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Ichimura Sensei had arranged in 1985 for his eager iaido
student Martin Stelander to go to Yokohama, Japan, to
train under an iaido master called Shigeru Takada (kyoshi
8th dan at that time; later took artist name: Gakudo).
Already the year after that Takada
Sensei visited Uppsala, Sweden, to instruct in a five-day
iaido seminar end May/beginning June. It was then that
the first Finnish students took their Muso Shinden ryu
grading tests.
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In April/May 1988 a four-day seminar was held in Helsinki.
Since then Takada Sensei has come to Scandinavia every second and nowadays every
year to instruct seminars in Uppsala, Helsinki and Tallinn. Sometimes
the seminars have lasted a couple of weeks but lately about one week and the keenest
students have been following Sensei from Helsinki to Uppsala
and vice versa. Also some students have visited and trained Takada Sensei's dojo in Yokohama.
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In 1996 Takada Sensei was granted the grade of hanshi by
his association Dai Nippon Iaido Renmei. Later he was the founding member of Nippon Iaido Kyokai (2001) and he held now Hanshi 10th dan degree. The person responsible for Muso Shinden ryu activity in Finland is today Mr. Pasi
Hellsten, iaido renshi 6th dan (Nippon Iaido Kyokai).
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