Honoki is the traditional wood - it's one of the magnolia family and, as you say, a sod to source over here. A reasonable substitute is tulipwood - liriodendron tulipifera. Some sawmills carry it; it's a close, straight grain with very low tannin content (as opposed to oak - which should never be used as a sheath for steel due to the formation of iron tannate). Ford Hallam's site, followingtheironbrush.org has a lot of relevant info there.
A few years each of judo, aikido, ju jitsu, aikido again and just recently restarted ju jitsu after a lengthy absence. I don't bounce quite as well as I used to
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