7. Travel (A)

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By Graham Noble

Miyagi began teaching sometime after Higaonna’s death, but it’s not clear exactly when; the histories are vague on this. There is a reference to Juhatsu Kyoda beginning to teach karate at the Second Okinawan Prefectural Junior High School in 1919, the year the school opened, and I imagine Miyagi too would have been teaching around then, and probably before, if only informally. Genkai Nakaima recalled that when he began training with Miyagi in 1923 he “was already famous at that time.” His reputation continued to grow and he was soon recognised as one of the leaders of karate on Okinawa. Besides teaching at his home, Miyagi taught at the Naha Commercial School (where Kanryo Higaona had taught years before), the Okinawan Police Academy, and (in 1938, following the death of Kentsu Yabu) the Prefectural Teachers College. According to the article “A View on the Beginning of Karate at Schools During the Meiji Era” by Shinji Ichihara and Yoshio Yen, Miyagi said that he had begun teaching karate at the Okinawa Prefectural Institute (School) for the Training of Policemen in 1922. Ichihara and Yen wrote that it was sometime later, in April 1933, that karate was adopted as a regular subject of martial arts to be taught to policemen, and they quoted from an old (1930s) Okinawan newspaper article by Gichin Funakoshi, “On Including Karate in Martial Arts for Policemen.” The article read: “It was the idea of Police Director Takazaki to include karate in the regular curriculum of martial arts training for policemen. It is highy welcome. It was rather strange that karate, a unique art of this prefecture, which is most appropriate both for physical and mental training was omitted from the regular curriculum of martial arts. It is a welcome fact for the sake of the art of karate of this prefecture that, with the initiative of Takazaki, head of karate society, karate has now officially been included in the curriculum of martial arts. Thus, together with the implementation of new work rules, it will provide a fresh stimulus to the police etablishments of this prefecture.”

Ichihara and Yen note that “This article shows that Chojun Miyagi was an instructor of the karate club at the Okinawa Prefectural Training School for Policemen since 1922 and proves at the same time that karate was officially taught as a part of the education of policemen.

“Karate started being practiced at the Police Training school as a club activity in 1922. In April 1933 it was included in the curriculum of martial arts for policemen.”

Miyagi, incidentally, always had a good relationship with the Police and quite a few of his students had careers as policemen, probably with his initial help. Seko Higa, Jinan Shinzato, Yusei Tamaki, Meitoku Yagi and Eichi Miyazato all served in the police force.

In 1926 Miyagi got together with other well known karate teachers to form a karate club, the Tode Kenkyu Club. We can date this from an old newspaper clipping from “The Okinwawan Times” of 31 January, 1926, which reads: “As previously reported, karate masters Miyagi Chojun, Motobu Choyu and others, are constructing a research hall in the rear of Mr. Kishimoto's House in Wakasa to spread the art of karate. The construction is to be completed shortly. In mid-February, a celebration will be held, both for the inauguration of the club and for the completion of the hall. Although the hall is only 15 Tsubo (about 50 square metres), further expansion is planned.”

The members (teachers) of the Tode Kenkyu Club . . . . Genkai Nakaima said that, besides Miyagi and Choyu Motobu, the experts who participated in the Club were Choki Motobu, Juhatsu Kyoda, Kenwa Mabuni, Taizo Tabara, and Shinpan Shiroma. It is generally accepted that Go Ken Ki was also a member. Takao Nakaya gives a longer list but states that in practice the main teachers were Miyagi and Mabuni. Morio Higaonna wrote that the Club’s four shihans were Miyagi, Choyu Motobu, Chomo Hanashiro, and Kenwa Mabuni, with Choyu Motobu acting as superintendent of the dojo. In any case, the formation of the Club was a unique venture for the karate world of that time, a bringing together of some of the best instructors on Okinawa. Nakaima remembered that he, Tatsutoku Sakiyama (Tatsutoku Senaha), Kiju Nanjo (Kiju Azama), Kogyu Tazaki, Kamade Yagi (who later moved to South America), and Seiko Kina trained at the Club. These were all Chojun Miyagi students and no doubt Miyagi used it as his dojo, but otherwise we know very little about training at the Club and attendance levels. There must have been problems though because it lasted for just a couple of years, or less: Morio Higaonna says it folded in 1929. Maybe, as is usually the case with such ventures, the different masters didn’t work together too well, but in the end it seems to have been financial pressures which brought about its closure. The Club had been established with a bank loan, but then after a time the repayments couldn’t be met and the loan was called in. According to Morio Higaonna, Go Ken Ki, who had provided a guarantee for the loan, saw Chojun Miyagi about the situation, and in the end Miyagi had to sell his house to pay off the club debts. I have no idea if that is true or not, but it does seem that the failure of the Tode Kenkyu Club had been an unhappy experience for Miyagi. In a 1989 interview with Eichi Miyazato, Bob Honiball wrote that “About sixty two years ago Miyagi Sensei tried to organise all of the various styles with the idea of trying to borrow money to build a dojo. However, this fell through. After this, Miyagi Sensei advised Miyazato Sensei never to do the same.” At any rate, the experiment was never repeated.

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