thank you, Adam, for stepping in. might as well close this thread now ... there are at least a few online articles that explain quite clearly how permission to teach a koryu art is granted and maintained, in addition to a stack of E-Budo threads where the "Magical Mystical TSKSR" topic has been beaten to death. it's almost as crazy as the perpetual Daito-ryu debate!
in some cases, Todd, it's not a matter of searching harder, because there is no network of licensed teachers inside or outside japan; it's a "no-other-options" issue of getting permission of a school's current headmaster or head instructor to train under them directly.
PS to answer your PM, Adam, yes. i train with Shinohara-sensei in Suwa, Nagano. perhaps we'll see you over here in october for grading?
Jeff Hamacher
Those who speak do not know,
Those who know will not speak ...
So I guess that means I don't know a thing!