An-shu Stephen K. Hayes is everyone’s image of the iconic master warrior sage. Black Belt Magazine calls him “A legend; one of the ten most influential martial arts masters alive in the world today” for good reason.
He is peerless in his ability to share real and honest ninja combat secrets enriched by unparalleled insights from the Himalayan meditative mind sciences. His genius is his ability to translate exotic esoteric concepts from ancient cultures into practical useful understanding for Western seekers. His gift is his ability to deliver a complete and all-inclusive approach to personal security and personal power.
Stephen Hayes is one of those people you meet and think, “wow they should make a movie about this person’s life!” He recalls a feeling of frustration and helplessness in middle school as his friend was harassed and attacked by a school bully. He wanted to help but didn’t know how.
Hayes’ first exposure to martial arts was in an episode of Lassie. From that moment he was hooked. His Mom had to check out books about martial arts from the library for him because the librarian thought they were too dangerous for kids to read. In high school study hall, he first read about ninja warriors in a James Bond novel. Eventually, Stephen chose a college because he heard they had a judo club. It turned out to be an ROTC Tang Soo Do club, but Hayes managed to convince the instructor to let him train. He was elated to finally be practicing the martial arts. Hayes trained diligently, earning several degrees of black belt in the art. He even opened a martial arts school of his own, but deep down he knew there was much more than his sport martial art had to offer. He had to find a way to Japan and learn the truth of the ninja.
By miraculous events, he found himself in Noda City, Japan, where he was able to meet Masaaki Hatsumi, the 34th generation headmaster of the Togakure Ryu school of ninjutsu. After a brief initial visit, Hayes was able to obtain a rare cultural visa that allowed him to stay in Japan for 5 years. He trained tirelessly, learning everything he could about real fighting, weapons skills, combat psychology, methods of building mental and spiritual power, and whatever information he was able to gather from the grandmaster and others in the dojo. He meticulously took notes, and began putting his lessons into books. Stephen Hayes’ books about ninja training flew off the shelves. He officially set off the “ninja boom” of the 1980s. The small dojo in quiet little Noda City was about to become a destination point for tens of thousands of aspiring martial artists from around the world. Masaaki Hatsumi would become a famous world figure thanks to Hayes’ 20+ books on the subject of ninja martial arts and esoteric mind studies.
To make a living in Japan, Hayes took a job for Canon Camera making instructional videos in English for their products. It was there he met Rumiko. As a theater major, he also sought out roles in Japanese film, and even had a part in the original SHOGUN miniseries.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Stephen and Rumiko Hayes toured the world teaching seminars, and returning to Japan regularly for their own personal training and development. This was a period of putting their training to the test. It was apparent to Hayes that cultural differences between Western and Japanese audiences required certain adaptations to the training to best serve those who would learn the ninja methods. Americans and Europeans seemed more interested in effective, modern applications than historical stylized training. Masaaki Hatsumi instructed Hayes to find the best way to convey the teachings to his students in the West.
Through other unbelievable connections, Stephen Hayes served as personal security escort and advisor to His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama of Tibet throughout the 1990s. Hayes’ interest in Japanese spiritual training first led him to esoteric mountain training with the yamabushi, and eventually all the way to India and the mountains of Tibet. There, he studied ancient methods of understanding the human mind and how to overcome personal shortcomings and obstacles of the spirit. He had obtained what he sought after all those years ago in middle school. He now had real answers, for how to overcome both internal and external dangers that we may face in life.
In the late 1990s, Stephen and Rumiko Hayes developed the modern self-defense and self-discovery martial art of To-Shin Do. They continue to share their 50+ years of experience in their home dojo and seminar events around the country.
