Written legacies of old karate masters are extremely rare. A note attributed to Yabu Kentsū 屋部憲通 (1866–1937) was shared by a well-known antique dealer from Okinawa. Here, Yabu is said to describe the route he took from Hawaii back to Okinawa in 1927. He may have recorded it for Miyagi Hisateru 久輝宮城 (1895–1991), a graduate of the Okinawa Normal School in 1916 who later started a career as a journalist and book author who had himself been to Hawaii in 1927. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about it. All attempts to correspond properly with the owner of the note and even to meet him in Okinawa were unfortunately unsuccessful.
Photo source: Ryubun21
Investigations into the history of karate 