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By the age of thirteen, Suenaka already possessed the martial skills and discipline of a man twice his age, forged by nine years of hard study under his father and many of the world’s most celebrated contemporary Japanese martial masters. While he was to augment his skill in these and other arts with later training, his early years perhaps only set the stage for his introduction to the art to which he would ultimately devote his life: aikido.

CHAPTER TWO

Shinbashi

By 1953, Suenaka’s training reached a turning point. Henry Okazaki was now gone, having passed away a year earlier, while James Mitose had relocated to Los Angeles not long after. Both events strongly affected Suenaka: “Both my great teachers were gone.” Somewhat disillusioned, and without the constant impetus of his accustomed teachers, twelve year-old Suenaka cut back on his jujutsu and kempo training, although his judo study continued as usual. Still, there existed a void—more emotional than physical—created by the absence of the two men who, other than his father, exerted the greatest influence in shaping him physically and spiritually. In retrospect, however, it appears that the departure of Okazaki and Mitose merely signaled the end of the first stage of Suenaka’s martial evolution; it could be said these two teachers were made a part of his life in order to lay the foundation for his first meeting with a man who would later become more important to him than either of his former mentors.