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

30 - Standing Straight

TO THE READER A man can appear to grow several inches overnight. Not because anything was added to him, but because something was finally set down. For years he had carried his body one way, and everyone who saw him assumed the prison had bent him. They were wrong. He had been bending himself, on purpose, every waking hour. The way you stand is never an accident. It is an answer to the world ar...

29 - The Root and the Tree

TO THE READER A root that stops drawing water does not simply rest. It begins to kill the tree it was meant to feed. We tend to think of loyalty to a tradition as a matter of guarding it, walling it off, keeping it pure. Mitose taught almost the reverse. The surest way to destroy something you love is to close it. There is a difference between the root of a thing and the fruit of it, and confus...

28 - The Garbage Can

TO THE READER The most valuable thing a man owns is sometimes the thing he did not reach for. And the surest way to fail a test is to know you are being tested. There was a document that changed the course of an entire art, and it spent part of its first afternoon in a waste basket. This was not disrespect. It was, in a strange way, the very reason it had been given. Pay attention to what a per...

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.