KEIKOCHANOYU / BUDŌ / PRACTICE

KEIKO

ABOUT KEIKO

Practice, community, and shared learning.

KEIKO is a San Francisco Bay Area home for learning through chanoyu, jōdō, and the continued study of classical martial traditions.

It brings together instruction, developing practice groups, field notes, and resources grounded in direct experience and relationships with teachers and communities.

Pop comic treatment of Chris Yao practicing jōdō in Palo Alto
Jōdō practice, Palo Alto

ABOUT CHRIS

Chris Yao teaches chanoyu and jōdō while continuing to study a wider range of martial traditions.

Chris has practiced Urasenke Chadō since 2015 and holds the credentials of 2nd-degree Instructor (専任講師), Chamei, and Monkyo (茶名・紋許). In chanoyu settings, he may use the tea name Sōkō / 宗航. He began martial arts in 2018 with kendō and iaidō, and his study has since expanded across modern budō and classical traditions.

Training takes him regularly to Japan, Canada, and destinations across the United States for seminars, tournaments, demonstrations, and gasshuku. He won first place at the 2023 Pan-American Kyudo Taikai in Vancouver and has performed yabusame on multiple occasions in Japan and Hawaiʻi. Teachers and communities encountered through these journeys continue to shape how he practices and teaches.

Studying several arts gives Chris the opportunity to see how different traditions approach shared fundamentals through their own principles, histories, and intended contexts. Encountering those differences helps him see from more than one perspective, ask better questions, and respect the integrity of each tradition.

His teaching emphasizes the reasoning behind a movement or procedure. Students are encouraged to understand why something is done, what purpose it serves, and how its parts work together—not merely reproduce its outward shape. He has also served as an assistant instructor in iaidō and naginata.

Through KEIKO, Chris hopes people can enjoy learning, develop awareness and confidence, and discover the cultural depth of these arts. Beginners and experienced practitioners are both welcome; no previous experience is required.

PRACTICE AFFILIATIONS

Communities and lines of study

The affiliations below identify the teachers, dōjō, associations, and traditions through which Chris has trained. Ranks and credentials provide context for the experience described on this site.

Chanoyu

Modern budō

Classical traditions

WAYS TO PRACTICE

Experience, ongoing study, and practice groups.

KEIKO welcomes inquiries about introductory tea experiences, hosted tea gatherings, ongoing Urasenke study, and sustained ZNKR Jōdō training.

It is also building long-term Bay Area interest for Hōzōin-ryū sōjutsu and IDO Daqiang practice groups. The other traditions listed above remain part of Chris’s continuing study.

EXPLORE PRACTICE →

WHY KEIKO

Practice that deepens over time.

Keiko / 稽古 is often translated simply as “practice,” but it can also suggest reflecting on what came before. Here it means learning through repetition, correction, preparation, relationships, and attention over time.

KEIKO is not about collecting separate cultural experiences. It is about staying with a practice long enough for understanding, relationships, and responsibility to deepen.

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