Author: Christophe

Article on Aikiweb.com by Robert Mustard Shihan:

“Takeno sensei was the head instructor when I arrived in Japan. He was sharp, fast, powerful, and very scary. He was also the greatest teacher I have ever had the good fortune to learn from. He started using me for uke from almost the first day I lived in the dojo, and this is what it was like. One day in an afternoon practice, only David Rubens and I were the only ones practicing, and Takeno sensei came over to us and said, ” What do you want to do? ” We both just looked at him. He said, “Let’s do dai ichi kihon, which is the first group of basic techniques in the Yoshinkan syllabus. I have never forgotten that class all these years later. Takeno sensei destroyed us. I have never felt such uncompromising power in any technique EVER! He creamed me in every possible way, almost knocking me out with Ikkyo!!!  Read more here >>“