was a prominent

Okinawan karate Okinawan may refer to: * Something of or relating to: ** Okinawa Island ** Okinawa Islands ** Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawan language, an endangered language spoken by the people of Okinawa Island * Okinawan people, a subgroup of the Ryukyuan peop ...

master and also at times a

Naha City is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area ...

Councilman and a Criminal Investigator for the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

.M. Bishop, Okinawan Karate Teachers, styles and secret techniques, Tuttle Publishing, p. 79,

Early life

Takayoshi was born in

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area i ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

as the son of

Shoshin Nagamine ''Shoshin'' ( ja, text=初心) is a concept from Zen Buddhism meaning beginner's mind. It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying, even at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. The ...

, the founder of Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-do. He commenced training in Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-do under his father's tutelage at the age of seven years.

Career

At the direction of his father, and in order to help the development of Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-do world-wide, Takayoshi went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at the age of 20, in the late 1960s, and opened a

dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

in Cincinnati, Ohio. Takayoshi Nagamines' original students to achieve black belt in the United States included Jim Driggs, Rick Kemper, Al Rozier, Bill George, Dave Williams, Bill Weiss and Steve Rafferty. Nagamine Sensei also taught clinics and seminars in the Midwest

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

region and around the

until he returned to Okinawa in 1979.M Okinawan Karate Teachers, styles and secret techniques, Tuttle Publishing, The Life of Soke Nagamine (A Simple Man) Takayoshi returned to

in order to assist his father,

with the running of the World Honbu

Dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

and the World Matsubayashi-ryu (Shorin-ryu) Karate-do Association (WMKA). In 1991,

retired from running the Matsubayashi-ryu organisation and in a speech passed the leadership on to his son, Takayoshi. In 1992 Takayoshi called together senior instructors in Okinawa and the United States and formed what is now known as the World Matsubayashi-ryu (Shorin-ryu) Karate-do Association (WMKA). In 1997 after his father's death, Takayoshi took the position as the second

Sōke , pronounced , is a Japanese term that means "the head family ouse" In the realm of Japanese traditional arts, it is used synonymously with the term ''iemoto''. Thus, it is often used to indicate "headmaster" (or sometimes translated as "head of t ...

(head) of the Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-do system. Soke Nagamine moved from the US in 2004 leaving to return to Okinawa to administrate the WMKA. In October 2008, Takayoshi was promoted to the rank of

Hanshi The Japanese language makes use of a system of honorific speech, called , which includes honorific suffixes and prefixes when referring to others in a conversation. Suffixes are often gender-specific at the end of names, while prefixes are att ...

sei 10th Dan in Matsubayashi-ryu. Takayoshi coordinated and participated in the development, establishment and teaching at dojos throughout the world including, but not limited to

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Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagamine, Takayoshi 1945 births 2012 deaths People from Naha Shōrin-ryū practitioners