'All about the spirit': Japan's kendo master readies for Olympic torch relay

Shigeru Aoki, kendo teacher and torch bearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics sits at the gymnasium of a primary school in Fukuoka, Japan February 6, 2020. Picture taken on February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Sakura Murakami

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shigeru Aoki weathers the assault by his young student, who whacks him on the head with her bamboo sword until she suddenly stops, takes a few steps back and, slightly out of breath, bows.

Aoki, 70, an eighth-degree kendo master, returns the bow, cutting a menacing but graceful figure in his kendo armour, which hides his face behind metal bars built into a helmet.