Risuke Otake
Shihan of the Japanese school Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu from Narita, holder of its highest grade, gokui kaiden, since 1967, and author of books on this tradition.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Risuke Otake was a teaching master (shihan) of the Japanese school Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu and the author of books on this tradition. He was born on 10 March 1926, according to Japanese sources in Narita in Chiba Prefecture, and died on 7 June 2021. English-language sources give his full name as Otake Risuke Minamoto no Takeyuki.
He entered the school in 1942 at the age of sixteen. His teacher was the previous shihan of the school, Hayashi Yazaemon (1892–1964), whom Japanese sources give as Hayashi Yazaemon Ieyoshi. In 1967, at the age of 42, he reached the highest grade, gokui kaiden, and then became shihan of the school.
In 1960, according to Japanese sources in June, the tradition of the school was declared an intangible cultural property of Chiba Prefecture and Otake was appointed its keeper. He lived and taught near Narita, according to Japanese sources in the Shinbukan dojo. From 1979 he was a member of the Chiba Prefecture board for the registration and appraisal of swords and firearms.
He wrote the three-volume work The Deity and the Sword: Katori Shinto-ryu (1977), which was also published in French as Le Sabre et le Divin, the book Katori Shinto-ryu: Warrior Tradition (2007), the Japanese book Heiho: Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu (2012) and the book Strategy and the Art of Peace (2016). He appeared in the BBC documentary The Way of the Warrior (1983) and in the NHK World programme Real Samurai (2014).
Associated Martial Arts
Ranks and titles
- Gokui kaidenTenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu · 1967