{"id":4,"date":"2023-11-29T21:01:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soke.org\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2023-11-29T21:01:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:01:36","slug":"soke-grandmasters-council","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/soke.org\/?page_id=4","title":{"rendered":"Soke Grandmasters Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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S\u014dke<\/strong>\u00a0\u5b97\u5bb6, is a Japanese term that means “the head family and is mainly used in Japanese traditional arts. Thus, it is often used to indicate “headmaster” (or sometimes translated as “head of the family” or even “grand master” but only rarely and mostly incorrectly used.) The English translation of s\u014dke as “grand master” is not a literal translation but it does see use by some Japanese martial arts references.

It cannot mean one who is the leader of any school, but is used for the head master of a style, but it is most commonly used as a highest level Japanese title, referring to the singular leader of a school or style of\u00a0martial art<\/a>. The term, however is controversial in that its use in Japan was small until western founders began using it in relation to their arts and systems in the nineteen seventies and early eighties.

S\u014dke is sometimes mistakenly believed to mean “founder of a style” because many modern s\u014dke are the first generation headmasters of their art (shodai s\u014dke<\/em>), and are thus both s\u014dke and founder. However, the successors to the\u00a0shodai s\u014dke<\/em>\u00a0are also s\u014dke themselves. S\u014dke are generally considered the ultimate authority within their art, and have final discretion and authority regarding promotions, curriculum, doctrine, and disciplinary actions. A s\u014dke has the authority to issue a\u00a0menkyo kaiden<\/em>certificate indicating that someone has mastered all aspects of his style. It is considered the highest form of Soke are the inheritors of an old system, usually with letters and documentation to the fact of lineage.

In some schools such as\u00a0Kashima-Shinryuthere is a related position called\u00a0Shihanke<\/em>(\u5e2b\u7bc4\u5bb6\u00a0hiragana:\u00a0\u3057\u306f\u3093\u3051meaning “Instructor Line” that fills a very similar role. A Shihanke is essentially a second training lineage that exists autonomously from the S\u014dke. In arts where there is a Shihanke and a S\u014dke it is possible for the position of S\u014dke to essentially be a hereditary honorary title in the Iemoto system while the Shihanke is responsible for the actual teaching and operation of the school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\u014dke\u00a0\u5b97\u5bb6, is a Japanese term that means “the head family and is mainly used in Japanese traditional arts. Thus, it is often used to indicate “headmaster” (or sometimes translated as “head of the family” or even “grand master” but only rarely and mostly incorrectly used.) The English translation of s\u014dke as “grand master” is not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6,"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soke.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}