Taika Seiyu Oyata
Taika Seiyu Oyata was D’veed Natan’s primary instructor.
As such, his principles and ideas formed most of D’veed Natan Sensei’s outlook
on “martial arts” and their applications.
Mr.
Oyata’s heritage dates back to before the 1600’s. His family are descendents of
Zana, Uekata (Oyakata,
a title, in Japanese). Zana, Uekata was an advisor to the Emperor of Okinawa
before, and during, the invasion of Okinawa by the Satsuma Clan, in 1609. For
honorably resisting the take over of the Okinawan Government and debasement of
the Royal Family by the Japanese, he was summarily executed. In order to prevent
further resistance, the Japanese ordered the Zana family to change their name to
“Shinda”, which sounds like the word for death in Japanese. The Chinese kanji
for Shinda can, also, be read as “Oya”,
meaning “parents”,
and “ta”,
meaning “field”.
Years later, the family name was changed to Ikemiyagusku; and,
eventually, became Oyata.
Mr.
Oyata’s father was the middleweight Sumo champion of all Okinawa. When he
was young, he, and the rest of the Sumo team, challenged all comers in Okinawa.
Kana Oyata was the strongest man on the team and won the competition for the
island. Mr. Oyata was the fourth son of
Kana Oyata and the youngest. His three brothers Taro, Kiseii and Akio were
killed in the second World War. He, also, fought during the war and was
commissioned a lieutenant in the Japanese Navy. If the Japanese forces had held
back the American forces a bit longer, Mr. Oyata would have died in combat. He
had been trained as a suicide torpedo operator. As luck would have it, he was
captured and interred, in the Philippines, by the US Marines; just before he was
due to embark on his mission. His death certificate had already been sent to his
family. As a part of his training in the Navy,
he
learned Japanese martial arts. These included; Judo, kendo, naginata, yari, and
Iaido.
After the war, at age 17,
Mr. Oyata began working delivering food and supplies to war refugees. His work
took him to the port town of Teruma where he met a very large man wearing the
old “Bushi” top knot hair style. He was Mr. Uhugushuku, a former Bushi, who had
been in the service of the Okinawan Emperor. Uhugushuku no Tanmei was
about 93 years old at the time of their meeting. Because of Mr. Oyata’s
“Royal”
connection, through his ancestry, Master Uhugushuku allowed him to study with
him.
The Uhugushuku family has a long history of service to the
Okinawan Emperors. The most famous was Kenyu “Uni”
Uhugushuku. The Uhugushuku family is famous for their karate and kobujutsu
techniques. Though, the 6’ bo and 4’ jo were the family’s
specialty, they had intimate knowledge and great skill with all of the weapons;
and, empty hand techniques. Mr. Oyata became Mr. Uhugushuku’s personal student
and trained with him daily. He considered Mr. Oyata a family member,
calling him
“Mago”
(which is Okinawan for grandson) and taught him not as a regular student; but,
as a family member.
Mr. Uhugushuku expressed the importance of kata training as a
way to learn and practice tuite and kyusho technique. He gave Mr. Oyata problems
and ideas to discover hidden meanings in the kata.
Because of his ability, Mr. Oyata was introduced to a friend
of Mr. Uhugushuku’s, Wakinaguri no Tanmei. Mr. Wakinaguri specialized in
striking techniques called
kyusho jutsu. When Mr. Oyata met him, he noticed that all the
fingers on Mr. Wakinaguri’s
hands were the same length. This was due to training, since the age of four, by
thrusting his fingers into pumice sand.
Mr. Wakinaguri taught how to discover the body’s weak points and vital areas as
well as how to strike them.
With this knowledge he began to research kata and to discover
their hidden meanings. Mr. Uhugushuku’s family awarded Mr. Oyata with a
Menkyo
Kaiden; naming him as the sole heir to the Uhugushuku family
system of karate and kobudo.
After the deaths of
Mr. Uhugushuku and
Mr. Wakinaguri, Mr. Oyata was accepted as an instructor/student in Master
Nakamura’s
Okinawa Kenpo because of his studies with Uhugushuku no Tanmei. From Master
Nakamura, Mr. Oyata learned the twelve empty hand kata he now teaches. He
became, also, a student of Master Seikichi Uehara (Motobu Udun Ti) learning Mr.
Uehara’s tuite and weapon theories.
In 1968, after returning from
teaching in the United States, Mr. Oyata found himself embroiled in internal
politics and was forced to leave Mr. Nakamura’s
Okinawa Kenpo
Renmei.
He founded the Ryukyu Karate-do Renmei with Seikichi Uehara as Saiko Shihan
(Supreme Instructor). He moved to the
United States in 1976, at the request of his students. He currently calls the
system he created
“Oyata Shin Shu Ho”
and uses
“RyuTe®”
as his trademark. His home is in Independence, Missouri, just outside of Kansas
City.
Through the years, Taika Seiyu Oyata has constantly
analyzed the kata and the human body. Due to his studies with Master Uehara, he
developed his own style of tuite that wasn't dependent on strength; but, rather,
execution of technique.