Robert Mustard (martial artist)

Early life

Born in Toronto on May 19, 1956. Robert Mustard took to sports at an early age, playing hockey and Canadian football. His introduction to martial arts came through Kung Fu instructors Jack Chin and James Lore, who trained him for five years. He underwent kendo training under Larry Nakamura, Shigeo Kimura and Masatoshi Tagawa for five years and achieved the rank of ni-dan.

Yoshinkan Aikido training

In 1977, Mustard traveled to the United States to participate in a kendo demonstration at a martial art convention, and saw a demonstration by Takashi Kushida, which galvanized his interest to train in an aikido dojo. He was introduced to Yoshinkan Aikido at college where he joined a club led by Takeshi Kimeda, and would train under him for over a decade. For a time he practiced Kung Fu, kendo and aikido together, but later changed focus to just aikido. He would rise to the rank of san-dan under Kimeda's instruction.

On March 30, 1986, he traveled to Japan to train at the Yoshinkan hombu dojo with an introduction letter from Kimeda and gifts for the instructors and uchi deshi as is customary. Mustard described the first sessions he watched of Gozo Shioda's black belt class, as a "magic class". In May of that year, he enrolled into the senshusei training program. He trained for 9 years at the hombu dojo under Gozo Shioda's leadership. Mustard does not consider himself to be a direct student of Gozo Shioda, because his instruction was mainly under Takafumi Takeno and Tsutomu Chida. One year after Gozo Shioda's death, Robert Mustard and his wife Carol left Japan and settled in Vancouver, BC and opened the Aikido Yoshinkai Burnaby dojo in Burnaby, British Columbia. Robert Mustard attained the rank of Nana-dan (7th degree black belt) in December 2006, and was awarded the title of Shihan in August 2011. He was awarded Hachi-dan (8th degree black belt) by the Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo in November 2014.

Current Teaching

Mustard continues to teach from his school in Burnaby, Canada. He teaches two types of lesson at his dojo; regular instruction and Kenshu lessons. Kenshu (research) class deals with detailed and logical explanation of techniques.

Mustard teaches seminars in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and the United States. Including the two annual events; the Shudokan UK's Summer school with Joe Thambu and Ken Robson and in Dartford with Toby Threadgill.

Media

In 2011, Mustard released 3 DVD set including teachings from his Gasshuku seminars in the UK

Robert Mustard is featured in the book Angry White Pyjamas by Robert Twigger. The book depicts the life of a trainee undergoing the senshusei training program.