Meet the maker
A passion for martial arts
Renshi Adam Cave is a senior member of Zensekai Karate Kobujitsu RenMei and Oyakata Kobujitsu. Adam began his martial arts training thirty years ago while at Connecticut College. What started out as a fun addition to other athletic pursuits soon became a life-long passion. Adam initially studied traditional Taekwon-do (he holds a second degree black belt in this style) as well as Okinawan kobudo. However, in the late 90’s, at the urging of his sensei Sherri Lesch, he became a lifetime student of Taika Seiyu Oyata (1928-2012). He has had the privilege to study not only with Taika but with many of Taika’s top students including Sensei Tim Blake, Kyoshi Gary Shull, the late Tasshi Jim Logue, and the current lineage holder of Taika’s art, Hanshi Greg Lindquist.
Woodworking from an early age.
Adam grew up around the woodshop. His father, Joseph Cave, is a well known landscape painter who also worked over the years as a skilled custom builder and cabinet maker. Adam has fond memories of the smell of sawdust, the sound of the saws, and learning through osmosis. He still has wooden toys his father made him including a fantastic shotgun that was a country boy’s dream toy.
Adam went on to college where he got degrees in fine art and art history. Art has continued to be a pursuit in one form or another, ever since. In the past two decades, Adam found himself making more and more furniture, and odds and ends and woodworking was an increasing draw. When he saw a jo that he liked some years ago, he thought he would make one for himself. Friends were impressed and asked him to make one of them. One thing lead to another and Kobudo WoodCraft was born.
