Dear all WMKA & EMKA Dojo Owners,
This year is almost over and you must be very busy reviewing the year and preparing for next year. This year was a very sad and painful year for all of us. We lost Soke Takayoshi Nagamine on April 25, 2012. Soke Nagamine’s personal value and value as a great karate Master was proved and recognized by the magazine article in the famous Official Karate magazine’s November 2012 fall edition. As I stated in my previous message, we need your support and cooperation to preserve and continue his legacy and Matsubayashi-ryu Karate-Do around the world.
As you know, Soke was able to do all of the communications between Okinawa and overseas by himself. He also hosted everyone who came to Okinawa to practice karate by himself. We were completely lost after his passing away in April. Though we reorganized our Okinawa Headquarters and started to follow Soke’s procedures to run the WMKA & EMKA, it was both hard and slow in learning. It took us a lot of time to understand the WMKA & EMKA systems and to know all the Dojo Owners around the world. We resumed our paper work starting in September. Everyone who comes to Okinawa wants to practice karate twice a day and six days a week. Because none of the teachers here can host them alone, we have been sharing the burden of hosting them since July. We are glad to host your karate practice in Okinawa anytime.
Under the present situation in Okinawa, I regrettably have to announce that we are not ready to open a World Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-Do Seminar in Okinawa in November, 2013. We know that Soke Nagamine enthusiastically talked about it and actively worked for another World Karate-do Seminar in Okinawa. We will do our best to run the WMKA & EMKA for a while and in this next year we will study when the best time will be to hold the next World Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-Do Seminar here in Okinawa. We always welcome and encourage your own Karate-Do seminars in your countries.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I pray for you the best in 2013.
President Yoshitaka Taira
World Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate-Do Association