26/05/2026
Here my review:
You may feel familiar with some of the contents of this publication, some of these texts can be found online, but I can tell you that the experience of having the famous essays in one publication altogether with other texts and perdinal accounts regarding Miyagi Chojun Sensei feels completely different.
The feeling of perspective and contextual situation when reading it in this format felt completely new to me in the most positive way. In one of the texts, Miyagi’s own words invite his students to “visit and ask the old masters as they are still alive…” being of course possible in those times…we sadly do not have such an opportunity and as we know, grim circumstances destroyed many valuable documents and historical assets and left us with many questions.
Many times I have rechecked online for those small pieces of info regarding Miyagi Sensei and for his own words regarding Karate Do. Not only are those now readily available for whenever I need but complemented in many ways with translations of documents, articles, letters…in which we get the most complete account of the master’s thoughts and feelings towards Karate do, about his character from people who knew him, about the training being done on that time, all plagued with very familiar names that will bring up smiles in every Karate Bakka out there🙈
This book will give you a glimpse of the times, a feeling of understanding of some of the whys and hows and certainly a better understanding of the founder of Goju ryu and of the history of Karate do.
Karate has many flavours and those who know me know I am never that caught up with studying the history of things as I prefer other facets of the arts. This being said I am extremely grateful for those who do and help us understand better what we do and were we come from as it is of paramount importance as part of the preservation of the arts. Thank you Filip for sharing your work, I am glad Elias put you up with this project, you must always listen to your Dr. 😛
If you want to get a glimpse of Miyagi sensei’s thoughts and times, this is your book.