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Volume 2. Issue 4
Article 1

Part 3

MASTER YAGI MEITATSU

The next day was to prove the busiest of all for me as I was to spend the morning with Yagi Meitatsu Sensei (eldest son of the late Yagi Meitoku Sensei and head of the Okinawa ‘Meibukai’ Organization). Then at mid-day I was to receive my first “official” Old-Style UechiRyu karate lesson from Seizan. Whenever I trained under Seizan it was never at my request, but always at Seizan’s invitation.

After training with Seizan I was scheduled to interview Toyama Sensei, after which I would then be whisked away for another audience with Hokama Sensei at his home-based dojo and karate museum.

Several weeks earlier I had hosted Yagi Meitatsu Sensei at my Martial Arts School (the “Martial Arts Research, Study, and Training Academy”) on the Isle Of Wight. Upon his departure, Yagi Sensei had asked me to call on him when I arrived in Okinawa so that we could meet-up. Yagi Sensei was hard to track down but through Sumako’s tireless efforts she finally made contact with him, and so co-ordinated a time and a place for us to meet.

As it happened, Yagi Sensei (who is based within the Kume district of Naha) has a business project in Yomitan - just minutes away by car from Nagahama, where I was staying.

Last year, Master Yagi Meitatsu (10th Dan Okinawan Meibukai Gojuryu Karate-Do) opened a new Ryukyu Cultural Centre - the “Okinawa Traditional Karate Kobudo International Studying Centre” - where members of the international Budo community can stay and practice authentic Okinawan budo and kobudo within a purpose-built environment, miles away from 21st Century modern-day Okinawa. This is where Yagi Sensei took me this warm and sunny Tuesday morning.

The whole area is designed in true Chinese style with a large stone gateway, a fully-equipped wooden dojo, a simple but adequate dormitory (at £5 per night you can’t go wrong!), and a launderette just across the way behind Yagi Sensei’s own personal office. Yagi Sensei also showed me the traditional Japanese onsen (a public Japanese bath facility) that was currently being built. With ample grassland for outdoor training, with the beach less than a five minute walk away, and with a nearby food complex on-hand together with a number of handicraft shops, who could wish for a more ideal and self-sufficient location? As I said to Yagi Sensei, I could live to be a 1,000 (years old) if I were to spend the rest of my days there!

For a serious and dedicated martial artist, this brand new Centre is a dream come true, a virtual utopia, and an absolute heaven on Earth.

Yagi Sensei had put this project together with the help of two other senior Ryukyu martial artists. All three of them are on-hand to teach authentic Ryukyu martial arts to all those who book themselves into this immaculately designed study facility.

From here, Master Yagi and I travelled to the Chatan-Cho region of Naha where we went in search of a man who taught both Shuri-Te and Wuzuquan. The former is a pre-Shorinryu style of karate-do whilst the latter is a Chinese martial art hailing from Fujian Province. The man we were looking for was Takamiyagi Hiroshi Sensei
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We drove around Chatan-Cho for quite some time. “Aaayiaaaya!” exclaimed the soft-spoken Master from Kume. “I know his place is somewhere here because I have seen his signboard. But that was two years ago and now everything here has changed.”

We continued to drive, looking everywhere for Takamiyagi’s dojo, but with no luck at all.

“Perhaps he has closed down,” I suggested. “He might have moved away, passed away…who knows? His address and contact details I was given date back at least ten years, if not longer.” We stopped and asked at the district police station, we stopped at a number of shops and asked there, and we asked several random passers-by if they knew the whereabouts of this man or his dojo – the “Hamagawa Dojo”, but each time we drew a blank. We had, by that time, been driving around for more than an hour…but then we got a break! Yagi Sensei stopped at a convenience store and they suggested that we try looking a couple of blocks down.

And there it was as large as life. I instantly recognized the Chinese characters for ‘Wuzuquan’ (5 Ancestor Fist) so we parked the car and rang the door-bell only to find that no-one was home.

“Oh well,” I said. “At least we have found the dojo. I jotted down the two contact numbers and then we returned to the car, but as I was about to get in I saw a man walking towards the karate school. “I watched the man approaching the dojo, and as he did so he noticed me watching him. Yagi Sensei watched him, and then the ‘Five Ancestor’ Master noticed both Yagi and I watching him. He looked a little nervous so I smiled in an attempt to reassure him. He looked confused, but no longer worried. There was no doubt in my mind. “That’s our man, Sensei.,” I said. “What excellent timing.” We approached this man, and just to put his mind at ease we introduced ourselves long-distance, just so that he knew that we were friendly. Moments later we were inside the dojo, sitting relaxed and speaking at length with this pleasant middle-aged man. His English was good (far better than my Japanese!) and after having explained our purpose for this visit we left with a view to returning later in the week when, with his permission, I would interview this man and explore in-depth his history and background. Takamiyagi Sensei agreed and with that we were on our way.

“Your zanshin is very high and very strong, Sensei” I said as we drove back to Yomitan. “If you had given up after just a few minutes of looking then we would not have found the dojo and met this man. But because your staying power is very strong, we did find this man and his dojo.”

Master Yagi responded: “In Okinawa we say that if you a good person and live in a nice way then good luck will follow you wherever you go.”

To this I remarked: “That was Fate, Sensei. If we had found the dojo an hour ago (when we first began looking) we would not have found Takamiyagi there. We only found him when he was due to be there.”

“Hai, so, so, so! You understand our way of thinking very well, ne?”

“Yes, Sensei,” I replied, “for it is also mine.”

Later that week, Sumako and I visited Takamiyagi Sensei where he gave me an extremely interesting interview. Sumako took immediately to this man and so the three of us spoke with no regard at all for the passage of time.

Sensei took me back to Yomitan where he insisted on buying me lunch. I was not so hungry and very soon I would be on the Nagahama dojo floor practicing “Sanchin”. This discouraged me from eating too much and, of course, Sensei understood this.

Yagi Sensei handed me back to Sumako at the appointed rendezvous and so, with that, I thanked Master Yagi for his precious time and generosity. He suggested we meet again before I left Okinawa and so it was arranged that we would meet the very next afternoon.

SANCHIN TRAINING UNDER ‘SEIZAN’

Seizan was waiting for me at Nagahama Dojo so upon my arrival we immediately got down to some serious and thoroughly enjoyable Sanchin training. For many years, the Sanchin concept had fascinated me (indeed, Sanchin was the very reason I relocated to Fuzhou, China back in the early 1990s) and so here I was looking at yet another interpretation of this basic yet all-encompassing mode of movement. Very different from the normal, usual, and typical practice of the UechiRyu Sanchin that we see today, what Seizan teaches is unchanged as it was taught by Uechi Kanbun Sensei upon his departure from Fuzhou early last century.

My lesson under Seizan was not so long but it was in-depth. Quality over quantity… I would not want it (have it) any other way! Seizan was to teach me every day now until my departure. He was to teach me as much as I could learn! “Before I leave,” I asked Seizan, “can we slow things right down and go even more in depth? May I video a lesson so I can refer back to it once I leave?”

“Of course,” replied Seizan. “I can record your lessons for you. Before you leave I will give you the tape as your personal record.”

This tape I now of course have. Not only is it a record of my training and of Seizan’s teaching, but a record of one of the most beautiful karate dojo I have ever seen! Organized and in-keeping with the traditional Japanese/Okinawa ‘way’, the all-important ‘dojo no kami’ dominates the centre of the front wall below which stands a huge wall-mounted mirror that seems to be permanently clean! At the foot of the mirror stand ‘Nigirigami’ (or ‘sanchin-gami’) together with several pairs of chi’ishi. Wall-mounted and framed photographs of Toyama Sensei and other senior Uechi-ryu teachers line the front and right-hand walls, whilst the left-hand wall is lined with framed photographs of all the ‘Nagahama Dojo’ students – both local and overseas. Chinese tea is stored in one corner of the dojo whilst in the opposite corner are the wall-mounted traditional wooden tags upon which are written (by Sumako, in kanji and romaji) the names of students in order of seniority. The back wall to the dojo is, essentially, the sliding shoji (screen doors) behind which is the guest room/sleeping quarters. As I have said, a beautiful dojo, nothing short of exquisite!

AN INTERVIEW WITH TOYAMA SENSEI

This afternoon Seizan was busy and could not be present during my interview with Master Toyama. Sumako interpreted for me as I put my questions to a man who loves to talk almost as much as I do (if not, more!).

“Do you have your questions prepared?” Seizan asked me. I showed him my list that totalled more than fifty. “Good, but you will not get through all of those. Narrow it down to just six – you know how he loves to give complete and highly-detailed answers – and if you have time for more then that will be a bonus.”

Sound advice. I did as he suggested.

My visit with Toyama Sensei lasted more than two hours as he, Sumako-san, and I sat within the quiet privacy of Toyama Seiko Sensei’s dojo. As it happened, I did managed to go way beyond my narrowed-down list of six questions as Master Toyama spoke freely and at length about his background, his past, his philosophy, and his training. I was overjoyed with his openness and his willingness to provide all the details I wanted.

With Toyama Sensei’s permission I captured the interview on video, including a priceless piece of footage right at the beginning when Toyama Sensei’s wife entered the dojo with some tea and snacks, then promptly reached for a fly-swatter – and swats, right in front of the camera, a fly that was perched upon the straw tatami between Sensei and myself.

The recorded interview lasted a good ninety minutes. Having covered far more ground than I would ever have imagined possible, I was beginning to sense that it was time to bring this dialogue to a close. It was now three-thirty, and Sumako and I were due to meet with Hokama Sensei within the next half hour. Thanking Toyama sensei profusely for his time, Sumako and I bade him farewell, promising to see him again the next evening when we expected a reporter from the “Okinawa Times” newspaper to stop by. The reporter wanted a follow-up to the piece about my visit they had written published prior to my arrival in Okinawa, but I think that he was also keen to speak with Sensei.

Continued in Part 4 - A second audience with Master Hokama, The “BUNBUKAN” At Torihori , Another meeting with Master Yagi, "The Okinawa Times", Suparimpe.