I met Sensei Hohan Soken in December of 1961.  I was taken to meet Soken at his dojo / home in Okinawa by Fusei Kise.  His home was a small wooden house with a dojo attached.  The dojo was small about 8' X 10' however all dojos were small in Okinawa.  Soken also had a dirt / mud back yard we would work out in during the good weather.  Kise had been training with Soken for a number of years and he had told Soken about me and requested that Soken see me and evaluate my capabilities and to see if he wanted me as a student.
The first meeting was only talking with the master and drinking tea.  We talked about karate.  Why did I want to train in Karate?  Was I ready to give the time and devotion needed to train properly?  What did I think of Sensei Kise?  What did I think of other styles of karate?  After all these questions he asked me to do my favorite kata.  I ask my teacher what kata he wanted me to do?  He replied do "Seisan", after Seisan, he asked me to do a weapon kata. I performed a Bo kata.  Master Soken talked to Kise and not to me.  I could only speak a small amount of Japanese and he could not speak any English.  So all our conversation went through Kise.  Kise could not speak English very well at that time but because I worked with him all day and trained with him during the night we could understand each other.  Soken asked how long I had been training with Kise?  I told him around a year or so. He asked how many days a week I trained with Kise, I told him every day.  I told him that I loved karate and was willing to apply as much time as was needed, Soken laughed and said karate was a way of life if one wanted to get good he would have to practice every day for many, many years and even then you might not be very good.  He said not everyone that trained, trained correctly and that not everyone could excel to a high level.  Then he asked me why did I want to train under him?  I told him that Kise was my teacher and Kise told me that you were a Master of  Masters. And Kise thought that I should study your karate, that was all that needed to be said, for he was my teacher and a good student does what his teacher tells him to do.  Soken seemed to like my answer.
I thought Sensei Soken was an old man, after all I was 18 yrs. old in 1961. Soken was small, he looked about 5'4" tall and weighted about 110 to 120lbs. I judged he was in his 70's. He seemed to be soft spoken and a gentle man. The visit lasted about 1 1/2 hrs.

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