Life and Martial Arts
Stephen K. Hayes was born in Wilmington, Delaware and raised in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from Fairmont West High School, Kettering, Ohio in 1967. He began formal training in the martial arts as a teenager in the mid 1960s. He attended Miami University in nearby Oxford, Ohio reportedly because he "heard they had a judo club". It turned out to be a Korean Tang Soo Do school, not judo, but Hayes remained. In 1971 he graduated from Miami with a Bachelor's of Arts, having majored in Speech and Theatre.
In the 1970s Hayes traveled to Japan to seek out authentic ninja masters. In June 1975, he met and began training under Masaaki Hatsumi, who refers to himself as 34th Grandmaster of Togakure Ryu Ninja and is the founder of the Bujinkan (武神館) organization. Hayes returned to the United States with his wife Rumiko in late 1980 when his Japan residency visa expired, and began teaching and authoring numerous books and magazine articles.
In 1985, he was entered into the Black Belt magazine's Hall of Fame as Instructor of the Year. He was again featured on the cover of Black Belt in the March 2007 issue; which contains a chapter from his book Ninja Vol 6, Secret Scrolls of the Warrior Sage. The magazine’s opening editorial described him as "one of the 10 most influential living martial artists in the world".
In 1993, Hayes was awarded the rare judan (tenth degree black belt) in Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu from Hatsumi. In 1997, he founded the martial art of To-Shin Do, an art based in his experience of budō taijutsu. In 2006 Hayes' name was removed from the display of active Bujinkan teachers, ending his official role within that organization. That Hayes' name plank was removed from the Bujinkan Honbu wall has been documented by both parties. However, the specifics regarding the motivation for the removal are in dispute. Some suggest Hayes was expelled from the organization. Hayes explains that he simply no longer participates as an active Bujinkin instructor. To-Shin Do is taught through his SKH (Stephen K. Hayes) Quest locations. The SKH Quest network now spans 31 schools across North America, Europe, Australia and Africa.
Hayes acted in the 1980 TV miniseries Shogun and in 2004 was featured in the Discovery Channel documentary Unsolved History regarding ninja and their practices.
Hayes resides and works in Dayton, Ohio. He and his wife Rumiko have two daughters, Reina and Marissa.
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