Читать книгу Okinawa Sai-jutsu. engl. онлайн

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I wrote to him the next day and to my surprise he remembered me well and promised to meet me in his next visit, and he did. He was the same gentlemen, but now with even more energy than before.

He presented me his books, I congratulated him on them. Jokingly he said: “Maybe you should write a foreword for my next book”. It would be a pleasure and great honour, I replied, not taking it seriously.

We talked for nearly five hours. It was the greatest joy of my life talking with this “living encyclopaedia”. During my conversation I could not help being in tears watching and hearing him speak on the topics of martial arts. One can feel the love he has for the tradition and the martial arts, and he hates seeing the tradition being modernized and destroyed. Before bidding him farewell, I awarded him the highest rank in Varma Kalai (“art of striking the vital points”). To my dismay he refused to accept it by saying humbly that he was not worthy of such a high rank. I understood what he meant. A man of his standing is seldom seen today in the world of martial arts. In May 2008 he wrote to me of his 4th book project, “Okinawan Saijutsu”. I was taken by surprise that he really had meant what he had said jokingly few years back. Thank you for accepting me as a close friend and giving me this honour to write my feelings in your book.