Karatedo historian Patrick McCarthy sensei this week has posted some videos onto youtube which have literally left me speechless. Being a bit of an amateur karate historian myself, I find that there are very few photographs or old video clips that I’ve not seen these days, however Mr McCarthy has completely blown me away with his posts this week.
I wonder whether he might have some film of Miyagi sensei lurking around in some dark corner of his video collection?? 
Many thanks to McCarthy sensei for sharing this wonderful footage. Take a look at his youtube profile page http://www.youtube.com/user/mccarthysensei for more excellent vintage footage of Okinawan karatedo.
Yagi Meitoku sensei performing seipai in his prime.
Shinjo Masanobu sensei performing an inspirational and spirited seipai.
Matayoshi Shinpo sensei performing kururunfa. If anybody knows the circumstances behind this one, I’d love to hear from you!
Hi Garry:
I think… the videos are from an unfinished documentary on Karatedo made for Japanese TV in the 1960’s. I too have a copy of this video, but it is not nearly as good as McCarthy sensei’s.
These are Gold.
For me the real gem is the very rare footage of a relatively young Miyazato Ei’ichi sensei performing Shisoochin kata.
They are all great and the performances are aspirational.
Thanks
Hi Mario,
Thank you for the information. I have a couple of the clips from this documentary, but had no idea it was part of a bigger project. Wonderful to see these masters at such a relatively young age!
Matayoshi sensei looks very sharp doesn’t he! I was so suprised to see him performing kururunfa.
Restored my faith that there’s still footage out there left to be found.
Best regards,
Garry
Agreed! There are probably many undiscovered video treasures out there.
This is awesome! °_° Yagi sensei and matayoshi sensei performances were amazing. i’m so glad to see that the way of practising kata is still the same as it was ath the time, same movements, same use of the body etc. it’s conforting.
Thanks McCarty sensei and thanks Garry