| This is the list of known Renegades Rev. Shannon Kawika Phelps - Southern California Mark Saito Jr. - Oahu, Hawaii Keith Carlson - Last known where abouts - Bay Area - California Will you be NEXT? |
To all who wish to study our Saito Family Art.
Please read this page including The Bridge.
My father had kept himself in seclusion from the Martial Arts World for many reasons. Many students came knocking on his door asking him to teach again. Everyone of them got rejected. He had put up with a lot of nonsense from his students and he no longer wished to involve himself with their shortcomings. He gave his students many chances to redeem themselves, yet still no action was taken on their part. It took a lot for my father to write this letter called, "The Renegade Letter."
It is because of the poor conduct of his former students that it was so hard to get his permission to teach. I went through many years, from 2000 until 2005, asking for his approval to teach.
My Father's answer was always the same, he would answer me with a question, "Why do you want to teach? Look at the others teaching, they are not teaching the Saito Family Art right. You know what you know and you know more than anyone else. Keep it to yourself." End of discussion.
Every six months or so I would ask him again. I always got the same answer, "Keep it to yourself." End of discussion. We talked many times about the higher levels of the Art, and we talked about the Saito Ninjitsu being taught incorrectly by others out there. He said, "It is not the same Art that I taught. There are pieces missing, very important pieces." He had also mentioned the letter that he wrote dismissing students of rank and how he felt. He felt he had done an injustice to the Art by teaching it outside of the family. As you can see in the letter below, he blames himself.
We talked about many things, his main concern is that he did not want any of the real Ninjitsu Mastery, what he called "the gift" or "the magic of the art," that he had taught me to get back to the renegades. I told him the reason why I wanted to teach is so my sons could learn the real Saito Ninjitsu Family Art. Reluctantly, he finally gave me permission. My winning argument was, "If I don't teach our family Art right, it will go down in history as the way the renegades are teaching it now, which we both know is incorrect. It will be just another Art, like any other art. That is what the world will know about Saito Ninjitsu." He went deep into thought.
A few days later, he said, "Yes. It needs to be fixed, it needs to be taught right. Too many good students are learning it incorrectly, it is not fair to them."
It then took me a few more years to get him to be happy about his decision. It wasn't until I told him I met a woman in Waimanalo and was moving to Arizona that his voice lit up. He started talking about the letter he had written and he asked if I had seen it? I told him I did not remember it or recall seeing it. He then got busy and contacted his life long student and close friend, Stanford Professor, Laurence Manning to retrieve a copy of his original letter.
This next part is amazing. My dad always talked about our families' psychic abilities that ran through our Hawaiian ancestory. What he got excited about, is in 1998 he predicted the new school to be in Arizona. This I never knew. He predicted this nine years in advance. He also must have known that there would be renegades, perhaps thats another reason why he stopped teaching.
He was waiting for the renegade weeds to show themselves so he could Yank it from the Saito Bloodline Ninjitsu Garden. |
Below is a copy of an email between myself and Professor Manning.
Hi Larry,
Hope all is well. About the Letter that you mailed to my father, he got it! He was very happy to receive it. He read it to me.... WOW, I never knew. I never got my copy of that letter. So may I ask a favor? Could you send me a copy of that letter? My Dad calls me almost every day to talk about Martial Arts and Stuff and the Letter. He's pretty excited. Thanks again.
Much Aloha, Maui
This is an original copy of, 'The Renegade Letter'...