Shuri High School karate club
Began formal training. His father practiced karate, and he started in his third year of high school.
Biography
Sensei Takeshi Miyagi (宮城 驍) was born on June 8, 1935, in Gusukuma, Urasoe City, Okinawa, where Miyagi Karate Dojo still stands. He is Hanshi 10th Dan in Shōrin-ryū and the fourth president of the Okinawa Shōrin-ryū Karatedō Kyōkai (沖縄小林流空手道協会).
In March 2004, Katsuya Miyahira awarded him the rank of Hanshi 10th Dan.
Training
After graduating from the University of the Ryukyus he taught English and social studies at a junior high school until he retired. His karate training ran alongside that work.
Shigeru Takara
高良繁. Continued his training under Takara.
Kansei Kinjō
金城兼盛 of Kūshin-ryū (空真流).
Katsuya Miyahira
宮平勝哉, Shōrin-ryū. He visited Miyahira’s dōjō on Himeyuri Street in Naha and enrolled that day.
Hohan Soken
祖堅方範.
Rank and leadership
Urasoe City Karatedō Federation
Co-founder and first president.
Okinawa Shōrin-ryū Karatedō Association
Vice president. In December 2012 he became the association’s fourth president.
Hanshi 10th Dan
Awarded by Katsuya Miyahira.
Prefectural offices
Became president of the Okinawa Prefecture Karatedō Federation and vice president of the Okinawa Traditional Karatedō Promotion Association. He is now advisor to the federation.
He demonstrated at the unveiling of the Itosu Ankō monument in August 1964, as the Shōrin-ryū representative at the 9th All-Island Athletic Festival in July 1983, and at Shuri Castle in October 2011.
Honors and awards
Okinawa Prefecture Cultural Merit Award
November 2015 · 沖縄県文化功労者 · Heisei 27
Okinawa Prefecture honored him for karate and kobudō. At the ceremony in the prefectural office on November 26, 2015, he spoke for the recipients.
In Okinawa, which was reduced to ashes by war, culture became the driving force for reconstruction. We have strived to preserve and develop it in our respective fields. I am genuinely happy to receive this award. I would like to thank everyone involved.
Ryukyu Shimpo, November 26, 2015
The prefecture’s list of past recipients records him under Heisei 27 (2015). The same list also records Sensei Kiyoshi Tsuha of Iso Bugeikan, honored in Reiwa 7 (2025).
Okinawa Karate-dō Kobudō Distinguished Service Award
沖縄空手道古武道功労賞. The fifth ceremony presented the award to seven people who had worked to preserve and develop karate.
Okinawa Karate Kaikan stamp sheet
One of ten karateka pictured on the commemorative stamp sheet issued for the opening of the Okinawa Karate Kaikan.
Prefectural Merit Award
Governor Denny Tamaki named him one of ten Prefectural Merit Awardees for contributions to sports promotion.
Photographs
The dōjō
Miyagi Karate Dojo (宮城空手道場) is at 3-chōme-7-14 Gusukuma, Urasoe. Its guiding principles are Effort (努力), Patience (忍耐), Continuity (継続), and World Peace (世界平和). Into his eighties he has kept the dōjō open to students from the United States, France, and the Philippines, and he has traveled to Germany and Brazil to teach.
His elder brother, Ken’ichi Miyagi (宮城健一), served as mayor of Urasoe.
Miyagi Karate Dojo — address, curriculum, and photographs.