As of this past June, Kevin Heard Sensei has been a member of the Sennin Foundation Center for 25 years. He has displayed exceptional devotion to our dojo and achieved high levels of teaching certification in several of the traditional Japanese arts that we offer. His constant help with the organization and maintenance of the dojo has also been invaluable.
A San Francisco Bay Area native, Heard Sensei has been studying Japanese cultural arts since he joined the Sennin Foundation Center in 1984. He is the webmaster of www.senninfoundation.com as well as Michi Online: Journal of Japanese Cultural Arts (www.michionline.org). He serves on the Board of Directors of the Sennin Foundation, Inc. as well, and he's an assistant editor of Michi Online.
Mr. Heard has obtained Shihan ("Professor" or "Instructor") teaching licenses in Shin-shin-toitsu-do, a form of Japanese yoga, as well as healing arts based on yuki, or "transference of ki." He teaches classes in these disciplines at our dojo each week.
Heard Sensei also holds the rank of menkyo chudan (a traditional teaching license roughly equivalent to fourth through sixth-degree black belt in modern ranking systems) in Saigo Ryu aiki-jujutsu. Heard Sensei has received teaching licenses from the Nihon Jujutsu and Kobudo divisions of the Kokusai Budoin, an elite international martial arts federation headquartered in Tokyo. He has demonstrated aiki-jujutsu several times at the Kokusai Budoin Sogo Budo Taikai, held annually in Tokyo. Heard Sensei is also on the Board of Advisors of the prestigious Shudokan Martial Arts Association.
In addition to teaching beginning and advanced martial arts classes at our dojo, Mr. Heard helps teach in our program for children, where he offers instruction in both Japanese yoga and martial arts. He has extensive experience working with young people, and he began assisting with our classes for kids in the mid-80s.
Heard Sensei earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. After working in the software development industry, he returned to the University to become Director of Computing and Information Services for UCB's School of Information. His professional interests include UNIX/Linux system administration, building information systems based on open standards, and open source software. He is also interested in issues of security, privacy, and personal freedom in the digital age. He is co-author of Mastering Netscape SuiteSpot 3 Servers (Sybex).
The next time you see Heard Sensei at the dojo, congratulate him on his 25th anniversary. It’s quite an accomplishment.
