At 25 years of age, after having practice Matsubayashi-ryu for 10 years, I decided to see the original source of inspiration behind shorin-ryu. Before my journey to Okinawa i was told many stories about Osensei, "oh he passed away a long time ago...", or "oh he only teaches in secret", but at this time in my life I had already dedicated my life to teaching Matsubayashi-ryu and needed to find him in order to learn how does one guide a deishi for an entire lifetime, from start to finish?
I arrived in Okinawa, tired and hungry after the 24 hour journey, but my spirits were lifted the minute I set foot on the island. This was where it all started! The history, the atmosphere, the magic of karate was all around me.
Instead of going straight to a hotel, I went searching for the home dojo. That wasn't hard at all - it seemed that *everyone* knew Grandmaster Nagamine. All I had to do was get someone to write out his name in japanese, and hand it to my taxi cab driver... "Nagamine dojo?" and I answered yes yes...
|
I had a personal interview with him that day, and after answering all his questions he put me to the first challenge, I would be going to train with him alone at 5am! That seemed wonderful enough to me, however as I was staying at a youth hostel I woke up, put on my gi, and went to the front doors (automatic glass sliding doors) only to find them locked!
I searched everywhere to find someone but no one came to my aid. I was frantic looking at my watch knowing that even to be a minute late would be terrible. My feelings were the same as being stuck in a nightmare.
At this moment I reached deep inside and said no! I will do whatever it takes to get out of here, so I started going into random places trying all doors, sure enough I found the staff sleeping section and found a door to the outside! Running I caught a taxi and made it to the dojo in time.
Grandmaster kept me on this schedule for many weeks before he changed it to 5:30am, I never missed a keiko in those six months with him except once...when I seriously sprained my ankle and could not walk. The next day I hobbled to a taxi and had them take me to the dojo...and even though I could only use one leg I still did karate. I never heard him ask about an absentee keiko to any person except to me .."where were you?" I explained to him my injury and he put medicine on my ankle.
|
My first weeks at the hombu I was in awe... it struck me that I was training with GRANDMASTER - a legend of a man, whom I had only read about in books! He was friendly and courteous, and on occasion quite funny in a mischievous kind of way. Even though I was so dead tired after each keiko I faithfully kept a karate journal of all interviews, conversations, and kata corrections from Grandmaster and other senior sensei.
The stories and statements here are things as I experienced them. To the best of my knowledge, they are completely factual, and show a side of Okinawan karate that we westerners don't often get to see. I hope you'll enjoy my memories.
Lara Wendy Preston
next entry -->
|
