This tale starts with two people whose story could have been a twilight zone episode. It’s about a timeless force that bound a man and a woman from different worlds and directed them to become one with the past so they could move into the future.

By Terry L. Wilson

Photo Credit – Rick Hustead

The woman is Rumiko Urata. She was raised in a fishing village on the coast of Kyushu, Japan. Like most kids her age, she grew up with cartoons and comic books. Although she had plenty of heroes to look up to, she only had eyes for an iconic Japanese crusader. “When I was little, ninja were very popular on television, in movies and in comic books,” Urata said. “To me, the ninja was a superhero, and I wanted to be one, too. I used to play with swords and pretend that I was a ninja even though I knew they weren’t real anymore.”

Thousands of miles away, the ninja bug also bit — this time, it got Stephen K. Hayes, a tang soo do student from Dayton, Ohio. “I saw an article about ninja in Black Belt,” he said. “That changed my life forever. I vowed to someday move to Japan, find a ninja master and train under him to become a real ninja.” Neither Urata nor Hayes could have known it at the time, but their lives eventually would intertwine and their ninja fantasies would become reality.

After graduating from college, Hayes moved to Japan. It was around the same time Urata graduated from Sophia University in Tokyo. “I met Rumiko in 1979,” Hayes said. “I was in Tokyo doing English advertising for Canon Camera to support myself while training at the ninja dojo. They had just hired Rumiko. Luckily for me, they put her in the advertising department at a desk directly across from me. That’s how we met.”

For the American, it was love at first sight. He carefully pondered his next move, figuring that their first chat could be their last if he brought up the real reason he was in Japan. Hayes played out several first date conversations in his head, unaware that his secret identity had already been compromised. Unknown to him, gossiping around the office water cooler was as much a tradition in Japan as it was in the States. The subject du jour at Canon was the American who wanted to be a ninja.

“I knew all about Stephen’s ninja training long before he told me about it,” Urata said. “When you work in a large company, there will always be a group of ladies who know everything about what’s going on. There are no secrets.”

“Once, I made the mistake of telling someone that I was in Japan learning how to be a ninja,” Hayes said. “They sat silently and gave me the look.”

That look, he said, entailed the person going silent, his eyes rolling back and shaking his head in disbelief. The Japanese are a polite people, so no one would ever ridicule a stranger. Afterward, however, whenever a local asked him why he was in Japan, Hayes was more careful. “When I first met Stephen, he said he was in Japan to study martial arts,” Urata said. “He skirted around what he was really doing because if you tell someone in Japan that you’re a ninja, it could raise a few eyebrows, especially if you’re an American from Ohio.”

Later, however, Hayes found the perfect moment to pull off the ninja mask and reveal the truth. “That conversation couldn’t have gone better,” he said. “Rumiko was not only OK with the ninja thing; she was completely on board from day one and began translating some arcane books given to me by Masaaki Hatsumi, who was the headmaster of the dojo.” Urata said: “As a kid, I thought ninja could crawl up walls, shoot fire from their eyes and disappear at will. It wasn’t until Stephen asked me to translate his teacher’s books into English that I began to learn the depth of training involved in this specific art.”

She explored the texts, and with each page turned, another secret of the shadow warriors was unveiled. “As I studied the writings, I not only had to read what was written but also what was not written,” she said. “I had to decipher the philosophy that was hidden behind the words by reading between the lines.

“By translating the grandmaster’s books,I was given the opportunity to rediscover facets of my own culture that had been lost to time. With each translation, my passion grew. I felt a connection, a bond even, with the ninja mindset, and I wanted to become part of their legacy.”

Hayes wasn’t surprised when Urata asked him to teach her. Fearing that it could become a double-edged sword, he suggested she ask permission to train with Hatsumi himself. After she followed the proper protocols, he accepted her as a student. All the lessons and ranks she would receive came directly from him.

“The training was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Urata said. “My body was filled with aches and pains combined with physical and mental stress. Everything we did was designed for us to overcome any challenges we may encounter in real life. In the end, what I gained as a person was how to look at life from a higher perspective. By that, I mean how to really value yourself, your relationships and others — it’s what I call the ninja mind.”

Hayes and Urata fell in love with the spiritual facet of the art, but the combat applications also promised rewards. “I am a small person,” Urata said. “So for me, the best part of close quarters training was learning that by using precise timing and proper body positioning, the self-defense techniques put me at an advantage against a much larger adversary.”

Hayes said: “I began ninja training with a tang soo do background, so everything I’d

been doing prior to going to Japan was linear and overpowering. We never grappled; we just ran over our opponents. We never did weapons, we never did chokes and we never did takedowns. But when I began ninjutsu, all of that and more opened up to me.”

“We got married in Japan in a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony,” Hayes said. “In 1980 we came back to America just as the ninja boom was beginning.” Soon after they had children, Urata and Hayes made sure they learned the art, too— from other instructors. “We had our staff teach them,” Hayes said. “Our daughters accepted criticisms and corrections, and it was no big deal coming from a staff member. From Mom and Dad, they only got positive feedback.

“I talked to a lot of martial artists who taught martial arts to their kids, but after a while they’d quit. The secret is you can’t be your own kids’ teacher. Kids think if the parent corrects them, they are disappointing Mom and Dad, so we dodged the whole thing.” The daughters are now in their 30s, living lives of their own — which begs the question, Did their ninja training stick? During a recent visit from their parents, they demonstrated their ninja skills while wearing Oculus virtual-reality headsets. “Reina had some goggles on and was fighting cyber ninjas,” Urata said. “She was down in a low crouch stance sword fighting — we were amazed! At 39, she still has it.”

The daughters grew up with the sword —and with hard workouts, Hayes explained. “We built a seminar center at our home in Ohio, and Reina and Marissa would train there. They never had other kids to train with, so they trained with adults for 20 some years. They still have the moves!” And the art of ninjutsu still has the ability to captivate a new generation.