Here is a short summary of the history of Shorinji Kempo.

Shorinji Kempo was established in the town Tadotsu, situated on island of Shikoku, which is the smallest of the four big islands of Japan. The founder was a man named Doshin So. He wanted to help to build up Japan again after the end of World-War II.

He began teaching his philosophy, but to listen about lectures on philosophy didn’t attract young people in the state of chaos that Japan was in after the war. Doshin So realized that it is the young people that build a country. And therefore decided to teach the martial art that he had learned during his youth and his time in China. Together with the teaching of martial art, he also taught his philosophy that was based upon the teachings of Buddha.

Kaiso had a vision of making strong righteousness youths that should grow to mentally and physically strong and righteous thinking citizens, and by so creating a better society.

Shorinji Kempo developed slowly but steadily towards a strong organisation and was spread all over Japan. Today there is about 2950 Shorinji Kempo branches in Japan and Shorinji Kempo has over the years spread to 35 other countries (2013). The largest nation, in number of branches, is Indonesia. In Sweden, the first Shorinji Kempo branch was officially established in 1970.