Technical Committee.

Classes: Private classes

General Instructor & Kenjutsu 4-dan

Ula lives in Brighton, where she runs a small local group. She is a General Shintaido Instructor (4th Dan equivalent), Bohjutsu 1st dan, and is the current Chair of the British Shintaido College and a founder member of the European Technical Committee. She has been practising Shintaido for over 35 years and has been an Instructor of Shintaido for 28 years. She offers Shintaido practice in various forms – weekly classes, workshops, demonstrations, one off sessions, corporate/team bonding sessions and individual work.

Ula is also a Specialist Physiotherapist working with Adults who have special needs/learning disabilities. She applies Shintaido principles to her work role in relation to empowering her clients and the team she works with. The unique Shintaido qualities of somatic listening, understanding and working with a person’s movement ability, have supported her enormously in this role.

Classes: Zoom classes

General Instructor, Bojutsu 3-dan and Kenjutsu 2-dan

Charles Burns is a successful freelance artist and the current Chair of British Shintaido. He has been practicing Shintaido for over 30 years and currently runs regular Shintaido classes in his home town of Reading.

Senior Instructor, Kenjutsu nidan

Nagako began practicing Shintaido in Tokyo in 1994. She moved to the UK in 1999 and started 2 weekly classes, Lightwave Shintaido and Gentle Shintaido in Stroud, Gloucestershire and shared the joy of Shintaido over 12 years. She has relocated to Dumfriesshire in Scotland in 2018, and has been teaching Shintaido at Loch Arthur Camphill Community which includes men and women with learning disabilities, as well as a weekly Zoom Shintaido class.

Classes: Loch Arthur and Zoom Shintaido

Senior Instructor, Kenjutsu nidan

Peter Furtado has been practising Shintaido since the early 1980s and has been a qualified Instructor for many years. He lives in Stroud and is a long-standing member of the Management Committee for British Shintaido.

Classes: Stroud Shintaido

Kenjutsu Sandan and Bojutsu Nidan

Laurent has been practising Shintaido for over 15 years. He is French but has been living near Bath since the early 1990’s. He was chairman of European Shintaido till 2022. He teaches a Bojutsu class every Wednesday in Corsham near Bath.

Classes: Bath Bo Club

Kenjutsu Nidan, Bojutsu Shodan

Susan lives near Bath and now teaches two classes, one weekly one in Stroud and one every few weeks in Box. She is particularly interested in exploring how the benefits of gentle shintaido—relatively simple, relaxing yet energising movements done alone or with others—can be brought into and enhance daily life.

Susan is a counsellor and anma shiatsu practitioner and uses Shintaido and its principles in her work.

Classes: Zoom Classes

Shintaido Instructor, Bojutsu shodan

Pam is married to Masashi and spent a long time studying Shintaido in Japan before they both moved to England. She is currently on the Management Committee for British Shintaido.

Shintaido Graduate

Graduated in 2007, Jamie lives and works in Farnham. He combines Shintaido with his work as an acupuncture practitioner.

Classes: Farnham