Time to get caught up now. It’s been about eight years since the original publishing of this book. The new version has six new interviews, including Frank Smith, Mark Tarrant, and other students of Master Yaguchi, past and present. Yaguchi Sensei is retiring at the end of this year, and, with the retirement of Okazaki sensei, this means that the future of the ISKF and Shotokan karate in the United States is now firmly in the hands of the next generation of karate-ka.

This book is meant to be a memoir, but also a lesson to those who follow in the footsteps of the greatest karate masters. These men dedicated their lives to the art of karate with a singular passion that is almost gone now. They traveled to foreign countries to live, learned one or more new languages, and found their way around the local culture. All of them have our deepest respect; Yaguchi sensei, with his sense of humor, gleeful enjoyment of practical jokes, and high-spirited banter with any and all students, is also loved. But behind the light-heartedness is a serious martial artist who trained for many years with great discipline and courage.