Learn About the Artist
H. E. Davey is the Director of the Sennin Foundation Center for Japanese Cultural Arts, which offers instruction in Japanese yoga, martial arts, healing arts, and fine arts. His introduction to the arts of Japan came via traditional martial arts. Since age five he’s studied jujutsu in the USA and Japan. He received a seventh-degree black belt and the advanced teaching title of Kyoshi from the Kokusai Budoin, a Tokyo-based international federation. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Shudokan Martial Arts Association, which has given him an eighth-degree black belt.
In middle school Mr. Davey began Shin-shin-toitsu-do, a system of Japanese yoga and meditation founded by Nakamura Tempu Sensei. He’s practiced in Japan and the USA under Nakamura Sensei’s senior disciples, including Sawai Atsuhiro Sensei. He’s also received instruction in Nakamura Sensei’s methods of bodywork and healing with ki (“life energy”). In addition, he’s the Vice President of the Kyoto-based International Japanese Yoga Association. He has the most advanced teaching certification in the IJYA and serves as their International Chief Instructor.
He studied shodo, Japanese brush writing and ink painting, for 20 years under Kobara Ranseki Sensei, recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun. Mr. Davey holds the top rank in Ranseki Sho Juku shodo, and Kobara Sensei appointed him as his successor. In 1989, he sent his work to the annual International Japanese Calligraphy Exhibition in Urayasu, Japan. His calligraphy was selected, out of several thousand works of art, for exhibition at this event (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education and the Kokusai Shodo Bunka Koryu Kyokai.) He received the Tokusen award—the first non-Japanese to be granted this honor. In subsequent years his artwork was shown annually at the exhibit and received various awards, including Jun Taisho (“Associate Grand Prize”), also a first for someone not of Japanese ancestry.
In 1993 he was issued the Shihan-Dai title from the Ranseki Sho Juku, the highest rank granted by this group. He’s the only non-Japanese Shihan-Dai in the over 40-year history of the organization. In 2005 he succeeded his late teacher.
H. E. Davey’s articles on Japanese arts and his artwork have appeared in numerous American and Japanese magazines and newspapers. He’s the author of Secrets of the Brush: Life Lessons from the Art of Japanese Calligraphy, Unlocking the Secrets of Aiki-jujutsu, Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind & Body Harmony, Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation, Living the Japanese Arts & Ways: 45 Paths to Meditation & Beauty, The Japanese Way of the Artist, The Teachings of Tempu: Practical Meditation for Daily Life, and The Japanese Way of the Flower: Ikebana as Moving Meditation.
