Having reconciled with his father, in 1934 he went to France, where he studied with Marcel Granet and Marcel Mauss until 1940, when he went back Japan: he studied Noh with Master Hosada, Seitai with Master Haruchika Noguchi and Aikido with Master Morihei Ueshiba.
Among his students were also Korean-Japanese Itsuo Tsuda, who developed the école de la respiration and several future sinologists.
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He apparently spoke to Lucien Herr—the librarian of the École Normale from 1888 to 1926 who was associated with Durkheim and his students, and who was active in the socialist movement and the Dreyfus Affair—who advised Granet, when the latter thought of considering the Japanese case, to seek the advice of respected sinologist Edouard Chavannes, then apparently the nearest Granet could get in Paris to an expert on Japan.
Marcel Duchamp | Marcel Proust | Marcel Marceau | Marcel Breuer | Marcel Pagnol | Marcel Lefebvre | Marcel Dzama | Marcel Griaule | Marcel Carné | Marcel Mauss | Marcel Mule | Marcel Journet | Marcel Janco | Marcel Gauchet | Marcel Dassault | Marcel Bozzuffi | Cedrik-Marcel Stebe | Saint-Marcel | Marcel Vanthilt | Marcel Reif | Marcel Labey | Marcel Granet | Marcel Cerdan | Marcel Bigeard | Marcel Bellefeuille | Gabriel Marcel | Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence | Rosie Marcel | Readymades of Marcel Duchamp | Mario Marcel Salas |
During the following years he replaced Marcel Granet for the chair of Chinese civilisation at the Sorbonne, directed the department of Chinese religions at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and was selected to be a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.