Born in Saitama prefecture, 1901, Ogawa Chutaro rose to become hanshi 9 dan, and an extremely influential member of the Japanese kendo community.
He graduated from the infamous Kokushikan university (which is still a kendo powerhouse in Japan today) and went on to become the kendo teacher in a number of educational institutions. In 1953 he rose to one of the most coveted kendo teaching positions in Japan when he became a kendo teacher for Keishicho.
Ogawa was known for travelling the length and breadth of Japan and teaching kendo and the koryu arts of Ono-ha itto ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu kenjutsu.
Ogawa left behind a number of kendo books, his most famous one being 百回稽古 (“keiko 100 times”) which tells the story of 100 keiko sessions he had with the infamous Mochida Seiji.
The picture on the right was taken when he was 90 years old and shows him participating in the ZNKRs godo-keiko session. He died the following year, in 1992.
