expert in Okinawan weapons, in particular the bo. He passed on his knowledge of weapons as well as his knowledge of tuite to Oyata. Later, Uhugushiku introduced Oyata to his good friend, Wakinaguri. Wakinaguri was also a bushi and while of Chinese descent, was 6th generation Okinawan. Wakinaguri taught Oyata his family's style of martial arts (to-te or "Chinese Hand") which included the pressure-point strikes later popularized by Oyata in the United States. Since neither Uhugushiku nor Wakinaguri had children to whom to pass on their arts, Oyata became the inheritor of both. Influence of Okinawan Kenpo After Uhugushiku and Wakinaguri died, Oyata sought other karate masters to continue his training. He joined several research groups and trained directly with Shigeru Nakamura. Under Nakamura, Oyata learned 12 basic empty-hand kata that are practiced in Ryu-te today and helped establish Bogu Kumite as the "sporting" aspect of Okinawan Kenpo. Introduction to the United States In the late 1960s, several Americans servicemen began to train with Oyata and, in 1977, several of Oyata's senior American students (Jim Logue, Bill Wiswell, and Greg Lindquist) began to organize within the United States. They brought Oyata to Kansas City, Kansas and established the "Ryukyu Kempo Association". Then in 1995, since Ryukyu Kempo became a generic term for any forms of karate from Okinawa, he renamed his organization to the "Ryu-te Association". In the 1980s, Oyata began to broaden the knowledge of the general martial arts public by introducing the concepts of tuite and kyūsho jutsu that have influenced the way in which karate is taught in the modern day. International dissemination At the present time (2015), there are no schools affiliated with Oyata's Ryu-Te Association outside of the North American Continent. Training Open Hand Kata Oyata stressed that the kata form the foundation of Okinawan life protection arts as the techniques and most important concepts are contained within. The twelve basic kata taught to Oyata by Nakamura came from a variety of sources, reflecting the different influences on Okinawan Kenpo and, through Nakamura, on Ryu-te. According to Oyata, the source for each kata is listed below: Weapons Kata Ryu-te incorporates Okinawan weapons, as the study of weapons supplements the empty-hand techniques as an integral component of training. Practitioners study the interrelationship between empty-hand movements and weapons techniques, with an emphasis on the value of weapons training in the perfection of empty-hand movement. Weapons include bo,