Anyone know anything about Ryuei-Ryu?

[isshinryu guy]

Boy, there just is not much on the great big ol' internet as far as the karate style of Ryuei-Ryu. The kata's they do are beautiful, but I cannot find a thing about the style, their principles, etc.

There are a couple of sites for their major federations, but I love to buy books, and videos of different styles. There are a couple DVD's that outline 7 or 8 of their katas, but that is it.

Anyone know a great resource for more info?

 

[Brandon Fisher]

Ryuei Ryu was a the Nakaima family style up until about 30 or 40 years ago. It is an Okinawan style based firmly in the Naha-te tradition. Though very similar to Goju Ryu, Ryuei Ryu is also very different. Tsugo Sakumoto is the big name in Ryuei Ryu right now but I have heard that his karate is more competition based than traditional Ryuei Ryu, but I am not sure how true that is.

I hope that helps a little.

 

[JohnASE]

The DVDs you're talking about could be All Kata of Ryuei Ryu Karate. There are two volumes that we've been selling for some time. Everyone says they're great. Sakumoto Sensei performs the kata. I haven't seen them, but I don't think they include much history. We import the DVDs directly from the production company, Champ in Tokyo. If I remember correctly, Champ also has kata books for Ryuei Ryu, but we don't bring them in. I put the videos on our website, and you can see a little info there, but it's not open for business yet.

I don't know much about Ryuei Ryu history, but I've heard that Sakumoto Sensei was very close to Hayashi Soke of Hayashi-ha Shito Ryu. I think I heard he used to train under Hayashi, but I could be mistaken.

Arashiro Tomohiro, Ryuei Ryu Pan-America Chief Instructor, is around San Diego, CA. His bio says he's the grandson of the founder. Arashiro Sensei does seminars fairly regularly. I know he's doing one at the Ozawa Cup in Las Vegas this year. Vegas is a bit far for you, but the Ozawa Cup is a great event, and there are some amazing people doing seminars.

 

[Haze]

This all I could find, basic info

This style of karate was first introduced to Okinawa around 1875 by Norisato Nakaima. Born of wealthy parents in Kume, Naha, Nakaima was a good scholar and, at the age of 19, went to Fuchou, China for advanced studies in the martial arts. There a former guard to the Chinese embassies in the Ryukyu islands introduced him to a Chinese boxing teacher known as Ru Ru Ko. Nakaima was accepted as a disciple, and, after 5-6 years of training, received a certificate of graduation from the master. Just before leaving China, in order to further his experience in the martial arts, Nakaima traveled to the Fukien, Canton, and Peking areas, where he collected a number of weapons to bring back home with him.

Back in Okinawa, Nakaima passed this Chinese boxing style in secret to his son Kenchu Nakaima, who then went on to teach it to his son, Kenko Nakaima (founder of the Ryuei Ryu Karate and Kobudo Preservation Society). In 1971, at the age of 60, Kenko Nakaima realized that in today's world there was no longer a need to keep his family's fighting system a secret, and so, with some hesitation, he took on a group of 20 school teachers as karate students.

 

[kenkyukai]

There's not much out there on the Ryuei ryu because it's a small family system(nakaima), just opened up to the public recently. Sakumoto's karate may be competition based but watch his kata on youtube.....it speaks for itself . The nakaima family influenced many of the kobudo systems now included in most of the major styles of okinawan karate ,as Kenko Nakaima was very highly respected as an authority on the subject.
Check Mark Bishops book for information and maybe some leads on who to talk to , to get a solid answer on the subject.
Hope it helped ,
John