9 - The Guinea Pigs

Mar 21, 2026

Connect

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 I.

The Teaching

Mitose had a phrase he used often. "Keep them confused." That was his favorite term. At first, I thought he was talking about opponents. He was not. He was talking about students.

This post is for paying subscribers only

Upgrade

Already have an account? Log in

26 - The Bubble

TO THE READER There is a comfortable place you return to without noticing. A favorite technique. A preferred side. A distance where you feel safe. You have rehearsed it for years, and it feels like mastery. It is not mastery. It is a bubble, and you are living inside it. The trouble with a bubble is that it feels exactly like home until the moment it fails you, and by then it is too late to lea...

24 - Never Offend Another

TO THE READER You can know a thing perfectly and still be unable to live it. This is one of the quiet tragedies of being human, and the martial arts are full of it. There are men who can explain peace with such clarity that you weep, and who cannot get through a single afternoon without conflict. And there are men who could never explain it at all, who simply are peaceful, the way water is wet....

23 - The Mentor's Gift

TO THE READER There is a particular kind of help that arrives from a direction you were not watching. It comes from someone who owes you nothing, who belongs to a different camp, who has no stake in whether you succeed. When that help comes, most people are suspicious of it. They start looking for the angle. What does he want? What is this going to cost me?Sometimes the answer is nothing. Somet...

9 - The Guinea Pigs

Kosho Chronicles Issue #9

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.

Subscribe and get a discount off your first order.