Igami Shoten

I’ve been scanning in some old photos related to martial arts.  It’s been a surprising process.  First, the scanner is about 20 times faster than the old scanner I had.  Is that really the speed difference that will take place as we age and just won’t know about?  Sure is convenient, though. 

Here’s likely the oldest picture I have, at age 17 with Judo master Igami Shoten.  This was at his private dojo, where Rotary member Mr. Natsumi would take me every week to participate in his group class.  He took a liking to me, and threw me so powerfully with uchimata that I learned at an early age there are some things you cannot stop.