Remembering Ritsuke Otake Sensei.

[Guest Simon R]

When you're my age and you've lived in Japan for so many years, it's regrettably easy to forget who you've met, what you've done and even what you own.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to visit the home of Ritsuke Otake Sensei, the shihan (headmaster) of Katori Shinto Ryu, Japan's oldest Budo school, and possibly the world's greatest swordsman in 2007.

He was a most gracious host and a unique man.

 

Yesterday, I was looking over my crowded bookshelves and I suddenly realised that I still had six books which Otake Sensei had inscribed to me personally - including first editions of his three volume, seminal work on swordsmanship 'The Deity and the Sword'.

 

As Sensei passed away recently, I was deeply humbled to rediscover these priceless volumes.

[Jacques]

I have the same thoughts for my former teacher Sugino Yoshio sensei.