British Shintaido Instructors

The following are all currently active instructors in the UK, who are paid up members of both British Shintaido and the European Shintaido College. It is not an exhaustive list of all those qualified to teach, but does represent those who are actively seeking to do so.

If your current instructor is not not represented here, do please let us know so we can put it right!

Masashi Minagawa

Shintaido Doshu (Master Instructor), karate 5th dan, bojutsu 4th 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 4 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.

Ula Chambers

Senior Instructor, bojutsu shodan

Ula lives and works in Brighton, where she runs a small local group. She is chair of the British Shintaido College, so together with Masashi & Geoffrey she is responsible for the direction of Shintaido in the UK.

Geoffrey Fitch

Senior Instructor, karate 2nd dan, bojutsu 2nd dan

Cyril Geoffrey Fitch was one of the original British Shintaido group. He went to Japan in 1976 and studied there for five years receiving instruction from Aoki sensei and many Rakutenkai members. He has taught Shintaido in Japan, Bavaria, France and Australia, and is a qualified massage therapist and fitness instructor. He now teaches Shintaido at weekends in West London on a regular basis.

Daniel des Baux

Shintaido Instructor, bojutsu shodan

Daniel lives in Mortlake, West London, and runs sessions from time to time at the Old Deer Park in Richmond.

Charles Burns

Shintaido Instructor, bojutsu shodan

Charles lives in Reading. Together with his daughter Taz he runs a fledgling Shintaido group in the area, and is working with the group in Farnham as well. He also takes on innumerable small jobs to keep things going (running this website & the newsletter for instance!)

Debbie Evans

Shintaido Instructor, bojutsu shodan

Debbie lives in Bristol. She is not teaching much at the moment but hopes to again in the future.

Peter Furtado

Shintaido Instructor

Peter Furtado has been practising Shintaido since the early 1980s and has been a qualified Instructor for more than 15 years. He lives in Oxford where he taught a regular class for many years, and offers occasional workshops.

Pam Minagawa

Shintaido Instructor

Pam is married to Masashi and spent a long time studying Shintaido in Japan before they both moved to England. She is not currently teaching a class, but is a great source of information and inspiration to many other Instructors in the UK & elsewhere.

Belinda French

Shintaido Instructor

Belinda has been practicing Shintaido for many years. She became an instructor in 2006, and lives in Bristol where she teaches a regular class.

Jamie Hamilton

Junior Instructor

Recently graduated in 2007, Jamie teaches at the Farnham group, in collaboration with Charles.

Katrina Horne

Junior Instructor

Katrina teaches the Nailsworth "Lightwaves" class, together with Minagawa Senseï. Katrina also teaches Shintaïdo workshops and has taught with Bath Dance Forum and Bristol Complementary Clinic at the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre. She has also taught in the US at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Chicago.

Katrina started her practice in 1996 studying with Minagawa Senseï. She was fortunate to be an assistant to Minagawa Senseï for nearly 3 years. Katrina has attended numerous Shintaïdo events; with Shintaïdo of America, European Shintaïdo College and British Shintaïdo. She is also on the Management Committee for British Shintaïdo.

If you are taking an exam your examiner must be at least a Shintaido Instructor (not Graduate) for Shintaido exams, or hold at least 2nd dan (not shodan) if the exam is in Shintaido Karate or Bojustu.

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