MIYAGI CHOJUN

Much has been written about Miyagi Chojun and even more is known about his training doctrines through the profound legacy this great teacher left behind. Yet in seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the man and his personal ideologies, we find little testimony written by Miyagi Sensei himself hence, it is in the unprecedented discovery of this document that we are now able to further disclose the convictions of Miyagi Chojun, one of modern karate-do's most eminent authorities.

Dated the twenty-third of March 1934, this handwritten composition, by a forty-six-year-old Miyagi, was titled Karate-do Gaisetsu (An Outline of Karatedo [Chinese hand]. Composed just prior to his trip to Hawaii in April of 1934, Miyagi Sensei wrote this outline in an effort to introduce karate-do and provide a general explanation of its history, philosophy, and application.

It is no less interesting to observe that Miyagi Sensei, when writing the term karate-do, still employed the ideogram referring to "China" rather than using the modern kanji meaning "empty."