Sensei Hoshino who founded and runs the San francisco Nippon society of San Francisco was taught by Dr. Tokono who wrote the Index: Toko Taikan that all hard core sword collectors refer to when judging swords. Internet search on him, show some negative posts about whether he called himself a ninja once or if he didnt answer a phone call because he thought the new student was black. I have known him for alittle over a year now as a student. I believe I can make a observation at this time about the man who i find to be anything but a racist, he comes across a little pro-Japanese, but he loves america and proud to be a citizen. There are all races in his society including gender and ages. One might mistake him for pro-ninja because he participates in the towns parades dressed as such, but hes showing people watching the perade traditional clothiong and methods. he is also a teacher of martial arts and weapons and has been in alot of martial arts magazines and featured on many covers.
More importantly he teaches his class about habaki contruction, saya contruction, polishing, cold wrapping, sword terminology, history, etc. He also has interesting guest from Japan who are smiths and polishers who visit.
The most amazing thing is he has adapted to watching ebay, sending student links and warning of fakes or quality items to buy and the suggested price, where he's hardly ever wrong. Uses ebay as a learning tool. He evaluates swords in class and shows everyone his finding openly in class.
So for those who want to compare sword societies or be-little this man please consider his students who appreciate him and would leave if he was a bad person, but when you get to know him youll see he is a Japanese man proud of his heritage but also moving forward in America with wife and family, loving the american dream with no regrets.

Edsan