Karate, in the ancient days of Okinawa, was simply referred to as “Te”, (Ti or Di in Okinawan dialect). The only distinction is that it was sometimes called “Tode” referring to the Tang Dynasty of China. Te became regionalized when it roughly divided into three distinct forms, Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and Tomari-Te. (These were towns located around Shuri Castle.) These weren’t names of styles but rather references to distinguish differences in applications, kata and philosophies. It wasn’t until the late 1800′s to early 1900′s that karate took official names to describe or differentiate styles. RyuTe^®, as such, is not a specific style but a blend of the ancient ways of Okinawa Te through a combining of Tode, Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and Tomari-Te.

Initially to give credit to Okinawa, our Grandmaster Taika Oyata called his organization, Ryukyu Kempo. (This is a generic term often used to describe all forms of karate from Okinawa.) From 1968 until the late 80′s Taika Oyata used Ryukyu Kempo as the name of his organization. In the early 90′s Taika Oyata renamed his organization, RyuTe^®. This is an acronym of sorts, referring to Ryukyu Hand; however, the true meaning of the kanji is “flowing hand.” These kanji were chosen to describe the way in which karate techniques should be performed.

Taika Oyata refers to RyuTe^® as a public art that he and his instructors teach openly. He also teaches the family art he inherited to a small group of long time students and refers to it as Taika Oyata Shin Shu Ho^®.

Oyata founded the RyuTe® Karate Do organization because he wanted to pass down the ancient wisdom of these ancestors – their sincerity and humility – along with techniques of real self defense, not “sport” karate. The translation of Shin Shu Ho means “to strive to attain true moral goodness and to express it through one’s every action”. This is the fundamental philosophy practiced at Polander Academy of Martial Arts.