Peter Goldsbury

Hello Tim,

Did you know that Masatake Fujita and Minoru Kanetsuka have a sempai / kohai relationship based on their membership of the Aikido club at Takushoku University? Gozo Shioda was the shihan at this university and I believe that Tanaka Shigeho was also a student.

I remember a grading examination in Holland, way back when Mr Bacas was active. M Kanetsuka (MK) was examining the kyu grade students, but M Fujita (MF), as the visiting shihan, had to be present at the tests. The morning kyu tests took for ages as MK went through the book. MF actually had knee problems and began to complain (to me, kneeling right beside him) about the time this was taking. In the afternoon MF held the dan examinations and everything was finished in about ten minutes.

Nothing was ever stated about the difference.

Best wishes,