Takao’s cultural heritage is Japanese, yet his parents left Japan in search of a better environment to raise their child. They went all around the world, his parents working early as entrepreneurial digital nomads, and became involved with the Knitting Circle in 2012, when they were living in Thailand. From here they were instrumental in building up the South-East-Asian branch of the KC.

Young Takao was the typical, somewhat lonely, polymath. Home-schooled, he was constantly surrounded by adults with high ideals, soaking up everything he could. He trained in meditation and became interested in consciousness and psychology, beginning distance studies into the field when he was 14, and writing his thesis into the evolution of psychological treatments a year later.

At 17, Takao decided to move beyond the gender question and embrace celibacy and the androgynous to focus fully on his craft – the healing of broken psyches and embodiment of the third force, the neutralising force, the merging of the two poles of dualistic worldly existence.

Takao was almost 20 when the Shift began officially. His parents had been in hiding in Eastern Europe since 2016, working underground to build the digital infrastructure for the new era.

Takao joined what became known as the “swarm of apostles,” teams of social workers that went around rural areas to prepare, support, and educate people throughout the Shift. The apostles also supported and set up existing and new community centers in strategic locations, many of which became the basis for the regional councils that still exist today. Eventually, this work took him to Aleppo, Syria, where he met Nik in 2030, a traumatised teenager who first became his client, and then his student and companion – almost like an adopted daughter. They began to travel together in 2032, and in 2039, Takao was 40, they fell in love with the wide Australian sky, divine plant and wildlife, and rich Indigenous history and culture, and eventually settled on Yuggera country, in the town of Rivermouth, that used to be Brisbane.

Here they joined others and helped design and put into action the new education system, counselling strategies, and courses.

Takao’s usual look is that of a samurai fighter: loose black clothes, precisely-trimmed moustache, and long, raven black hair that he wears in a ponytail.

For him, everything is a ceremony, especially drinking tea. He is not very tall but his aura reflects the power of a respected elder, it makes him seem much taller than he is.

At 50 years of age, he is very fit, a black belt of various martial art forms, with the vitality of a man in his prime. His demeanour is usually gentle like a baby deer’s, his emotional world rich, his speech soft yet considered and to the point, and rather sharp if need be.

Adding more about the gender question, Takao does identify as male and uses male restrooms, but he loves wearing skirts, and dressing up as his favourite male and female comic book characters.