Why can't i find a Shorinji Kempo club anywhere, really there's tonnes of Taekwondo and muay thai clubs everywhere. Judo and Shotokan Karate is common too but i noticed no Shorinji Kempo even though it seems to look more well rounded than just about any other Japanese Martial art system.
If your dead set on training in shorinji kempo then that is unfortunate but it isn't the most common style. If the style you want to train isn't available then you need to either find the closest style to it or just find the best teacher around and learn what they teach. How 'well rounded' a style is doesn't factor much in how popular it is and generally speaking the more demand for a style the more people teaching it. Judo and Muay Thai / shotokan / TKD (any striking style realy) would be a pretty cool combination that would cover a wide array of techniques if being 'well rounded' is what your after.
The World Shorinji Kempo Organization has a list of all the official clubs: http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/list/index.html
I think the OP is referring to the fact that, as is commonly espoused in its marketing and self-description, SK contains a mixture of both striking and locking/throwing techniques. To speak a little more to the OP's question, I think that SK is comparatively rare for a variety of factors. I graded to shodan in the art before I switched over to BJJ, and while I was still a student (or kenshi) I was often frustrated at how these issues hampered the growth of the art. Firstly, I found SK to be quite traditionally Japanese, with the concomitant rigid hierarchy and "sensei knows best" mentality that are not always suited for more westernized students. The World Shorinji Kempo Organization (WSKO) and its intellectual property protection arm (Shorinji Kempo Unity) are notoriously prescriptive and dogmatic, and their relationships with federations in other nations are mixed at best (for example, there was a recent schism in the UK between the British federation and WSKO). Secondly, it is generally forbidden for instructors to profit from their teaching of SK, making it hard to dedicate oneself to teaching full-time. This does ensure that instructors only teach for their love of the art, but it also makes starting and running a dojo much more challenging. Finally, the art's central Buddhist philosophy does not permit competition or live sparring, instead focusing almost elusively on "cooperative" (i.e. totally compliant and non-resistant) partner work. In the years that I trained on my way to shodan, I must have sparred only a handful of times, and each session was heavily limited. Of course there are exceptions to this, and different dojos/senseis approach resistance and live training in different ways, but by and large the art is completely devoid of any type of realistic resistance or scenario training. All of these issues make it hard for SK to compete in the contemporary martial arts landscape. Strict intellectual property enforcement has led to a paucity of online materials and instructionals, and when I left the art a few years ago WSKO had still not permitted some of its central texts to be translated into any language other than Japanese. In contrast, more open and transparent arts are thriving in venues like YouTube and online forums such as MAP. The rise of MMA and the need for realistic training has also dealt a blow to all traditional arts that don't include sparring, and the public's eyes are becoming increasingly opened to the necessity of at least a moderate amount of pressure testing if usable martial arts techniques are to be developed. Arts like SK are seeming more and more like dinosaurs from a bygone age, and I suspect that the number of students will dwindle to only those few interested in the cultural aspect, or perhaps those looking for some light exercise (even then, many SK proponents still live by that old chestnut that technique trumps all, and physical effort or exertion is to be avoided). SK is often trumpeted by its practioners as the most popular martial art in Japan, though I've never seen any statistics to back this up. Nor do I expect to, given the closed nature of its central governing body. Regardless, interest in SK hasn't translated all that much overseas save for a few small pockets of devoted practitioners. If your heart is set on practicing SK, you'll have to settle for the link to the dojo listing that I posted above; Shorinji Kempo Unity is quite strict about coming down on people teaching SK outside of its official umbrella, so you are unlikely to find a club that isn't on that list. Good luck in your search.
Have not formally studied Shorinji Kempo, but studied Byakuren. You wish to check on that as it does seem more classes available for that.
If you share your location members may be able to advise you on schools that they know about. Plenty of schools lack the exposure to show up on a google search for the art.
