Raul Perez

Size matters. Skill negates it to some extent on an untrained opponent but it still matters. I've fought Bogu Kumite with no weight classes. Full contact full power blows. My largest opponent was 260lbs and I'm sitting at 5'4" 155lbs. It was like hitting a brick wall and the dojo wasn't big enough. I survived, didn't get knocked out, landed a few hard shots, but even blocking kicks and punches was rocking my body. Size and strength matter. I've always weight trained and ran to help compensate for my stature and to deal with larger opponents. If you just fall into my skill will save me... one shot can change your outcome.

I’m not sure what version you practice but in Oyata’s system Seisan came from Shigeru Nakamura. Nakamura learned from Master Kuniyoshi. The lineage of that Seisan is traced to Ryu Ryu Ko in China associated with whooping crane Chu’an Fa. Many of the techniques and concepts translates well to full contact Bogu Kumite of Nakamura’s Okinawa Kenpo. Here’s the first opening sequence https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Be8CjJ195/?igshid=ecf962hnxeiw Raul

Ahhh gotcha, couldn’t tell from the timeline of your Alliance membership on facebook. Funny story – 2008 Hanshi Geraldi and Kyoshi Carnemolla brought us over to Missouri to foster a friendly relationship with the Alliance group. In doing so, Hanshi Geraldi wanted to reinvigorate the Bogu Kumite fighting. A group of probably 10 of us went over and were split up into a competition group representing various castles. We all did a mini tournament within our castles to determine the fighter. All castles selected the Hanshi Geraldi student to fight. We reconvened during lunch and discovered we were fighting each other in the tournament. Well, we fight each other weekly so it didn’t seem like much of an event for us. So we returned to our castles and bowed out from the fighting competition. I began to eat a hearty lunch, chicken, fish, rice and washed it all down with pink lemonade. Kyoshi Carnemolla came to me after I had ate and said that the Alliance does not do bogu kumite enough so I have selected you to do an exhibition match with another blackbelt in our group. I said, “But I just had eaten a large meal!”…… *smacks me hard on the shoulder* “Don’t you effing embarrass me get suited up” Needless to say I put on a good show. I did the Kata competition but didn’t place because I did Hanshi Geraldi’s kata Machiminato No Te kata which no judge was familiar with. Here’s the video from 2008 exhibition match performed for the Alliance: The following year I had work so I couldn’t get away for the 2009 official Bogu Kumite matches.

We may have met. I was the NY group that went to the 2008 summer camp and I performed a Bogu Kumite exhibition match before the Bogu Tournament of the castles started.

I know the name Ryukyu Kempo has a bit of a shadow cast upon it due to the likes of Dillman. I’ve been apart of an organization headed by Seiyu Oyata’s most senior student - Albert Geraldi. I have been studying with his senior students Mr. Warmuth, Mrs. Warmuth, Mr. LaPeters and Mr. Carnemolla since 1998. I am a senior instructor within Mr. Geraldi’s organization and have been privy to several discussions on the the development of the system and politics that had happened during the height of the art. We had urged Mr. Geraldi to document his position on a few areas that seemed that light should be shed on certain misconceptions many years ago. Mr. Geraldi has finally placed on record his position on a few things concerning Ryukyu Kempo, Okinawan Karate, Taika Seiyu Oyata, the development of Ryu-Te and his leave of absence from the Ryu-Te organization in the Mid 1990s. To clarify - Mr. Geraldi is the longest known student of the late Seiyu Oyata. Mr. Geraldi holds teaching licenses (Menkyo Kai Den) from Shigeru Nakamura (Okinawa Kenpo), Seikichi Uehara (Motobu Ryu), and Seiyu Oyata (Ryu-Te). All information on Mr. Geraldi can be found on https://www.ryukyu-kempo.org Mr. Geraldi was the highest ranked individual within Oyata’s organization from the 1960s through the 1990s and was instrumental in naming the art Ryukyu Kempo as well as bringing Seiyu Oyata to the United Stated in the 1960s and 1970s. Part 1 - discusses the naming of the art and makes reference to misuse of certifications. The cryptic discussion on the certification process is directly referenced to Dillman who was awarded an honorary title for his efforts in assisting in marketing Oyata and his system during the late 1980s. However, Dillman used this to brand his own Karate, stole the original Kanji (which was not trademarked by the organization) and began to devalue the art and name with a circus show which has been well documented over the past decade and a half. At no point was Dillman ever ranked higher than the founding members of Ryukyu Kempo - Geraldi, Logue, and Wiswell. This forced the Oyata to rename the art Ryu-Te. Part 2 - Discussion on Taika Oyata and his development of Ryu-Te as well as seminars provided. The art originally taught on Okinawa to what the art evolved to as Oyata became established in the United States. Part 3 - Discussion on Tuite Jitsu and the origins associated with Seikichi Uehara as well as the circumstances surrounding Mr. Geraldi’s leave of absence from Ryu-Te. While not as detailed as I would have liked it does give some perspective from an individual who has spent over 30 years directly under a renowned and recognized Kempo/Chu’an Fa master as the number 1 student and successor of the system, at one time, as well as the development and circumstances related to the developmental mindset of the master during the creation period of Ryu-Te and the current political landscape of Ryu-Te since the death of Master Oyata in 2012. Regards, Raul Perez