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Walter Todd sensei
Every field has pioneers: explorers, trailblazers -- men and women, who have traveled great distances, endured tremendous sacrifices, and returned with special gifts to bestow upon their homelands. Walter E. Todd Sensei is such a person, and the newly formed Shudokan Martial Arts Association (SMAA) is his legacy and enduring gift to the budo and bujutsu community.
Walter Todd Sensei, a rugged, solidly built man, born in 1927, has exerted a quiet, but profound, influence on budo, or the traditional Japanese martial ways, since he returned from Japan in the 1950's to open his first school. During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Todd has studied directly under such legendary teachers as Mifune Kyuzo Sensei (judo tenth dan), Ito Kazuo Sensei (judo tenth dan), Otsuka Hironori Sensei (karate-do tenth dan and founder of Wado Ryu), Tohei Koichi Sensei (aikido tenth dan), Tomiki Kenji Sensei (founder of Tomiki Ryu aikido), and numerous other senior experts.
Mr. Todd was so close to judo great Mifune Kyuzo, that when he returned to the U.S., Mr. Mifune gave Todd Sensei his own gi as a token of his esteem. Todd Sensei is currently an eighth-degree black belt (dan), in judo, which he received from Japan's famous Kokusai Budoin. He also received a special shibu-cho certificate from the late karate-do master, Toyama Kanken Sensei, authorizing him to oversee ranking for Toyama-style karate-do in the U.S., and Mr. Toyama's son later approved Todd Sensei for the rank of karate-do eighth dan. Mr. Todd also received a sixth dan in aikido from the Kokusai Budoin. Walter Todd has been practicing budo for over 50 years.
In 1993, Mr. Todd and some of his close associates began to think about forming a new budo/bujutsu organization because of their concern for the large number of Western martial artists whom they had met who had lost contact with the traditions of authentic budo, and were searching for a real connection to the roots of the Japanese martial arts.
Todd Sensei began to contact his high-ranking associates in budo and bujutsu (Japan's martial ways and arts), seeking to gather legitimate instructors of various martial disciplines, to form an elite Board of Directors, which could develop the structure of the new group and authorize its promotions. In January 1994, the current Board of Directors was established, and the Shudokan Martial Arts Association (Shudokan Budo-Kai) was born, with supporters throughout the USA, and as far away as Asia.