Welcome to Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu Genealogy
This website is an effort to share knowledge about our lineage.
Welcome to Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu Genealogy
This website is an effort to share knowledge about our lineage.
This website is an effort to share knowledge about our lineage.
This website is an effort to share knowledge about our lineage.
Early in the 1980’s my first Sensei, Terry Maccarrone, found out that I had an interest in family genealogy. He encouraged me to document United States Karateka of Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu. Over the decades I have met, and interviewed, a great number of Karateka and added some of their information to a hand drawn poster sized genealogy chart. This website represents a renewed effort and major step forward in documenting and digitizing the lineage of our style in a Family Tree program.
I would also like to acknowledge the help and support I’ve been fortunate to have from “Papa Chris”. I first met “Papa Chris” at an American Shorin-Ryu Karate Association (ASKA) summer camp the weekend of September 6, 2002. I have since had many opportunities to train with him (in-person and virtual during COVID). I have sought guidance from him, enjoyed conversations, and more. I have about 18 of his books, many of them signed. When I sent him a link to review a draft version of this website and genealogy tree, he encouraged me to expand my focus to include the first generations of Okinawan's under Nagamine Sensei. He felt there was a danger that this information could be lost to the sands of time. Since he has so freely given of his time and expertise to me over the years, I felt it my duty to accept the challenge. He also told me to reach out to Sensei Lara Chamberlain to ask for assistance. I was not previously aware of who Sensei Lara was, but was about to find out what a wealth of knowledge she had access to!
I introduced myself to Sensei Lara via email around March 2024, we’ve had many communications since then. I also follow her posts on Facebook about Matsubayashi and other Martial Arts. Sensei Lara has very generously provided me with a wealth of information about the early Okinawans in the Nagamine organization. I’ve also been amazed at the amount of time she spent with these people! She knows these early pioneers personally, some of them very well. She is also a very senior Yudansha who travels and shares her knowledge. Someday I hope to meet her in-person and to train with her!
Master Shoshin Nagamine founded Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu in 1947. Since then his style of Okinawan karate has spread around the world.
My original intent for this website was to show the lineage of Karateka from the United States as that is information I had been collecting for decades.
I’m very aware that there exist many branches of our family tree due to separations that have occurred over time, distances, or opinions. I’m not interested in the politics of why those separations occurred, I'm aware of some of those stories, and they can make for interesting conversations over a beer. This website will only publish the historical facts that these separations happened.
My apologies in advance if your branch of our family tree isn’t mentioned, it simply reflects the fact that I wasn’t aware and/or didn’t have the time to update the site. Frankly, that could become a monumental task, and I'm not sure I want to try to take that on. If you would like to be considered to have your branch information added kindly send me an e-mail.
e-mail donromard@donromardmbr.com
I was asked to consider documenting the first few generations of Okinawan Karateka under Nagamine before the information was lost to time. I accepted that challenge. It caused me to delay updating this website as it has taken quite a lot of research effort to pull the information together and to edit the family tree chart.
I will continue trying to update these charts and information as best I can.
Copyright © 2023 Don Romard Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu Genealogy - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.