03/10/2026
The following story involves two 10th dans: A.J. Advincula and Taika Seiyu Oyata. I made this post several years ago in a couple of social media martial arts groups.
I would catch Taika alone at seminars when I could, to have private conversation with him.
I have decide to keep these conversations private, but am sharing this one because I have already shared it before.
The A.J. Advincula story he told was from the 11-3-1996 seminar (I posted some of my notes in my earlier last post here right before this one).
He told this story after his comment in my notes I posted where he said: "family te inverted punch (to taller man's face) understand why others do what they do (don't laugh)"
----- My Post about a Private Conversation I Posted Before -----
A story of a private conversation I had with Taika about a story I heard A.J. Advincula tell at a seminar.
While I did not live close enough to train daily with Taika but when I did at weekend seminars, I always tried to catch him for private conversations. He knew who I was and called me by a nickname he had for me.
Around 2000, I went to an A.J. Advincula seminar on Filipino knife fighting that he taught to Marines. He did an Isshin Ryu seminar before the knife fighting seminar. I was allowed to sit and listen to the Isshin Ryu seminar while waiting for the knife fighting seminar to start after it.
He told a story of a Isshin Ryu seminar he gave that was outdoors. He was performing Kusanku kata when doing the flying front kick, landed on a rock on the ground and then hopped.
When he returned to that same location the next year, everyone was hopping after landing the flying front kick. He said everyone there was copying his moves without understanding what they were doing.
So at Taika's summer camp seminar around 2000, I caught him moving between groups and told him this story. I said "I think you have the same problem with 'some' (not all) students copying your moves without understanding what they are doing."
Taika paused a moment then said "Yes. I sometimes teach people wrong and wait for them to ask questions."
So Taika told me: Sometimes when he thought a person was just copying moves without understanding what they are doing, he would on purpose teach that person something that was wrong and then wait for that person (to research, think, etc.) to ask him questions about was that really the correct way to do something and not just because "Taika told me to do this, this way, with no thought or research about it."
