Originally Posted by
Ron Beaubien
I was told by a member of the board of directors of the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai that although Nawa sensei asked to join their organization but they had to politely turn him away after conducting some research.
Nawa sensei did properly learn from his father, but that there were problems with the lineage. More specifically there was a blank in that line of Masaki-ryu, a period of time between two of the previous headmasters whose lives did not overlap, thus the accurate transmission of the school from one generation to the next was in doubt.
What Ron mentions seems to be what the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten implies on its lineage chart on page 778 for the ryu. There is a dotted line between the 7th head Handa Sakujiro and the 8th head Watanabe Kenji, this dotted line usually equals a gap in time or gap in transmission. So Watanabe might be a chuko-no-so for the ryu.
Thanks Ron for that info!
Eric Weil
"Kuji first, Taijutsu last"