Henry was born to Japanese parents in Canada. At age 35, He left for Japan to visit his relatives. After a few weeks of seeing them, he still had almost 3 months left on his VISA. He had heard about an old man doing amazing things at hombu dojo so he went to see for himself. When he got there he met Bob Nadeau from California who was so excited that Henry spoke English he took him under his wing. When Henry saw what O'sensei could do he decided to stay and "figure out what was between that old man's ears."

What surprised Henry about the training was that when asked how long he was staying and he said 4 years, his training partners told him to practice falling for 3 years. They said throwing was the easy part. Confused as to how he could learn a martial art by falling he followed their advice. After 3 years of daily tips and suggestions, Henry saw how this training created an awareness of his body he could not have seen if focused on throwing. Henry went on to ask O'sensei, "why we can't move the way you move" and O'sensei replied, "You don't know yin/yang and I do". Henry left for Hawaii where he meditated on yin/yang. After about a month he realized Aikido is balance! From that point on Henry used Aikido to achieve balance which he continued through age 88. Henry died on February 13, 2016.