by Mathieu Ravignat

This article was specifically written for the Dai Sensei YagiMeitoku Zen Bei Canada Commemoration Booklet and is respectfully dedicated to him.

The Meibukan Crest is the Chinese (Kanji) character for “bright” or Mei and is the family crest (Japanese: Mon) adopted by Dai Sensei (Mei)toku Yagi’s family.

It is important to consider while reading this article that the Yagi family in Okinawa is descended from one of the original Chinese families which immigrated to Okinawa in 1392.

The Chinese character is made up of two parts: one for the sun and the other for the moon. The largest part of the character which is a closed semi circle is the character representing the sun and the open and smaller character with a bar through it represents the moon. The combination of these “great lights” is the character for “bright” or Mei (Ming in Chinese). But like much of Okinawan culture the levels of meaning go much deeper than a simple sun moon composition. Amongst martial artists there is something called martial virtue or Wudi (Budo). It is a code which governs a true warrior’s every action. In the context of Wudi spirituality the crest actually means something much more…Enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the major religious and philosophical goal of the orient, and of its four major schools of philosophy: Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and Buddhism.

Amongst the Confucians, enlightenment (balance) is sought through the perfection the 5 noble arts, music, poetry, history, martial arts/strategy, calligraphy/painting.

Amongst the Taoist and Shinto schools, enlightenment was sought through long ascetic practices and ancient breathing and magical techniques that balanced the Ki and elevated the Shin or spirit.

Amongst the Buddhists, enlightenment is a detachment from the chain of Karma, the law of cause and effect and life and death. To reach this state of withdrawal from the laws of cause and effect is to reach the state of Samahdi or Nirvana. This is usually done with meditation as a means of psychologically shedding the self. In the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism (popular in Okinawa) this is done through the three practices of mantras, mudras and meditation.

Viewed in this light, Dai Sensei Meitoku Yagi’s crest is another form of the Yin and Yang symbol. The colour contrast between gold and black as well as the complementary opposition of sun and moon is the same as the black Yin (negative) and the white Yang (positive) of the Tai Chi symbol. The entire universe as the I Ching (one the oldest and most important books of China) teaches us is an interaction between the two cosmic forces of male and female, God and Goddess. The negative soft female is represented by the moon and the positive hard male is represented by the sun.

Negative and positive in physics refer to the forces of attraction and repulsion, or the positive magnetic pole and negative magnetic pole. In human action Yin and Yang appear as passivity and activity, or action and non action. It is the proper moral combination of passivity and activity which will perfect your character and in turn it is the proper physical combination of hard and soft movements that will perfect your Karate.

So, by using Mei in Meibukan, Dai Sensei Meitoku Yagi is indicating that there is a direct relationship between Karate and the balancing of the Yin Yang forces of the universe, and hence a direct relationship between the perfection of Karate and the perfection of life.

As we can see this is completely in line with the importance of Wudi (Budo: Warrior Virtue) in the learning of the Okinawan martial arts.

However, according to the three principal philosophical schools of the orient, to reach this enlightenment one cannot live a life of extremes but must reach a balance in harmony with the universe, with nature, and when you can, with other human beings. This is the middle way or golden mean (Aristotle). This Golden Mean in our crest is represented by the path between the two characters. It is in the “darkness of this path” which a Karateka is walking. This path is known as Michi (Do) in Japanese. It is the path of virtue. So the crest reveals that Meibukan means the house or school (Kan) of the enlightened (Mei) warrior or war(Bu).

Finally, historically and politically the Mei symbol of the crest was also used by martial artists in China who wanted to overthrow the Manchu Ching Empire (1644-1911) and restore the Han Ming (Mei or Bright) Empire (1368-1644). They identified each other by using secret hand signs in order to secretly identify themselves so that they could protect themselves from the repressive authorities. In the Meibukan hand salute and bow, the sun is represented by the closed fist and the moon by the open hand. This in itself is a sacred gesture, or mudra. Every time we use it, we remind ourselves of, and commit ourselves to the true purpose of Karate, Enlightenment.

TOP