8th Annual Soke Takayoshi Nagamine Memorial Event at Cocoa Beach Karate, Florida.

On the weekend of August 2nd and 3rd 2019, Cocoa Beach Karate (CBK) hosted their 8th annual Soke Takayoshi Nagamine Memorial Event to remember and honor Soke and the Matsubayashi karate-do legacy. Soke visited Cocoa Beach last in 2011 and CBK was  set for another visit in 2012 before his untimely and sad passing. Since CBK was already all set up for a seminar, they decided to hold the event as a memorial to Soke, and have been doing same every year since then.

This year’s event ran over two days, with the biggest group of deshii on Saturday when just over 50 karateka attended from all over Florida as well as New York, Virginia and Canada. Many thanks to WMKA  senseis Steve Trombley, 7th Dan, Kyoshi and Angelo Mazza, 7th Dan, Kyoshi as well as to all other Matsubayashi karateka for coming to support the event and to Trombley sensei for conducting segments of the weekend.

On both days the workout commenced with the traditional Nagamine Matsubayashi junbi undo (warm ups), followed by kihon undo and then group kata and some oyo bunkai applications previously taught by Soke. The last part of the event was dedicated to the classical traditional Matsubayashi 18 kata, with special demos by rank, and by dojo. The final session included demos by different dojos of various kobudo katas.

We all strive to honor the Nagamine legacy of Matsubayashi karate do and in closing, we read this quote from Soke: “My father and master used to say ‘Those who learn karate-do should acquire not only a technique of self-defense but also train your mind and body in creative karate-do in order to develop and aim at an evolution of spirit”