Exclusive Footage: The Secret “Bushi” Matsumora Yashiki

I’m in Okinawa.

We’re driving to a secret spot, located in Nago, two hours from Shuri Castle.

Suddenly, we steer away from the highway.

We are driving in small alleys, jungle surrounding us on both sides, and houses are rare in this area. I think I saw three. People are obviously not used to foreigners in cars either, because they look pretty surprised.

The road is becoming more narrow.

Up, up, up a big slope. More dense jungle.

I have my hand on the door, ready to bust it open and throw myself out stuntman style if the car starts to roll backwards.

(Yes, I watch too many action movies.)

STOP THE CAR!

“What?”

Don’t tell me you don’t see it.

Really?

You don’t see one of the best kept secret places in Okinawan Karate history (approximately three people have been to this place) hidden in the vegetation?

Look closer.

I’ll help you.

Yeah.

That’s right.

A small stone pillar.

(“wow… was that an anti-climax or what?”)

This is really nerdy stuff. It’s hard to make an old stone pillar sound cool. Most people have no interest in this.

But I do. And you should too.

You see, that’s the stone pillar marking the secret hideout of legendary Karate pioneer (and all-around folk hero) Kousaku Matsumora (1829-1898) – one of the principal teachers of masters like Kyan Chotoku, Choki Motobu et al, who held the noble rank of “chikudon peichin”. He is responsible for passing on the foundations for many of our most popular kata of today, including Chinto/Gankaku, Passai/Bassai, Wansu/Empi, Naihanchin/Tekki, Rohai/Meikyo, Wankan etc…

I visited his public stone monument in Tomari before (conveniently located in the middle of a playground!).

But this was anything but public.

We stepped out of the car.

My local undercover contact had first heard about this place from one of his acupuncture patients, who originally comes from this area of Nago. He had told him that when he was a small kid, they used to play around here, and he remembered the stone because it had the words “bushi” (“warrior”) inscribed in it.

“Bushi” Matsumora Kosaku.

He thought it might be interesting.

Immediately, my undercover contact called me (this was last week!), and up until today; only me, my secret Okinawan ninja spy, and that old man knew about the significance of this place.

And now… you!

Soon, however, I have a feeling that every historian/researcher in Okinawa will be searching frantically for this place (remember where you saw it first!), wanting to document it in their works.

Well, let’s spare them the trip, shall we?

Here’s a close-up:

Put that in your fancy history books! HA!

So, why is this Kosaku Matsumora stone pillar here in the middle of nowehere?

Well, the story goes something like this…

At the age of 20, already an accomplished Tomari-te martial artist, Matsumora stole a sword out of the hands of an angry Satsuma overlord using only a “wet towel” as a weapon (at least that’s what the legend says). Matsumora hit the samurai with the wet towel and managed to grab the sword, which is pretty insulting to a samurai.

In the process, Matsumora apparently lost a thumb. He threw the thumb and he sword in the nearby Asato River (!), and then fled to Nago. Another story says that he simply killed the samurai, and therefore had to escape. But I guess some stories should be kept secret (who wants to trace her lineage to a killer?!).

This event led Matsumora to become a folk-hero over night, as well as a sought after criminal by the Japanese rulers.

So, to Nago he fled – and stayed here for 3-4 years.

Actually, this story of Matsumora killing a samurai is very famous in Okinawan folklore, and is retold in musicals and theater performances everywhere.

The locals in Nago were of course very honored by this visitor, and promised to remain silent of his whereabouts to the authorities. After he went back to Tomari, they erected this small stone monument to remember the noble visitor who once live there.

Yup.

Matsumora’s house was actually right here, to the left:

Obviously, it is a pretty overgrown place, but if our calculations are right, it should be right there (opposite to the stone pillar, which is on the right of the road). Behind the bushes and trees the ground is perfectly even.

In Japanese, this is referred to as the Matsumora yashiki (“yashiki” means something like residence/estate/grounds).

BOOM!

And there you have it.

From one Karate Nerd to another.

Greetings from Okinawa! 🙂

8 Comments

  • andi
    hahaaaaa!!! you did it again! I feel I need to recommend you for the Indiana Jones Medal of Excellence. :O) BTW, the old calligraphic style of the kanji on the post is intruiging. Although simple at the first glance, it's very artful! However, as far as I'm correctly informed, this style is not practiced anymore today. Need to look up my encyclopedia on the exact time-frame an area of usage. And also, this can be seen as a resemblance to the Karate Kata of that time. It's the same Kata today, but the characteric peculiarities of that old time style were maybe lost someday. Anyway, thanks for yet another phantastic read! Ganbatte kudasai. Oh, and here's my forecast: For reasons unknown to the local University of Economics, Nago's earnings from increasing tourism started to rise in late 2010. I think about setting up a vending machine at the place...
    • Lara Orhon
      maybe it can be real
  • Igor
    keychains! ::)
  • Szilard
    A good story again. And it is interesting you mentioned pinan no sai. Back in the late 80s when I first tried to learn some sai skills, the second and fourth kata we learned were pinan nidan and sandan no sai. When I asked my sensei what about the other 3 Pinan kata, he said they are for tonfa. He learned his sai from his grandfather who was an airplane engineer in Japan during the second world war, part of a German group of military engineering advisors, he spent over 5 years there, and that is when he learned martial arts. And that is all I know about his lineage. Anyways, I still practice those kata. I liked my sensei a lot, so even if his sai kata collection is an absolutely fake made-up set, and we were "fooled" by his grandfather, just because of respect I would practice them as long as I live.
  • lionel
    Nice. The quotes from the kobudo sensei are... ok, I'll re-use the word... heavy. In these quotes, I hear echoes what Hohan Soken said of TS in this interview: http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=426 (at the bottom, be sure to click on to part 2). Now I feel I should connect the two in a koan-ish way... How about: "If you are trying to find the beginning of a circle, you're not on its path."
  • Adrian
    is this the same as matsumura sokon? Teacher of anko itosu? In Shotokans secret matsumura and matsumora were two different people. Or is something lost in translation? help jess im confused
  • robert
    Jesse, so to clarify, cause i was confused before. This sensei Matsumora is " Bushi " Matsumora who taught Itosu Sensei, kata line Naifunchin, etc but Itosu also learned from Sokon Matsumura, but Sokon was not " Bushi " ? because other Internet sources call him Bushi ? What did Sokon pass on ?

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