Introduction

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The Iizasa family has continued for 20 generations to date, and it is my sincere pleasure to say our family has grown in recent years to include family members that will go on to serve as our 21st and 22nd generations.

Katori Shinto-ryu, our family’s tradition, was nurtured by master teacher Otake Risuke-Shihan from the 1950s through to the year before last, when he announced his retirement. We have a great debt of gratitude to Otake-Shihan for his significant contributions, and would like to express our sincere gratitude here.

The Iizasa family has an ongoing duty to protect our family’s tradition amidst increasing globalization and the spread of a diversity of outlooks at an extraordinary pace. This status quo has unfortunately lead to some misinformation regarding our tradition and has been passed on by parties as if it were true.

Katori Shinto-ryu involves much more than learning the choreography of our tradition’s techniques. Indeed, it must be protected as the aggregate of our history and culture, and is comprised of our bloodline, teachings transmitted orally and through written works through the generations, cultural assets and the soke’s dojo, as well as traditions and ceremonies transmitted to date through around 600 years of history.

I have given ongoing consideration to the correct transmission of Katori Shinto-ryu to future generations taking this status quo in mind, in consultation with the senior most members of the tradition.

I have thus appointed Kyoso Shigetoshi-Shihan as our tradition’s successor to Otake Risuke-Shihan. Kyoso-Shihan has now begun taking steps to correctly transmit Katori Shinto-ryu to the next generation. In closing, I would like to express my support and encouragement for Kyoso Shigetoshi-Shihan’s establishment of this website as a new activity to maintain our traditions and correctly transmit Katori Shinto-ryu.