The Teachings of Yukei Fujita

In my last post, I introduced Yukei Fujita—the founder of Chowado Kyokai (Association for the Law of Harmony), a Japanese group devoted to tanden (hara) development. Today, let’s dive into some of his actual teachings. As I mentioned previously, I found very little information on Fujita in English. My primary source is a short book, The Law of Harmony in Health and Physical Culture, which he wrote in 1928 to announce his system of health improvement. The key to that system is hara breathing.

As you might guess from the title, Fujita focuses on the health benefits of hara breathing.  To this end, he identifies three “physical functions” that give rise to the “health elements” of proper breathing: 1) purifying the blood, 2) promoting blood circulation, and 3) stimulating and strengthening the internal organs and nervous system.’’ And, he is clear that “proper” breathing is hara breathing.  “Perfect health can only be possible when internal organs in the breast and abdomen are able to function satisfactorily.  These organs are made to function smoothly by proper breathing, a development of ‘hara’. Thus, the first requirement for perfect health is proper development of ‘hara’.”

Fujita distinguishes between two types of hara: “harmonized” and “unharmonized”.  These can be identified by appearance.  He describes two types of unharmonized hara.  He calls one “dog belly”. In this variation (left figure in the image below), “the pit of the stomach [the soft tissue right below the sternum] is hardened, and the part below the pit is flat.” He holds that people with this type of abdomen are weak and prone to chronic disease. Fujita calls the other variation of unharmonized hara “barrel-abdomen” (right figure in image below). He describes this as “fat and large, its pit is hardened, and only the lower part is swelled out because of a superabundance of fat.” He goes on to explain that any attempt to put pressure in the lower abdomen results in putting pressure in the chest.”  Using terminology we’ve introduced before, it brings the water to the fire.  Fujita holds that a barrel-abdomen is also a sign of ill health.

A harmonized hara, in contrast, is “gourd shaped” (image below). “The pit is soft and depressed, and below it, the lower portion swells out in a rounded shape, with several wrinkles between the pit and the rounded lower portion.” Fujita makes the point that some people naturally acquire a harmonized hara, while others (I presume the vast majority) have to achieve it through training.  He points out that ancient Japanese sculpture masters portrayed such gourd-shaped hara in their work, but that contemporary artists (and he was writing in the 1920s) had adopted Western depictions of non-harmonized abdomens.

Fujita’s description of a harmonized abdomen is consistent with instructions I received from my Zen teacher. He stressed the importance of what Fujita calls the “pit”, the soft tissue directly below the sternum.  He used to say that that area should be soft and, if not, to massage it until it softens.  Further, the musculature around the pit is essential in the start of an exhalation that expands the lower abdomen. Similarly, those muscles must then be relaxed to take a deep, tension-free inhalation. 

Fujita’s typology also answers a question that has been posed to me over the years. The first time I heard this, a new student, after someone pointed out that a senior student had a prominent hara, asked “what’s the big deal, he just has a beer belly.” This was a sensitive question for me, since I live in the state with the highest per capita consumption of beer. The answer to this question is the pit.  In hara breathing, as we have seen, the pit is soft and depressed, while the “barrel-abdomen” is not. The lower abdomen might look expanded due to layers of fat, not because of expansion of the abdominal cavity. And, such a person can’t do hara breathing.

Before concluding, I want to discuss a few more points that Fujita made.  First, he claimed that he could gauge the health of an individual by the degree of abdominal “induration”.  To be honest, even though I had heard the term “induration” over the years while working in medical clinics, I had to look it up to understand Fujita’s point.  According to CHATGPT, induration is a “medical term used when an area of skin, subcutaneous tissue, or an internal organ feels firmer than normal—often due to inflammation, scarring (fibrosis), or infiltration by abnormal cells.” Fujita describes four types of abdominal induration: 1) partial contraction of abdominal muscles; 2) partial contraction of the stomach; 3) partial contraction of the intestines; and, 4) contraction of the stomach pit.  All of these conditions are signs of underlying ill-health. And, according to Fujita, hara breathing can restore health. By the way, there is a long tradition in Chinese and Japanese medicine of diagnosing and treating illness by palpation of the abdomen. I plan to address this in a future post.

While, as I mentioned, Fujita focuses on the physical aspects of hara development, he does not fully ignore its effect on the mind.  In a section on “Mind Concentration”, he writes that “the perfect function of senses depends upon the power of ‘hara,’…mind training is to be accomplished only by developing the power of hara.”

In the remainder of Fujita’s book, he introduces exercises that can develop hara breathing.  While I won’t describe them here, variations of them are described in the e-book, The Science and Practice of Tanden (Dantian) Breathing by Takeyoshi Kubota, which I briefly discussed in my last post. I will focus on this book in my next one.

In closing, I want to remind you to check out, if you haven’t already, our online course “Hara Foundations”. While you have to register for it, there is no fee (but donations are appreciated). You can find a link to it here. Because one of the lessons in it focuses on the action of the “pit” and how to develop it, we are making it directly available to readers here (although I used the alternative term, “gap” to describe the same anatomical area).  In it, we include the video of Honda Roshi playing the shakuhachi.  When you watch it, pay particular attention to the activity of the area right below his sternum. And, when he is at full exhalation, compare it to the third image of a harmonized hara shown earlier in this post.

As always, feel free to send questions and comments using this link. Also, let us know if there are any topics you would like us to cover in future posts.

Note: The diagrams and quotes in this post come from the English edition of Fujita’s 1928 book, originally published by the now-dissolved Chowado Kyokai. They are shared here for educational and historical purposes, with commentary, analysis, and context provided to help readers understand Fujita’s approach to hara development. This is a not-for-profit use and is intended to preserve and discuss a rare work that is difficult to obtain. To the best of my knowledge, this edition is out of print and not commercially available; I was able to access it only through scholastic interlibrary loan. If any current rights holder has concerns, please contact me, and I will gladly address them.