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—Patrick McCarthy

Director, International Ryukyu Karate Research Society

Author’s Preface

It was February of 1975 that my modest book, Okinawan Karate-do: The Preservation of a Traditional Legacy, was first published by Shinjinbutsuorai-sha in Tokyo. Much to my surprise the book met with such popularity that I was asked to have it translated into English, a task completed by Professor Shinzato Katsuhiko. The English version was published and released in October of the same year by the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company under the new tide The Essence of Okinawan Karate-do. I received many letters of encouragement from karate enthusiasts from all over the world.

Shoshin Nagamine

Many of the letters asked me if I would consider writing about the lives of Okinawa’s old bujin. This, coupled with similar requests I had received over the years from both students and colleagues, prompted me to think seriously about such a project. Most of the historical documentation about such men is believed to be greatly embellished and uncorroborated. Examples of such things include stalwarts able to swing their way across the beams of a ceiling using only the fingertips; men able to, with a single blow, rip the flesh from the body of a living ox; a tiny man able to kick a barrel full of sugar up onto a cart with only his foot; and karate men able to splinter jumbo stalks of green bamboo by simply seizing them by hand.