Blue Poppy Enterprises is the official distributor of Gentle Spirit Shonishin Tools.

Onkodo Clinic in Portland, OR has teamed up in an exciting new collaboration with traditional Dine silversmiths Ernie and Jon-Michael Lister to produce a beautiful and effective line of gentle treatment tools. These are tools of rare quality - their character sets them completely apart from others available. We have shown them to two Japanese masters who were both deeply impressed. Ernie and Jon-Michael mostly work with Japanese customers in their custom jewelry work, because they masterfully combine their traditional aesthetic with a keen sense of the Japanese wabi-sabi sensibility. This combination of Southeast Asia and Southwest North America is captured in our Onkodo Gentle Spirit Tool line.

Whereas most Teishin makers start with silver wire and then fashion their unique designs from that, Ernie and Jon-Michael start with rough silver ingot. After that it is a matter of hammer and heat repeatedly being used to forge the tool. This involves a lot more work than most artisans are willing to invest, but the result is well worth it. Some call this hammering the spirit into the Teishin, and we think this an apt description. Please be aware that because it is time-consuming to produce tools in this labor-intensive manner, at times you may have to wait a bit for our stock to be replenished. When your tool arrives, though, you will find that it was worth the wait.

Most of our Teishins avoid the strict tapered cylindrical shape common to other Teishins and instead offer a unique shape that allows for easy stroking technique as well as the usual point-specific work. The Onkodo Gentle Spirit tool that comes closest to the traditional Teishin shape is the Born to Water Teishin.