Head Instructor --Regina I. A. Brice
Regina I. A. Brice was awarded a 5th Dan Shidoshi license under the direction of Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi of Noda-City, Chiba-ken, Japan. She teaches, but prefers to learn from senior instructors. She is also a "second tier" Bujinkan translator, and has worked at several
United States Tai Kai in that capacity, as well as at many Bujinkan Master
Instructor seminars.
Regina began training in martial arts at the age of 14 under Keith Strandberg
(now a major martial arts screen writer! YEAH! ) at the Oberlin College
Isshinryu Karate Club. When Keith graduated, she was in charge of instruction
and the club carried on informally thereafter. Upon graduation from high
school, she removed herself to Cambridge, MA to attend Harvard-Radcliffe.
Finding no Isshinryu at the time, she switched to Shotokan Karate primarily
under Tabata-sensei, Matsuyama-sensei, Joe Couto and Lynn Marino. If Harvard
had offered a minor in karate, she would have been the first candidate,
training hard 5 days a week year in and out! She did attend and win local
NAKF tournaments in both kata and kumite. Having reached 1st kyu brown
belt, she prepared for her Shodan test, but went to Japan instead, where
she was permitted to wear a black belt.
During her Junior year of college, she made her first trip to Japan and
studied at the Nanzan Center for Japanese Studies in Nagoya. and also studied Shotokan karate.
She then won the Aichi Prefectural tournament in 1984, even though she
was the only gaijin in the entire arena. Talk about pressure!
On the advice of a friend, she attended a tiny dojo on the outskirts of
town which taught energy work and became a regular student there 4 times
per week. The school taught Shinshin Toitsu Aikido (Ki Society) energy healing as well as aikido principles.Although her teachers (a wonderful brother-sister duo) at the time did not believe "ninja" existed, while browsing a Nagoya bookstore, she stumbled upon a series of books in Japanese by Dr Hatsumi. Realizing that he was indeed still alive and well, she undertook to visit him in
Noda City, while continuing her energy work.
As a result of in-depth, but pleasant, conversations with Dr Hatsumi, and
training with the wonderfully kind Shihan in Noda and Kashiwa, Regina determined
that the arts taught by Dr Hatsumi were a necessary addition to her martial
training. There were no macho illusions about becoming a "ninja"
or "kunoichi." Rather, she found the movements described
as "Taijutsu" to be graceful, hilarious and totally consistent
with Shinshin Toitsu principles, --yet more efficient in actual combat
and kinder to the body than Shotokan.
Energy work and natural healing are still an important part of her life.
Regina respects all (...well, most) martial arts. Occasionally,
she practices bits of Shotokan kata through Taijutsu eyes, --her favorite
after all these years still being Empi (Bujinkan folks could learn
a lot about "mogurikata" from this one). From 1985 until 1991,
she trained alone, and variously with Testuya Higuchi in Cleveland, and
the Ann Arbor Bujinkan group, operated by Otto Cardew.
Between 1991 and 1993, she went back to Japan and commuted 5 days a week
to Bujinkan trainings in Saitama, Tokyo and Chiba, while practicing law
full time in Tokyo. This deep training in the Bujinkan philosophies and
methods of Taijutsu, makes her one of the few living now in the United
States to have depth of Bujinkan Hombu training. There are, thankfully,
several Americans who have lived and trained at the Hombu in Japan for
much longer: Mark O'Brien, Mike Pearce, Alex Mordine, and others, who return
to teach what they have learned.
After giving away advice on doing business in Japan for much too long and
teaching Japanese, she set up her law firm in Grand
Rapids, Michigan in May of 1996. Luckily, she was just in time to pick
up a group from a fellow who left to pursue in depth study under Shidoshi
Steven K. Hayes.
Nowadays, we train quite happily in the Grand Rapids YWCA, where we have flexible space and look forward to bringing in guest instructors as soon as possile. The training is run from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on Saturdays. Once the weather turns, we will add the outdoor training back in at some point during the week and train twice per week.
Of all the benefits gained through almost 20 years of martial arts studies,
Regina finds that the ability to make friends with martial artists of all
styles and abilities is her greatest asset and joy. She tends to pop up
at dojo whenever traveling, just to take in the ambiance (after a long
day of dealing with LAWYERS!) and enjoy watching others ply away at their
craft. One day, if she buys another white gi (first she's gotta get a black
one!), she'll carry it in the car for impromptu trainings in whatever dojo
is available. In addition, she writes frequently for martial arts publications,
and looks forward to doing more of the same, time permitting.
She enjoys serving as a referee for martial arts tournaments, including
the Don The Dragon Classic (LA, 1994), Han
Wei Tournament (Cleveland, 1995) and Martial Arts Hall of Fame Tournament
(Akron, 1995). She has also written a timely and comprehensive book for
the martial arts community entitled A Martial Artist's
Guide To American Law (to be revised in 1997 as Martial Arts Law), and is the author of this web site.
As an aside, the term "BOOJ" came about because Regina was/is
simply too lazy to always write "Bujinkan," in e-mail and her
typing skills are not the greatest. It is not an official word in use throughout
the organization, but you'll see it now and again.
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