Vale Chiba Masashi sensei
As I learned from Geoff Salmon sensei's blog , we lost a giant of the Kendo world last week. Chiba sensei had suffered significant health problems over the last few years which is why he stopped his visits to improve our Kendo. A whole cohort of kenshi came up through the ranks thinking it was normal to have regular visits from a hanshi hachidan, former All Japan champion and Tokyo Police shihan. Sadly we know now that we were spoiled by his tireless generosity. There are a lot of videos of his Kendo on the net, so we can still watch his technique. But what you can't see is his playful sense of humour*. My favourite teaching of sensei's was when he admonished everyone at one of his Kenshikan seminars. "Do you think I have good Kendo?" Silence. Everyone inside their own heads: "Is this a trick question?" "Don't you think my Kendo is any good?" Awkward shuffling and looking at the floor. "I...
