Homage: Yagi Meitetsu O’Sensei
“Nothing worthy has ever been achieved without perseverance. Endure. Always endure.”
These were one of many mottos Meitetsu O’Sensei shared in his classes. It was his way of saying don’t give up. If so and so can do it, so can you. O’Sensei passed away on June 29th, 2024. His birth certificate says January 1, 1949 but the exact date is actually unknown since Okinawa was still rebuilding after the Battle of Okinawa and WWII. As a result, the date is a clerical misnomer due to the record keeping standards of the time. Growing up in post WWII Naha, he witnessed the redevelopment of Okinawa from poverty to a thriving modern city as well as the evolution of Okinawa Karate.
O’Sensei’s funeral was well attended. The start of the ceremony began with a line stretching out through front doors, up the second floor, and along a processional hallway . It was well attended with Okinawa’s prefectural head and dozens of karate royalty of 10 dans and below. His son, Ippei Sensei organized the ceremony and wake. His eulogy to his father was stoic with a small break of emotion. I didn’t have to understand the language to know how much he loved and respected his father. In addition to myself, in attendance from Canada was the Yagi Dojo international representative, Richard Fall.
Before tournaments, coloured belts, use of bogu, and karate gi, Karate in Okinawa was practiced in a cotton fundoshi. Over the decades, it would transition to a judogi then to a karategi. Meitetsu O’Sensei would have witnessed all these changes throughout his life. It was important to him however to teach the way his father taught him. To be a window into the past. Those used to modern training methods or perhaps those who practiced karate outside of Okinawa would find learning karate at the Meibukan Hombu under Meitetsu O’Sensei unfamiliar. Kumite without equipment was normal. As was a hours of yakusoku kumite drills to condition the body. His curriculum was focused on toughening the body while toughening the human spirit. “Endure”, he would often say in class. “Endure”.
Now that he is no longer physically with us, it has become more evident to me, how much he impacted my life. As I coach my athletes today, I include the importance of perseverance in my speeches. Along with a dozen other unique mottos, my athletes are successful as they are due to the teachings of my Sensei. Distilled to their essence, the Meibukan spirit continues on from a lineage stemming from his father Dai Sensei Yagi Meitoku through O’Sensei to Ippei Sensei and the next generations after. It flourishes through the Meibuken Kata and its unique yakusoku kumite drills.
While I am sad that his is gone, I am forever grateful to have shared a short path of his life with him. Over 30 years and 1000’s hours spent with him, I know it is and was never enough. He is and always will be my Sensei.
