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The violent seas had blown the tiny vessel hundreds of miles north off its course, and, when the storm died down two days later, the ship had drifted to Satsuma. Accommodated by the Satsuma Ryukyukan (Okinawa’s foreign outpost), passengers and crew were able to recuperate and recount the paralyzing experience at the hands of Mother Nature. Everyone was filled with admiration for Matsumura. None had ever witnessed, or even heard of, such tranquil composure under such perilous conditions. The mind of a real bujin was indeed a powerful thing, and Matsumura Sokon was venerated.

THE PEN AND THE SWORD

After the war I discovered that Kuwae Ryokei, the first son of Kuwae Ryosei, had returned to Okinawa from Taiwan. Having gone to Taiwan before the war, Kuwae Ryosei is regarded as the last prominent disciple of Matsumura Sokon. I had heard that Ryokei possessed a makimono (scroll) in Matsumura’s original handwriting, and now that he was back in Okinawa I was anxious to examine it. Hence, I visited him at his home in Shuri’s Torihori-cho in 1951. In addition to allowing me to study the scroll, Ryokei was kind enough to allow me to document my research photographically. Learning of my genuine regard for karate-do and the moral precepts on which it rests, Kuwae Ryokei encouraged me to write about Matsumura Sokon, and the principles for which he stood.