SHINDEN

Our Forefathers, Founders, Masters and Leaders.

GRAND MASTER SHOSHIN NAGAMINE

Grand Master Nagamine was born in Tomari, in Naha City, Okinawa. He was a small and sickly child, and he contracted a gastroenteric disorder in 1926, his second year of high school. He began a self-imposed diet and took up karate under the watchful eye of his next-door neighbor, Chojin Kuba. Nagamine soon became a picture of good health, crediting his recovery to "hard work both at school and training of Karate." His health improved to such an extent that he became a leader of the school's karate club, and his friends dubbed him Chaippaii Matsu, a nickname meaning "tenacious pine tree". After graduation in March 1928, he began to study martial arts full time, moving to Shuri City and training under Taro Shimabuku and Ankichi Arakaki. Later that year, he was conscripted into the Japanese army in the 47th Infantry Division, and fought in China before receiving an honorable discharge in 1931.

Leaving the army, Nagamine sought an area in which his martial arts abilities would be useful, eventually settling on the police force. During his time as a police officer, Nagamine received further instruction in karate from Chotoku Kyan and Motobu Choki, and achieved the title of Renshi in 1940. By 1951, Nagamine was a Police Superintendent, of Motobu, and was training his own officers in karate.

Nagamine retired as a policeman in 1952, and in 1953 he returned to Naha City and set up his own dojo, which he named "Matsubayashi-Ryu Kododan Karate and Ancient Martial Arts Studies". From the dojo he taught Matsubayashi-ryu, a karate school he had invented in 1947, and named in honor of Sokon Matsumura and Kosaku Matsumora. He continued to teach the discipline until his death in 1997.

MASTER 'SOKE' TAKAYOSHI NAGAMINE

Soke Takayoshi Nagamine is the son of Osensei Shoshin Nagamine. Soke Nagamine holds the rank of 9th dan and is dedicated to preserving the teachings of Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate throughout the world.

Soke Nagamine resides in Naha, Okinawa and teaches at the Kodokan Nagamine Karate Dojo, the general headquarters of the World Matsubayshi-Ryu Karate-Do Association (WMKA).

'KYOSHI' DON CAPONIGRO

Kyoshi Don Caponigro is the President of the North American Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-do Association. Kyoshi Caponigro began his martial arts training in 1965 in the Japanese style of Koeikan Karate-do in New Jersey under Ed Kaloudis and Ezo Onishi. He started his path in Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-do in 1970 when he left N.J. and moved to South Florida. Kyoshi Caponigro received his Shodan in 1977 in Matsubayashi-Ryu and opened his first dojo in 1980. Kyoshi also received his Nidan in 1981, Sandan in 1985, Yondan in 1990, Godan in 1995, Rokudan in 2000, and Shichidan in 2008. As a direct student of Master Takayoshi Nagamine and Hanshi Frank Grant, Kyoshi received all his dan ranks from either Grand Master Nagamine or Master Nagamine. When he received his 6th dan (Renshi) in 2000 at the age of 39 it made him the youngest non-Okinawan to ever be promoted to this rank (according to Master Nagamine). Kyoshi Caponigro, has trained under many other notable Okinawan instructors from Matsubayashi-Ryu as well as Shogo Kuniba, Teruo Hayashi, and Fumio Demura from the Shito-ryu system. Kyoshi has also had extensive training in Judo and Kendo.

Kyoshi Caponigro has been training in for 42 years and teaching for 29 years. For the last 15 years Kyoshi has conducted clinics and seminars around the country for Matsubayashi-Ryu dojos and associations as well as other styles of karate and various Police departments. As a result of these clinics, Kyoshi observed the lack of quality instruction and training the students and instructors were receiving and decided to establish a place where quality instruction, philosophy, and traditional Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-Do can be taught without the negative political agendas and where good hard training and studying is the backbone.

In 2008 that place has now been established, it is the North American Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-Do Association.

CHOTOKU KYAN

Kyan's father, Chofu Kyan, was a high-ranking official under the Okinawan king. As a youth, Chotoku Kyan was small and sickly, plagued with asthma and poor eyesight. This may have led to his nickname Chan Migwa, (squinty-eyed Chan). In an effort to strengthen his son's constitution, the elder Kyan enrolled his eight year old son in the most grueling martial arts training available, from many different masters, many of whom taught different (and possibly contradictory) styles. According to biographer Richard Kim, Kyan underwent training "that would have done justice to a Zen temple." This training did indeed improve Kyan's health, but it is believed that he developed a tremendous sense of rage at this austere life of training forced upon him. Kyan was small in stature, and instead of meeting his enemies head-on, preferred to side step the attack, and respond with vital-point attacks. Indeed, all of the Kyan legends state that he never lost a fight, due to his extensive training both with and without weapons.

Many legends also speak of Kyan as a brutal fighter who had little concern for his opponent's long term health.

It is interesting to note that there seems to be two wildly different views of Kyan’s life: one of the stern disciplinarian master, focusing on his martial skills; and another account of a brutally violent man who was caught up in the ways of the world, and had no problem killing an attacker.

Kyan once fought a 6th Dan Judo fighter who had challenged him to a friendly match. Kyan placed his thumb inside his opponents mouth and gripped the cheek with his other fingers while pulling the Judoka to the ground.

When fighting a local strongman, Kyan jumped out of a tree and broke his opponent's neck

Instead of teaching one static style, Kyan seems to have taught many different kata throughout his career, even prompting Clayton to note that “he seems to have taught every student something different. Anyone who preserves a Kyan kata is preserving something that Kyan himself eventually abandoned.” One of Kyan’s key students was Tatsuo Shimabuku, who is the creator of Isshin-ryu karate. Kyan survived the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, but starved to death afterwards. The legends say that Kyan gave his last portion of food to starving children.

ANKICHI ARAKAKI

Ankichi Arakaki was the first of 11 children. Ankichi was born in November 1899, in the Akata Village, Shuri. His family were sake (rice wine) brewers and, as such, enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle and eventually moved to the Tori-hori Village. Sensei Arakaki commenced his karate training at an early age, learning from Shinpan Gusukuma (his primary school teacher) and also Chomo Hanashiro (his junior high school teacher), before leaving school and intensifying his training under Chosin Chibana (founder of Kobayashi Shorin-ryu).

It was because of the wealth that his family enjoyed that Arakaki was able to devote a great deal of time to his training, and soon became very proficient, earning the nickname of 'Uwayaguwa Ankichi' (Ankichi of Uwayaguwa). His specialty was the development of the toe kick or tsumasaki-geri.

One story tells of the devastating effect of Arakaki's toe kick:

Once, when Sensei was around twenty years old, he and some friends were in a tea house in Tsuji drinking and having a good time. While getting up to go to leave, he accidentally bumped into a big man who insisted on picking a fight with him in the corridor on the second floor. Trying to ignore the man, Sensei was unable to get out of his way, which resulted in Sensei being shoved down the staircase. Being in such good physical condition, Arakaki was able to roll down the stairs avoiding injury. The enraged man leaped down the stairs and grabbed Arakaki by the arm, trying to yank him up in an effort to punch his face. Seizing the man's arm with the other hand, Sensei drove his toes deeply into the armpit of his attacker, which resulted in the man dropping to the ground unconscious.

Needless to say, Sensei never returned to that tea house again. About six months later, while reading the newspaper one morning, Ankichi was shocked to see a story which described some big wrestler who had died as a result of injuries sustained by "some karate expert" at a tea house in Tsuji. The article went on to say that "survived by two daughters, both of whom were serious judoka, the family sought to revenge the death of their beloved father". In spite of the man allegedly dying sometime after his encounter with Arakaki, the police were never called in, and a subsequent investigation was unable to provide the actual reason for his death.

Around 1921, after discharge from his military service, he moved to the village of Kadena. Unfortunately, due to the fact that his father had died and the family business was profoundly affected by the recession which followed World War I, Sensei Ankichi Arakaki contracted stomach ulcers and died on 28th December 1927. He was just 28 years old.

CHOKI MOTOBU

Motobu Choki was born in the Akahira village of Shuri, Okinawa. His father, Lord Motobu Choshin (Motobu Aji Chosin) was a descendent of the sixth son of the Okinawan King, Sho Shitsu (1629 - 1668), namely Sho Koshin, also known as Prince Motobu Chohei (1655 - 1687). As the last of three sons, Motobu Choki was not entitled to an education in his family's style of Te. Despite this Motobu was very interested in the art, spending much of his youth training on his own, hitting the makiwara, and lifting heavy stones to increase his strength. He is reported to have been very agile, which gained him the nickname "Motobu no Saru", Motobu the Monkey. Although he was reputed by his detractors to have been a violent and crude street fighter, with no formal training, Motobu was a student of several of Okinawa's most prominent karate practitioners. Anko Itosu (1831 - 1915), Sokon Matsumura(1809 - 1899),Sakuma Pechin, Kosaku Matsumora (1829 - 1898), and Tokumine Pechin (1860 - 1910) all taught Motobu at one time or another. Many teachers found his habit of testing his fighting prowess via street fights in the tsuji (red light district) undesirable, but his noble birth (as a descendant of the royal Okinawan Sho family) may have made it hard for them to refuse. Popular myth holds that Motobu only knew one kata, Naifanchi (Naihanchi). Although he favored this kata, and called it "the fundamental of karate," he also made comments on the practice of Passai, Chinto, and Rohai. Other sources describe Sanchin, Kusanku, and Ueseishi as having been part of his repertoire. He apparently developed his own kata, Shiro Kuma (White Bear), which seems not to have been handed down. Motobu lived and taught karate in Japan until 1941, when he returned to Okinawa, dying shortly thereafter. Prior to this, he had made several trips there to study orthodox kata and kobudo in an effort to preserve the traditional forms of the art.

After a number of failed business enterprises, Motobu moved to Osaka, Japan, in 1921. A friend convinced Motobu to enter a "boxing vs judo" match which was taking place. These matches were popular at the time, and often pitted a visiting foreign boxer against a jujutsu or judo man. According to an account of the fight from a 1925 King magazine article, Motobu is said to have entered into a challenge match with a foreign boxer, described as a Russian boxer or strongman. After a few rounds, Motobu moved in on the taller, larger boxer and knocked him out with a single hand strike to the head. Motobu was then 52 years old.

The King article detailed Motobu's surprising victory, although the illustrations clearly show Gichin Funakoshi as the Okinawan fighter in question. This publication error increased the bitter rivalry between the two men, and led to an apparent confrontation. The two were often at odds in their opinions about how karate ought to be taught and used.

The popularity generated by this unexpected victory propelled both Motobu and karate to a degree of fame that neither had previously known in Japan. Motobu was petitioned by several prominent individuals, including boxing champ "Piston" Horiguchi, to begin teaching. He opened a dojo, the Daidokan, where he taught until the onset of World War II in 1941. Motobu faced considerable difficulties in his teaching. Chief among those was his inability to read and speak mainland Japanese. Okinawan dialects are nearly incomprehensible to mainlanders.