03/16/2025
Students, followers, and future students, it is with joy that we announce the following news!!
RyuTe Karate Kobudo Renmei Organization Announcement!
RyuTe friends and family,
Welcome back! We are pleased to announce Taika's RyuTe organization has returned to active status. Since Taika's passing in 2012, the organization faced many challenges. This is not uncommon when an organization so closely linked to the identity of it's founder struggles to find a way forward while coping with such a loss.
In the following years, a great deal of effort went into defining a path according to Taika's wishes, but after several years the organization eventually became inactive in the official sense. However, since that time, many of Taika's students continue to carry on the art introducing new students to RyuTe and most importantly, continue to gather and train together under the flag of RyuTe, sharing their knowledge amongst one another just as Taika had hoped. In that sense, RyuTe has never really gone away.
In 2023, some of us began discussing the value of returning the organization back to a formally active status. We knew the undertaking wouldn't be easy, but things worth doing rarely are. So, after many discussions with former members and board members we approached Taika's family, Mrs. Oyata and Taika's son, Masaki, for their blessing. Encouraged by their enthusiastic support, in the latter part of 2024, we set about the process of re-forming the organization as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Our reason for choosing this structure is so the organization may continue to live on well into the future, and therefore RyuTe lives on.
Taika had longintended for the organization to be passed to Tashi Jim Logue, tragically, Tashi Logue passed away one year before Taika. With no one individual to inherit the art, it was Taika's expressed intent that the organization to be run by a board of directors and that his students work together to continue the study of RyuTe. This new structure continues to honor Taika's last wishes.
It is also in this spirit we have restructured the board, separating it into two distinct roles: The Board of Directors guides the direction for the RyuTe Karate Kobudo Renmei while the Technical Advisory Board is responsible for upholding the highest standards of RyuTe training and dan rank promotions. Together, we will work to continue creating training opportunities for our members, providing support to RyuTe dojos, and of course, introducing the next generation of practitioners to the art of RyuTe.
We hope you are excited to join us.
Sincerely,
RyuTe Karate Kobudo Renmei
Board of Directors