Hi all
Forget the above post here it is, it is a reponse to Jo Biggs inquiry into the Vernon Bell lineage of Tenjin Shinyo Ryu:-
Dear Mr.Jo Biggs,
Thank you for your enquiry into Tenjin Shinyo Ryu Ju-Jutsu.
I feel it is my duty and about time that the record is put straight regarding Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
Like all Koryu of Japan, Tenjin Shinyo Ryu is regarded as a national heritage. All headmasters of a Koryu are very proud and protective of their art and quite rightly so.
I am going to outline some facts and background that may answer your questions regarding Mr. Vernon Bell and Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
While Vernon was alive there were three main lineages of Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
One was Tobari Tokusaburo and his wife Tobari Kazu from the Inoue Keitaro lineage. The second was Shibata Koichi from Miyamoto Hanzo lineage and the third was my Sensei Kubota Toshihiro Shihanke whose teacher was Sakamoto Fusataro.
First, from my research the Tobari line did not accept Gaijin students and this line is all but extinct today.
Secondly, Shibata Koichi has to my knowledge never given courses in this country and Vernon had told me that he had never been to Japan. Thirdly, Vernon was definitely not a student or member of my lineage i.e. Kubota Toshihiro Shihanke. Also Vernon did not have or could not produce any Menjo Kirigami or Mokuroku, Menkyo or Menkyo Kaiden scroll. These are the proof of your transmission and lineage.
I started my martial art career in 1966 with Vernon, first learning some judo then moving on to karate and ju-jutsu. The style of ju-jutsu Vernon told me I was learning was Tenjin Shinyo Ryu or Tenshin Shinyo Ryu as he sometimes termed it and whose founder was Iso Mataemon. At this time I trained with him everyday, sometimes 2-3 times a day, both in karate and ju-jutsu. After several years we parted. We rekindled our relationship in the mid 90’s when I undertook private lessons from him, sometimes twice a week, in what he again told me was Tenjin Shinyo Ryu. During this period he told me that I was to become his successor and head of the Tenjin Shinyo Ryu organisation for this country. I have a signed letter from him to this effect.
By this time I had dedicated most of my life to teaching and training other students including my son in the martial arts, in what I thought was Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
Following this several things happened that started putting doubt in my mind that what Vernon professed to be Tenjin Shinyo Ryu was in fact a Goshin westernised style of ju-jutsu. I questioned Vernon as to the validity of the system of the style of ju-jutsu we were doing and he was still adamant that it was the true Tenjin Shinyo Ryu of Iso Mataemon.
He told me he had learnt it from a Japanese gentleman by the name of Seishi Teppi while in the airforce and stationed in South Africa, but in my own heart I knew all was not correct.
As yet I have not been able to trace any information on Seishi Teppi, but even if this was true and I do not doubt that it was, whatever the Japanese gentleman taught Vernon, it was not Tenjin Shinyo Ryu as neither the techniques or syllabus resembled anything like what I now know as Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
I have to say we parted company and I held a feeling of animosity towards him. However, that was now something like 11 years ago and much has happened to me in my martial arts career. I have also had time to reflect on the whole situation and I now personally believe that Vernon sincerely felt he had been taught and was teaching Tenjin Shinyo Ryu because probably this is what he was incorrectly told and this probably goes for many others out there. But I ask, if you cannot prove your lineage and do not have the correct credentials, then please,please do not call it Tenjin Shinyo Ryu. As we put in our first post, there is only one Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
Regarding the late Mr. Bell, I do not now feel any animosity towards him and he should be remembered as the ‘Father of British Karate’ because this is fact and he relentlessly worked to establish the karate movement for this country and seeing today how many people practice karate, he was surely successful and therefore must go down in history as a great man.
I would like to finish this long discourse by saying my only teacher now is Kubota Toshihiro Shihanke and the only martial art that I practice and teach is Tenjin Shinyo Ryu. I am the only westerner to date to have been taught the Gokui techniques, these are the higher secretive techniques of our style. In fact in July last year while I was training in Japan Sensei taught me the Kuden and told me that I was his first student that he had ever taught Kuden to. The Kuden is the inner teaching of our Ryu and contains all the principles behind the 124 fighting katas of our style and this was the last thing his teacher the late Sakamoto Sensei taught him. Also in July last year my son Lee was awarded his Mokuroku. He is the first person to be awarded this transmission under the authority of the Tenyokai U.K. and this was recognised and ratified in Japan by Kubota Sensei, President of the Tenyokai Japan.
I tell you this not to blow my own trumpet but to give you the facts as they are.
If I am a quarter as successful as Mr. Vernon Bell in propagating Tenjin Shinyo Ryu as he was in karate then I will be truly satisfied.
Paul Masters
President Tenyokai U.K.
Menkyo Tenjin Shinyo Ryu
Kind Regards
Lee Masters
Tenjin Shinyo Ryu
Tenyokai International