塩田剛三
In 1983, Thambu first travelled to Japan to further his Aikido training. Whilst in Japan, he trained at the Yoshinkan Hombu dojo in Koganei. While living in Japan he received instruction from teachers including Gozo Shioda, Kyoichi Inoue, Takafumi Takeno, Tsutomu Chida, Hitoshi Nakano, and then assistants Jacques Payet and Tsuneo Ando. From this time onwards, Thambu focused on the modern Yoshinkan syllabus, including knowledge from his earlier training.