| Tenyu Hamaki - History Tenyu Hamaki trained at Northcoast Aikido formally for a bit over a year. He received the rank of 4th kyu in Aikido and 4th kyu in Aikibojitsu before he was expelled from the school (see below.) According to him he has also received a green belt (4th kyu) in Karate. Tenyu's Rank At first, Tenyu was considered to be a promising student in Aikibojitsu. At the request of his family, we had given Tenyu special consideration and allowed him to participate in the advanced training of the Aikibojitsu Instructor Development Program, a program that requires that participants agree not to teach Aikibojitsu until reaching black belt level and in possession of an Aikibojitsu Instructor license. Contrary to what Tenyu has been saying on the Web, he never received a black belt rank at Northcoast Aikido, either in Aikido or Aikibojitsu. He was never issued a license to teach Aikibojitsu. The screen shot of an 'Instructors' page that Tenyu points to as evidence of his 'rank' was taken of a web page under construction during development of the Aikibojitsu website. The web designer assumed that all participants in the Instructor Development Program must be at least 1st degree black belt (which is normally the case.) The developer wasn't aware of Tenyu's status as a non-black belt trainee. Thus Tenyu's name appeared as shodan temporarily. Tenyu was actually 4th kyu at the time, and was not under consideration for the Instructor certificate. When the final web page was finished and published, Tenyu was not listed on the Instructor page. Tenyu's Expulsion from Northcoast Aikido Over the year or so that he trained at Northcoast Aikido, Tenyu increasingly showed disturbing personality instabilities. A growing number of complaints about his behavior both on and off the mat were received by instructors in the school. Toward the end of his time at Northcoast Aikido, things became bad enough that parents were removing their children from the children's class, some specifically mentioning Tenyu's questionable behavior. Tenyu ultimately was expelled from Northcoast Aikido due to inappropriate behavior as assistant instructor of the childrens' class. |
| Tenyu Hamaki |
| Aikibojitsu - The Art of the Staff |