Yagyu Shinkage Ryu in Southern California

Splice, even that doesn't seem to be right. He seems to lay claim to a Menkyo Kaiden, but as of yet the E-budo thread hasn't turned up a reference to exactly which style that was awarded by. His site definitely reads a bit... odd.

I understand that the web site is a bit odd, but if you're really bull-headed like I am, you can track the links.

this page states that the dojo is a representative of "YAGYU SHINGAN RYU HYOHO IAI JUTSU". It also shows a scroll reading "Yagyu Shingan Ryu Hyoho Iai Jutsu", painted by Ishihara Masao, "one of Viol Shihan's Instructors".

If you look at the photo captioned "John M. Viol Shihan receives Menkyo Kaiden in Japan - 1991" on this page and then look at the gallery of John Viol's instructors, you can see that the person in the photo for the menkyo kaiden is also in other pictures and identified as Ishihara Masao.

Considering the other pictures and statements lead us to believe he also studied Toyama Ryu under Nakamura Taizaburo, his claims to teaching a sogobujutsu seem to relate to Yagyu Shingan Ryu, at least to me. It may be a confusing web site, but I'm still pretty sure that it does in fact list his styles and teachers, you just have to wade through some weird things to get to them.

Thanks for doing the leg work splice. I couldn't find anything consistent. The website is definitely peculiar. Perhaps it really is just an example of lousy web site content.

To paraphrase Bones on Star Trek,"I'm a doctor, Jim, not a _____."
The man in question might well be a genuine martial arts but not be a website author or builder.

it is shinkage ryu... only 3 style of it..being was 3 brothers...
go find him and challage him...i dont mean in a fight i mean in knowlage..you will find out alot...

I've had enough, uchi_deshi. The web page is confusing enough I don't need you to throw random statements on top of the pile when you don't seem to know what's going on.

From the web page I found statements about the arts he supposedly learned, and I'm not part of them. The people who are can do what they like with that, or more likely nothing at all and continue their practice as usual. I've got no dog in this race, and you can find your path on your own.

well i just hate the fact sooo many people out there say they have trained in something and they never did...
you want to find the truth about any japanese martial arts teacher just call japan and talk to them... martial arts in japan has a gov. body... thats how sensei viol found out obata never trained in anything in japan when sensei viol went to talk to his so called teachers and they never found him any where in the record of him studying...there are many people out there like this...

Wow. You're not very good at this game. You should really try to understand a little about what you're talking about before you try to start making blanket statements like that. You're not doing yourself or your instructor any good.

Obata-sensei's training credentials are very well known. Many people in the US have trained with other folks in Japan who have trained with Obata. Speak to the Toyama Ryu guys. Obata's credentials are easily verifiable. For those interested in learning more about Obata-sensei's background, there's a detailed bio available at: http://www.shinkendo.com/bio.html It discusses his training history prior to immigrating to the US, and his reasoning behind creating his own style. Whether you agree with his decision to found his own style or not, his training credentials aren't really in question.

And Japan does not have "a governing body". There are a large number of different renmei and other organizations. If you were to call the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei, they would say they've never heard of me. So would the Zen Nippon Iaido Renmei. Whoever answered the phone for the Seitokai would probably never have heard of me either. It's a big organization, but if you could get them to check the official rolls, I would show up as a Rokudan under Tanida Hiroshi in the Chiba area. Point is there are literally hundreds of martial arts governing bodies in Japan.

Wow a Yagyu style teacher somewhere not so far from me! It is amazing to know that such a famous/distinct lineage exists near me today!

Speedy, what prompted you to seek out such a technique? My mind says probably cause its the style Sephiroth of FFVII uses? I always wanted to get good at boxing, learn muai thai, jujitsu, brazilian jujitsu, and learn a Yagyu sword art. Ahh to think that life is too short to be a true master of all of them.