My Journey to Okinawa

Group Photo in the Hombu Dojo

Every Martial Artist who practices Karate has the ultimate dream of going to Okinawa to train. People train really hard their entire lives and build up to train in Okinawa but I was fortunate enough to receive this opportunity very early in my Martial Arts career.


Since I started training in Karate in 2010, I had the dream of going to Japan. There was always something about this place that intrigued me, even before my training began. It could have been the fact that I was a huge Batman fan and in the comics Bruce Wayne the alter ego of Batman travels to Japan for Martial Arts training. I made a promise to myself that no matter how long it took, I would go to Japan  at least once in my life.


But Japan doesn't let you do that, you can't just go there once. People who have traveled there fall in love with the place and many decide to move there permanently. It has this effect on you. Japan mesmerizes you. I went there to train with the Yagi family as a Brown belt and they welcomed me with open arms and treated me like family. I wish I had the space for all the stories, I could write pages for all the amazing things that happened to me.


I plan on going back in 2017 as a Black belt for a seminar that takes place every 5 years in Naha, where members of the Meibukan organization gather from around the world. Naha receives thousands of Martial Artists from almost 15 different countries for this seminar. It's a family made by blood and sweat.

Some Friend's I made on my Amazing Journey

Okinawa's Lion Guardian

Okinawa: The Birthplace of Karate

Entrance to Okinawa Prefecture Museum

In today's post, I want to talk about Okinawa, the place that gave us Karate. I want to talk about the history of the island and how Karate came to be. The Okinawan islands are the most southern part of Japan which is made up of thousands of small islands.

These islands are called Prefectures. The Okinawa prefecture is a hub of tourists. Many of the tourists are there to enjoy the warm climate and the beaches which Okinawa has no shortage of but there is a group of tourists that is there for a deeper purpose and that is to find the roots of any style of Karate they practice. Okinawa is the base for all styles of Karate. It is where it all started.

The headquarters for most of the world's biggest Karate organizations are in Naha, Okinawa. So how did Martial Art come to be? People living on the island were not allowed to carry Katanas( Samurai Swords) so they had to learn how to defend themselves from raiders and thieves. This was purpose Karate was invented by mixing Chinese Martial Arts and local forms of self-defense called Naha-te.

Okinawa was taken over by the Satsuma Samurai clan of Japan and it was forbidden for commoners to carry Samurai weapons. The local people found a very effective way of defending themselves by inventing not only Karate but by also turning everyday utensils into weapons. The practice of weaponry if called Kubodo.

A Chinese Scholar, Chinese Gardens, Naha

Takashiki Island, Okinawa

Training With Sensei Akihito Yagi

A poster of Sensei Akihito Yagi's film 

One of the biggest honours I have had while training in Karate is that I have had the chance to train with Sensei Akihito Yagi. Akihito Yagi is the grandson of Sensei Meitoku Yagi, the inventor of Meibukan Goju Ryu Karate. He is the current president and he took the position from his father Meitatsu Yagi.

One of Sensei Akihito’s responsibilities is to go to different countries to promote the Meibukan organization. He leaves Japan for almost 8 months a year to conduct seminars and make sure that Karate is being practiced properly in the satellite dojos.

I have had the opportunity to train with Sensei Akihito many times. The reason training with him is so special is because he has been given the responsibility of carrying on the Meibukan tradition and he has to make sure that it survives.

Sensei Akihito Yagi is also a Martial Arts actor appearing in 4 films and he is also a part of a rock band called RyuKyu free style. Sensei Akihito started training with his grandfather when he was 3. 

He is currently 38 years old and is and 8^th degree black belt. He has dedicated his life to making sure that his grandfather’s teachings live on.

Even with all his accomplishments, Sensei Akihito is one of the most down to earth people one can ever meet. He has no ego and he is a very good teacher. Taking a seminar with him is one of the best learning experiences for any Martial Artist. 

Me in the Home Dojo in Okinawa

Sensei Akihito in Canada

Meibukan Goju Ryu Karate

Meibukan Home Dojo, Okinawa

Goju-Ryu Karate is perhaps the most popular style of Karate and roughly translates to Hard-soft style. It has numerous organizations around the world that practice it. Even Japanese movie star Sonny Chiba holds a Black Belt in Goju Karate. The tricky part to understand is though that each Karate style has different organizations and they all practice it a different way, which results in even more sub-styles.

The easiest way to explain this is that Karate is a tree with many branches and Goju-Ryu is one of them and then smaller branches are coming out of this big branch which the sub-styles of Goju-Ryu Karate. Goju-Ryu Karate was invented by a man named Chojun Miyagi who had many students and each one of them went onto teaching Karate themselves.

But they all had a different understanding of Miyagi taught, thus creating their own style based on the teachings of Miyagi. When Chojun Miyagi passed away, his uniform and Black Belt were given to his top student Meitoku Yagi by Miyagi’s family.

This meant that he had been chosen to carry on the teachings of his Sensei. A Sensei is not only a teacher, but a father figure, a guide, and an example to follow. Yagi went onto creating his own school which he called Meibukan Goju-Ryu Karate. Meibukan translates to “House of the Pure Minded Warrior”. Yagi went back to Chinese roots of Karate and incorporated more “soft” or “open hand” techniques into his style unlike his contemporaries who were more focused on punches and kicks. More on Meibukan Goju in the next post. Here is the link to the organization's website,http://www.imgka.com/.

Sensei Akihito Yagi in St. Catharines

Road sign to Home Dojo in Okinawa