NOTES –

[emattson]

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By Graham Noble

Meitoku Yagi’s comment, “Nowadays people use the terms Nahate, Shurite and Tomarite for Karate, but back then we didn’t say Nahate, we simply said Toudi.” - This is from Yagi’s 2000 autobiography Otoku Meitoku no Jinsei Gekyo (“The Life Drama of the Man, Meitoku.), translation by Mario McKenna.

Re Miyagi’s writings – In the discussion between Sadao Sakai, Meitoku Yagi and Gogen Yamaguchi in the booklet published on the 25th anniversary of Chojun Myagi’s death, Yamaguchi commented: “You see, I always wanted to read what Miyagi Sensei had written, a book. I asked him whether he had written anything. However, he had never written a book, never left his own writings. I asked Miyagi Sensei to write a book which would help us in our training, and Miyagi Sensei said, “Yamaguchi-kun, writing a book about Karate is a very serious task. The book has to be complete and thorough both from budo and zen perspectives. It has to be a work that cannot be criticized. One must live with Goju Ryu.” (Brian Sekiya, who translated the transcript of the discussion, noted that in the last sentence Yamaguchi quoted the words “Matomenai kagiri yarenai”, the direct translation of which would be “Cannot be done without following.”Miyagi may have felt that he still had more learning to do.)

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