Dai-Shihan Roy Wilkinson has been training in Ninjutsu for over 40 years, and is one of a small handful of the world’s most senior Master Instructors for this art outside of Japan.
After ten+ years in the art, Mr. Wilkinson took and passed the sakki ‘killing intention’ test and was awarded the title of Shidoshi (Teacher of the Warrior Ways of Enlightenment) by the Grandmaster. He currently holds the rank of Judan Kugyo (15th degree black belt) and for 20+ years has been the Chief Instructor for the Atlanta Bujinkan Dojo (AtlantaBujinkan.org), the first Ninjutsu dojo established in the Western Hemisphere.
He is also one of a limited number of recipients of the prestigious Bujinkan Gold Medal, awarded personally by the Grandmaster, for his outstanding contributions to the art, and was one of the first recipients of the even rarer ‘Shin Gi Tai’ award, formally presented by Grandmaster Hatsumi in Japan in 2011. Hatsumi Soke has twice named him ‘Yu Shu Shihan’, and has further designated him as ‘Dai-Shihan’ or ‘Grand Master Instructor’.
Mr. Wilkinson has given numerous seminars around the United States and globally, both within the Bujinkan and for other martial systems. He has trained current and former law enforcement, security, and military personnel, as well as civilians from all walks of life. He has also presented self-protection and women’s self-defense programs for professional and collegiate audiences. Sensei Wilkinson hosts an international training event for ninjutsu practitioners, inviting top instructors from across the US & abroad. He continues to train and teach regularly at the Atlanta Bujinkan Dojo, traveling to Japan twice a year for continued advanced instruction with the Grandmaster.
Sensei Wilkinson is also an actor & fight choreographer with credits from ‘West Side Story’ to ‘Pirates of Penzance’. He has choreographed and performed in numerous one-on-one combat scenes, multiple-attacker scenarios, and mass brawls of 30-plus simultaneous combatants – both unarmed and armed, and with both traditional and modern weapons. He also instructs actors in martial combat and weapons usage for stage, screen and motion-capture performance.
Mr. Wilkinson has appeared in European and American martial arts magazines, and was interviewed for a national television special on ninjutsu. He has previously been a Guest & Panelist numerous times at DragonCon, with 70,000+ annual attendees, at JapanFest, the largest Japanese cultural event in the Southeast, with over 22,000 attendees, as well as at MomoCon, with upwards of 35,000 attendees, presenting both physical demonstrations and educational sessions, discussing & sharing this unique martial art in depth, and addressing myths & stereotypes about the Ninja.
Sensei Wilkinson was featured in the groundbreaking documentary on Ninjutsu, ‘Heart, Sword, Perseverance’. This film features action footage and interviews with Dai-Shihan Wilkinson and the last living Grandmaster, or Soke, of the art, Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi
More info: AtlantaBujinkan.org
