One of the last direct students of the Morihei Ueshiba. After the death of the founder made his own own schoold of the aikido named Tendoryu. He was holding a 7th dan in aikido at that time.
Kenji Shimizu already had a 4th dan in judo when he got intrested in aikido. This is another reason why he does have one of the cleanest techniques ever and why he got his 4th dan in aikido from a founder only after 4 years of being uchi-deshi. You may have seen his 1985 movie, a movie itself is a standalone instruction and presentation to aikido.
In 1998 he received his 8th aikido dan from the Japanese Budo Federation, not from the Aikikai. This is a way of Kenji Shimizu. He and Shigeo Kamata are the authors of the book Zen and Aikido (free download link).
In 2002 Shimizu Sensei received the Foreign Minister Award. This award is given to him for facilitating a better relationship between Japan and foreign countries. Sensei introduced aikido to various countries including. He still runs seminars across the Europe. Catch him in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Serbia, Italy, etc.
Guess who is going to uke? Kenta Shimizu is the name.