Photo History
1960s
I began my martial arts career at Miami University in Ohio studying karate as a teenager in the 1960s. I had wanted to study judo ever since I was a tiny child. It is still a mystery to me how I even knew about Japanese martial arts growing up in 1950s middle America - there certainly were no schools, movies, or books around to encourage me. I chose Miami University because I was told they had a judo club. It turned out to be Korean Tangsoodo karate, not the judo I was longing for, but I jumped in with full commitment.
While a university student, I read a series of articles in Black Belt Magazine about Japan’s ninja phantom warriors that I had first read about in a James Bond novel as a high school student. Incredible lore! Painful to know that such an art existed and was impossible for me to learn. Too bad that martial art was not taught in my hometown…
1970s
The early ’70s were the days of knockdown “full contact karate” - forerunner of kickboxing in the 1980s, toughman contests in the 1990s, and eventually MMA ring fights in the 2000s. I was in my early 20s, wondered just how good a fighter I was, all belt ranks aside, and for a while got swept away in the popular martial arts fad of the era.
Ultimately I could not shake the realization that I had not been attracted to martial arts as a sportsman originally, I was not really motivated by competition, and at heart I was still inspired by childhood aspirations of training to be a protector, a promoter of peace through strength. I could not let go of the image of the ninja.
My kickboxer buddies teased me about going to Japan to be a spy or assassin, but I had to go. What an insane gamble, but I had to do it. I had to see for myself if the legendary ninja still existed in modern Japan. I wrote letters and got no reply. Knowing nobody in Japan, having no idea of how to find the ninja dojo, I bought an air ticket and flew to Japan anyway.
What a miracle. 34th generation grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi accepted me as an uchi-deshi student in his home dojo. You can read the story of how I found the ninja dojo and how I got started training in Japan in The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art. Here we are in the photo during one of my first training sessions in Noda City, Japan - Koichi Oguri, Masaaki Hatsumi, Tetsuji Ishizuka, Stephen K. Hayes, Tsunehisa Shoto Tanemura. Hatsumi Sensei was 44 years old. I was 25.
To support myself for the years I was living in Japan to study ninjutsu at the Hatsumi dojo, I worked for several companies in the advertising and movie business. There I found Rumiko Urata, a recent Sophia University graduate from Kumamoto on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Another miracle - I convinced her to marry me! We left for America when my Japan residency visa ran out in late 1980.
1980s
1990s
In the 1990s, I was honored to regularly serve as personal security escort and advisor for my spiritual friend, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. His Tibetan bodyguard Senge Rabten walked on his right, and I walked on his left. That is Rumiko out in front right in this action scene from 1991.
It would be foolish and presumtuous to call the king of Tibet my teacher, but my years of being with Kundun Yeshey Norbu “The Presence of the Jewel of Wisdom” have hopefully lead me to more intelligence, more compassion, and more peace.
2000s
(Obviously, this page is just beginning construction. Come back often to check for some “never before published” photos and comments.)
