The Future of Ryu-Te?

[Sensei Payne]

Has anyone heard anything about the Ryu-Te Group in its Current form?

Since now Oyata has passed away, and before him, his senior Student Jim Louge...who is now the administrator or "Head Instructor" of the Organization in its current form.

At this time, the only Affiliation I have with the group is through the Lineage, my instructor was trained by Dr. Shaw, one of Oyata's former Senior Students.

 

[Makalakumu]

I hope it doesn't go the way of so many other karate organizations. They splinter as soon as sensei passes and the egos clash cymbals so loudly that they drown out the art.

 

[Gentle Fist]

Nick Cerio's Kenpo had over 10,000 students across North America in 1998 when he passed away from cancer. Within only a few months after his passing, the organization had some major splits and not to long after that some legal issues arose regarding the name and trademarks. Senior Instructors were rapidly dropping out and forming their own sub-systems to get away from the "sinking ship". 14 years later and there are only about a couple hundred students (mainly in Canada) that still practice the art as it was in 1998. It is a shame too, since NCK was such a great style of kenpo with a lot of good people instructing the material.

Hopefully you guys can work it out and keep it all together and not repeat what NCK and many others have done.

Good luck!

 

[Sensei Payne]

Like I said, the only affiliation I have is though who my instructors Sensei was...

Although I would love to join the Ryu-te Organization, but I live in Louisville Kentucky, a literal Dead zone for Ryu-te, not a single dojo within 100 miles of me.

 

[Limasogobudo]

You know I have not heard much on it. We have some old school ryu te students of oyata here in lima ohio. They are retired tho.

 

[Tired_Yeti]

We have one Ryu Te school in my area of Houston, TX. We had one (I think it's still there) in Anchorage, Alaska too.
I've seen 2 problems with Ryu Te. The first is the damage that George Dillman did to the system when it was relatively new to the USA and still called Ryukyu Kempo. Dillman's fraudulent spinoff made the Ryu Te folks a bit "gun shy" and they've stayed rather secretive about the art. Of course, if it's kept secret then almost no one new will learn of it, and eventually the art will die. I'm certain that prospect would have been a great disappointment to Oyata.
The second problem (which may be closely related to the first) is that Ryu Te has an abysmal, almost non-existent web presence. In the 21st century, that's simply unacceptable. The homepage of the main Ryu Te headquarters site looks like it's stuck in 1997 and looks like it was made in Windows95! The website identifies the senior members and one is identified as the webmaster. They may just need to hire a guy because the webmaster they have now is not on the job.
The only "official" Ryu Te forum is on Facebook and it's closed to the public. Only currently active students who are members of the Ryu Te assn. can even view the forums. So a curious prospective student cannot even READ any posts (never mind posting anything). This, too, is completely unacceptable. I'm afraid that Taika's senior students are unintentionally killing his art. I was recently discussing karate with some coworkers and not a single one had ever even heard the name Ryu Te. My local dojo's email address is defunct and the website is painfully out of date and lacking information and photos. I actually called the sensei and he said that he would be getting on there and updating a lot of things. I certainly hope so.

Sadly, I think the Ryu Te guys are still letting Dillman hurt the art. It's seems they're "once bitten; twice shy"

...and that's NOT a warrior mentality.


Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

 

[Tired_Yeti]

As an afterthought, I think another example of the reason Ryu Te is fading into obscurity because of inaccessibility is seen in the fact that you can easily find...
Goju Ryu Karate Kyohan (Gogen Yamaguchi) $29.95 (Amazon)
Wado Ryu (Hironori Otsuka) $29.95 (Amazon)
Orthodox Goju Ryu Karate-Do (Takahashi Miyagi) $29.95 (Amazon)
Karate-Do: My Way of Life (Gichin Funakoshi)...a whopping...wait for it...$.6.12 (Amazon)

Many books by founders and masters of systems are easily found and affordable. But the writing of Taika Seiyu Oyata called Ryu Te No Michi goes for $59.00 and is only available from the Ryu Te supply store online (IF they'll even ship to your area). You cannot get it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or any major booksellers that I know of. Everybody (karateka or not) that I've talked to about it has never even heard of Ryu Te. I've talked to Krav Maga guys and Shotokan guys and Taekwondo guys and non-martial artists. No one knows what Ryu Te is. Yet the founder just passed 4 years ago. Whereas Funakoshi died 59 years ago and Shotokan is hugely popular.



"Re-stomp the groin"
Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk