A very rare and important event in a budo school life.
I am a member of Takeda-Ryu school for 30 years now and for me, Hisashi NAKAMURA was the perfect incarnation of a SOKE (japanese word for the head of traditional martial arts school).
When I heard the news of this death in July 2018, I was not only sad to loose this charismatic Master (by the way, who came 4 times to teach in Liège, once in my Dojo and that I met in Avignon, in New York, in Vienna and in Chiny) but I was also worried about the future of Takeda Ryu Nakamura school. Hopefully, very quickly, a consensus on the heir designation was reach within the school sensei: Shuji NAKAMURA. After that, the Shihan of the school were formally invited to an official ceremony to celebrate his official designation as Soke.
Valmy DEBOT, Okuden Shihan and his team organized everything for this trip to Japan to attend this ceremony. The following people have taken part to it:
Okuden Shihan:
1- Valmy DEBOT
2- Bernard DUFRENE
3- Richard GILLET
4- Bert VAN DEN PLAS
5- Othman BOUHEIT
Joden Shihan:
6- Corinne BARTHELEMY
7- Didier LOREA
8- Bruno GRANATA
9- Alain SAUDADIER
10- Olivier ROUSSELON
Chuden Kyohan:
11- Nicolas LEFEBVRE
12- Mario ALONSO
Shoden Kyohan:
13- Mickael FERNANDEZ
14- Raoul RIESCO
15- Fabien LECOMTE
16- Jos GEUSSENS
Shoden Aikido :
17- Gérald JAMESIN
that took place the 27th October in the Grand Hotel « Metropolitan » at Tokyo, Ikebukuro district.
SOFUE Sensei, Kaiden Shihan, held the official ceremony and TOYOSHIMA Sensei, Okuden Shihan, was there to present the different phases of the celebration.
In front of several Masters from different schools and in front of all the Shihan from TAKEDA RYU NAKAMURA HA school :
- SOFUE Sensei did an Iai-Jutsu demonstration
- TOYOSHIMA Sensei did a Ko-Ryu Aiki no Jutsu demonstration
- MORITA Sensei did a Iai-to demonstration
- NISHIUCHI Sensei et KOBAYASHI Sensei did a Ju-Kempo demonstration
- Ono Sensei did a Sogo Randori Aikido demosntration
An many others did demonstrations in : JoDo, Kendo. Please excuse me for not remembering all the names.
This sunday evening lead to several trainings during the week :
- in Seitama Sobukan of SOFUE Sensei : Ko-Ryu Jo-do et Iai-Do
- in Nanso Sobukan of MORITA Sensei : Batto Giri et Shuriken Jutsu
- in Matsudo Sobukan of Soke NAKAMURA : Aikido et Ju Kenpo
Our day-off allowed us to visit :
- Sengakuji temple and the building dedicated to 47 Ronins
- Shibuya district with the statue of Hachiko, famous loyal dog
- Senso Ji temple dedicated to Kannon and Asakusa district
This trip was an real opportunity for us to feel the real traditions from an old martial arts school, through the trainings given in small traditional dojo with a very limited amount of students and to live a rare event in a Budoka life : the celebration of a new Soke.
We would like to thank you to NAKAMURA Soke for his invitation to the ceremony and to Valmy DEBOT, Corinne BARTHELEMY and Monsieur TAKAMI for their usual wonderful organization.
After this trip, we are even more confident into the bright future of our school and a flawless determination to wok with Valmy DEBOT on the promotion of our school into our region.
Richard GILLET,
Shihan Takeda-Ryu Nakamura Ha.
