Yesterday, before my second training session, I spent some time in the Ōita Prefectural Library, a place I had never visited before. I have been, for example, dozens of times to the Okinawa Prefectural Library, but I had never gone to its Ōita counterpart.
Research in Okinawa is already very advanced. Many researchers have examined the material at a very high level; in fact, research in Okinawa is currently booming. Ironically, some sources in certain Western books are not as accurate as I would wish them to be. Given the notes and findings from the Okinawan side, it is much easier to locate information in the original sources—sources I have always tried to use. I am quite sure that there are many excellent translations of pre-war texts, for example by Motobu Naoki or Joe Swift, to name just a few. However, for me, the original text is always the primary goal, and I deeply believe that for my colleagues it is the same.
Now, returning to the Ōita Prefectural Library: as far as I know, no researcher has ever attempted to research the topic of Tō’on-ryū in Ōita and/or Beppu in any library. This was therefore a new experience, and I may well have been the first to conduct such research there. To my surprise, the newspapers are all available on microfilm. This was also the case in Okinawa when I went there in 2009; however, in recent years, the newspapers there have been printed out. After a short introduction to the microfilm machine, I became accustomed to exploring the newspapers, where I hoped to find relevant information.
After around three hours, I finished my research, and it was time to return to Beppu and prepare for my training. I found approximately one third of the material I was looking for. The remaining material is probably located in the Beppu City Library, which is currently closed. A new building will open at the end of next month, but unfortunately I will already be back in Germany by that time—an adventure goal for next year.
I will include the newly discovered information in my first book on karate history. Stay tuned.
Karate Kenkyū Shitsu 