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It is with great sadness that I must announce that my life long Sensei Mamoru Shimamoto passed away in New Jersey.

Sensei Shimamoto was born in Kumamoto city, Kyushu, Japan, where he attended Kyushugakuin High School. Shimamoto Sensei competed in the All Japan High School Championships in his senior year. When I graduated high school my Sensei sent me to live with his brother and train at his high school in the summer of 1973 for 3 months where the famous Yamashita was training, along with another future world champion Haraguchi, both who went on to Tokai University. This was an experience of a lifetime that Sensei Shimamoto afforded me.

Shimamoto Sensei was offered a judo scholarship at Nihon University “nichidai” in Tokyo, where the elite judo team dormed, ate, and trained together in one building for four years. During these four years Shimamoto Sensei competed for “nichidai’s” team as a light middleweight.

Sensei Shimamoto graduated from Nihon University with an economics degree.

Shortly after graduating from Nihon University, Sensei Shimamoto was recruited to come to the United States to teach judo in 1963 by his teamate Sensei Yonezuka, and came to Millburn, New Jersey, my home town, where he started the Menlo Judo Club. Sensei Shimamoto came to the United States alone and then his wife followed after he was settled in. Sensei Shimamoto&squo;s other Nihon University classmates, Sensei Shina, Sensei Kidachi, Sensei Watanabe, Sensei Kanakogi, Sensei Ozaki, Sensei Eguchi, all came to the New York–New Jersey area, some before and some after, to teach judo as well.

After many years in Millburn, New Jersey, Sensei Shimamoto moved his dojo to South Orange, New Jersey as Shimamoto Judo Center, where he continued to teach judo, jujitsui, and karate.

Shimamoto Sensei was active first with shufu yudanshakai and then with the inception of Hudson Yudanshakai. Shimamoto Sensei took on many roles in the USJF and Hudson Yudanshakai, serving as Chairman of the Promotion Committee, Kodokan Committee, and as an officer in Hudson Yudanshakai, as well as New Jersey Judo.

Sensei Shimamoto attended every senior national championship, and every USJF national meeting, usually rooming with Sensei Yonezuka, and coached his students competing in the tournament. Early onset blindness severly limited Sensei Shimamoto’s ability to travel and participate in judo events.

I have the greatest memories of my Sensei since starting at 8 years old, as both a great Sensei, coach, and as the kindest man that I ever knew. He was a great Sensei, mentor, and friend to all the generations of his students.

My deepest condolences to the Shimamoto family, his wife and daughters and many grandchildren.

Sensei Shimamoto will be missed by all the people whose lives he touched.