What prompted the HenKaiPan founder to develop his own martial arts?

 

Wellenhand von Atlantis felt the penchant for fighting already as a child. This did not happen by chance, since he was received the corresponding influences through his extensive family. One of his ancestors was the first commander of the Foreign Legion. And his paternal grandmother is descendant as a half-Indian from the North American Pawnees (a tribe, which was not only considered quite martial and also allowed women to participate in the fight, but also a tribe which used a very independent cosmology).

As a result, he occupied himself since very early with the martial arts.

First, his father practiced wrestling with him and trained him in the art of dealing with knives, hatchet or bow darts. Later at boarding school, he began occupying intensively with boxing. As an eighteen-year-old, he joined the Swiss grenadiers and became a commando group leader and instructor for military close combat.

 Through the military he got to know several martial arts experts. That led him to the Asian martial arts. First, judo and Shotokan-Karate. Then, for five years, he ran the WadoRyu Karate with the Danubio Brothers (an Eastern Swiss martial arts family). In this context, he attended several courses with Grandmaster Tehuro Kono.

For a while he also trained the YoshinRyu-Jiujtsu with the St. Gallen Master, Max Wyler.

During all these years, he was searching for a key to deeper knowledge behind the external forms of exercise. Therefore, he also took numerous courses in other martial arts (such as Ninjutsu or WingTsun) and read relevant literature. It was also clear to him from the beginning that martial arts always also had to be a healing art.

In the late 1980s, Wellenhand got to know the high school teacher, Ernst Escher. He led a large Dojo (Japanese name for a training center) with numerous members, which had been developed by the famous, French-based grandmaster, Hiroo Mochizuki (even his father, Minoru Mochizuki had been one of Japan's top graduate martial arts legends) and taught the Yoseikan Budo In the canton of Valais in Brig.

When Hiroo Mochizuki began developing his martial arts in the 1970s, he was already a master in various disciplines, such as the Aiki-Jitsu (Aikido's fighting form), which he had learned directly from O-Sensei, Moherei Ueshiba.

Wellenhand dedicated himself to the Yoseikan for almost a decade and opened several Dojos during this interesting and varied phase of his life (among others he founded the Yoseikan Association in Luxembourg).
During this time, he was trained specifically in three different disciplines: the Kempo (= military form of karate), the Kobudo (= traditional Japanese weapons) and the Aiki-Jitsu (original leverage and throwing forms of today's Aikido). That training was even more intense than anything before. Several national and international courses deepened the work and enabled contact with other cultures.

His direct teacher, Ernst Escher, had long served as General Secretary of the International Yoseikan Association and is therefore very familiar with the founder, Hiroo Mochizuki. In this context, Wellenhand could also collaborate on a book about the Yoseikan techniques.

Thanks to his still ongoing friendship with his master and his grandmaster, he was fortunate enough to have direct contact to the philosophical tradition of cosmopolitan martial arts. For those who are recognized by such a lineage gain deeper insights into the true nature of martial arts.

Therefore, at the Yoseikan-Budo, there is a versatility that is difficult to replicate and that is still explicitly supported promoted (the Grand Master himself also does martial arts called Bajutsu, which includes the handling of weapons on horseback).

Hiroo Mochizuki believed that one should never stand still. He regularly encouraged his advanced students and coaches to look for their own interpretations and individual styles of fighting, or to explore the meaning of life, hence the knowledge over the natural laws of existence, even in those arts that, superficially, are not directly related to martial arts. For this reason, there were always interesting lessons, such as in Kiatsu (revival and regeneration) or in Qi-Gong (influencing of the vibrations of the body).

Wellenhand took this request seriously and founded with the NamiTe, the physical path of HenKaiPan, an independent martial art. Its cognitive path is the psychosomatic doctrine (INKOAN), which Wellenhand developed at the same time.As a result, his philosophical first name, Wellenhand resulted from the influence of Yoseikan Budos.

Here's a note from the Yoseikan founder, Hiroo Mochizuki:

 "I once observed a martial artist training with a whip which was about eight meters long, with a knife attached to its end.

The man tried to whip the knife into a tree that stood in front of him. The tree was old and solid and if someone had tried to stab the knife with their bare hands into the trunk, he would hardly have penetrated more than a few millimeters into the rough bark. To my biggest surprise, the whip artist managed to beat the knife several centimeters deep into the trunk so that it could hardly be pulled out!

After this confusing experience, I tried to mimic the wave motion the man made with each whip. When I was able to apply this principle to impact, throw, lever, and weapon techniques, I was able to significantly increase the power of these techniques.

Thus, with the help of the wave principle, hundreds of techniques with and without weapons can be developed. "