Dojopop safeguards a 400-year martial arts lineage

Introduction

Preserving cultural and creative legacies is vital yet challenging. Akord presents a unique solution, offering at least a 200-year preservation guarantee in an immutable manner. 

Actor, writer, and producer Zorie Barber discovered this potential, finding Akord to be the perfect platform for safeguarding his projects.

In this article, we’ll discuss how he’s using Akord for to help preserve the 400-year lineage of the Tenshinryu Hyoho, a Samurai martial arts school, and his feature-length film, the Yoga Sutra.

Dojopop

When Zorie moved to Kyoto as a teenager, he was captivated by Japanese martial arts, particularly by the Tenshinryu Hyoho. But he soon recognized two critical issues: how easily martial arts knowledge can be lost and the prevalence of charlatans misrepresenting the discipline.

About a year ago, Zorie had the opportunity to practice with Tenshinryu Hyoho. The school found itself in a precarious situation, with only one living Sensei remaining.

The school's vulnerability was further highlighted by its reliance on a singular book recording its 400-year lineage, which could be irretrievably lost in an accident like a fire.

Recognizing the need for a better solution, Zorie envisioned Dojopop (Dojo Proof Of Practice), a digital ledger to preserve martial arts lineage. Collaborating with Kuwami Masakumo, the current Sensei of Tenshinryu, they aim to create a living digital passport of martial arts experiences. This ensures that the authenticity and lineage of practitioners is verifiable and preserved.

The Dojo of the Stoic Samurai

They are also developing a Samurai NFT PFP project, The Dojo of the Stoic Samurai, which will act as the membership to Dojopop. It will be a limited PFP NFT collection of 10,000 unique tokens created and drawn by Kuwami.

The Stoic Samurai NFT will give holders access to exclusive events, content, and DojoPop’s Web3 Global Dojo.

The Yoga Sutra

Having studied film at NYU 20 years ago, Zorie has experienced firsthand the fragility of film preservation. He has witnessed how easily film projects can become inaccessible, including some of his own works.

With Akord, these concerns are a thing of the past. His films, including The Yoga Sutra, are now securely stored for at least the next 200 years.

After having spent 12 years studying with Tibetan Buddhist monks, he wanted to share the esoteric concepts of karma and emptiness. The Yoga Sutra became his medium to convey these profound ideas.

Token-gated access

Token-gated access is a key feature that steered Zorie towards Akord. But how exactly does he plan to use it?

In martial arts, especially those with a rich and ancient lineage like Tenshinryu Hyoho, guarding techniques and teachings is crucial. Here, the token functions as a membership card, granting access to secret teachings and acknowledging the practitioner's progress and dedication.

The Tenshinryu Hyoho recently released a book detailing their 12 secret katas (forms). To preserve the exclusivity of this knowledge, they could token-gate it, making it accessible only to dedicated practitioners or scholars.

For The Yoga Sutra, token-gated access serves a dual purpose: protecting the film from piracy and enabling monetization. This is achieved by ensuring that exclusive access to the film is available only through tokens.

Conclusion

By using Akord and Arweave, Zorie is able to safeguard legacies from the ancient martial art teachings of the Tenshinryu Hyoho to the Buddhist lessons portrayed in The Yoga Sutra.

Inspired by Zorie’s work and want to use features such as token-gated access for your own project? Reach out to us.