The Magic of Persistence at JMAC

Three Masters

I've been very, very lucky to have trained with or met some extraordinary martial artists. I've been in the room with Shioda Gozo of Yoshinkan Aikido, Yasuhiro Yamashita of Olympic judo fame, Kawabata Terutaka of Jigen-Ryu, Otsuka Hironori, son of the founder of Wado-Ryu Karate, and my own iaido teacher, Yamaguchi Katsuo, Meijin 10th Dan, just to name a few. Holy crap, it feels crazy to write those names when you think of tens of thousands of martial artists whose lives they've affected for the better.

So when I say that there are only three living Japanese masters I care to train with anymore, I hope the context for that statement is clear. I've searched the world over for new mentors and, among those living, training and teaching in Japan, only three make the cut for me.

Nobetsu Tadanori - Goju-Ryu Karate

One is Nobetsu Tadanori, an exemplar of a life lived in Goju-Ryu Karate. He's extraordinarily talented, kind, and humble, and has thousands of students in Japan and around the world keeping his legacy alive. Another is Satoh Tadayuki, one of the world's leading Shodokan aikido experts. He was taught by Tomiki Kenji Sensei and is currently Shihan of aikido at Waseda University Aikido club.

Satoh Tadayuki

Yahagi Kunikazu

The third is perhaps lesser known except among the cognoscenti of koryu ... Yahagi Kunikazu, soke of Ryushin Shouchi Ryu. His art is an evolution of Kawabata-Sensei's Jigen-Ryu ... dynamic, powerful methods for employing the Japanese sword ... an art that includes not just great cutting techniques but also breathing methods, presence, and that wonderful ineffable power and humility that only legitimate heritage martial arts from Japan seem to create.

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