Let’s Dance!
Remembering the late Takamizawa Toru Sensei, and the wisdom that can be gained from one short conversation.
Although it was over thirty years ago, it is still fresh in my memory. It was one of those regular instructors courses we used to go to in the Wado Academy days, conducted by Shiomitsu Sensei. The courses were in a very spacious Dojo in Wandsworth (London) called the Yawara Centre, a large matted room normally used for Aikido (or so I was told).
It wasn’t unusual to see the occasional spectator at these sessions, which were inclined to be quite intense as Shiomitsu Sensei at that time was formulating his approach and what was to become his idiosyncratic teaching methods. But this one time the visitor sat on his own and quietly and respectfully observed the whole session.
His face was familiar, I had seen him before, once in person and at other times in magazine articles; this was the Wado Ryu karate instructor Takamizawa Toru.
Initially I was wondering why he was there; I had never seen him previously at events either with the Academy or earlier with the UKKW. Takamizawa Sensei had broken away from mainstream Wado in the UK years before and had formed his own group which was first called ‘Tera’ and then later on somehow morphed into the Takamizawa Institute of Karate (TIOK), the story of that is for someone else to tell, for I am sure there is a bigger tale to be told – I can only say how my own personal points of contact with Takamizawa Sensei occurred, and I certainly don’t want to do him a disservice.
Takamizawa Sensei on UK magazine covers.