10 - The Certificates

Mar 27, 2026

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Kosho Chronicles Issue #10

To the Reader

In the martial arts, people will do extraordinary things for a piece of paper. They will travel across the country for one. They will lie about one. They will spend years chasing one and then, once they have it, spend the rest of their lives defending it instead of learning from it.

A certificate from James Mitose meant something. But what it meant depended entirely on the person holding it.

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9 - The Guinea Pigs

Kosho Chronicles Issue #9 To the Reader The hardest part of learning from Mitose was not learning from Mitose. It was coming back to my school and trying to explain what I had learned to my students. Every visit to the prison gave me something new. Every class I taught afterward felt like trying to describe a color nobody had ever seen. My students had no idea what they were in for. Neither did...

8 - The Kosho Mind

Kosho Chronicles Issue #8 To the Reader You already know everything. That is the problem. You have studied, you have trained, you have built a framework of understanding, and now you filter everything through it. Whatever fits, you accept. Whatever does not, you reject. And you call that knowledge. Mitose had a word for this. He called it prejudice. Not the kind people argue about on the news. ...

7 - The Visual Plane

Kosho Chronicles Issue #7 TO THE READERYou trust your eyes. You have been trained to watch the punch, track the kick, follow the weapon. Your eyes are the first sense you turn to in danger, and they are the reason you get hit. Mitose called them the great betrayer. I did not understand what he meant until he showed me. THE TEACHINGThe eyes are the directors of focus. When the eyes move, the hea...

10 - The Certificates

Kosho Chronicles Issue #10

This post is for paying subscribers only

The Kosho Chronicles

Each month focuses on a single Kosho principle. Once an issue closes, it doesn't return. No fluff. Only original Kosho material.

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