Yagi began training under Miyagi when he was 14 years old. Miyagi was impressed by his dedication and hard work, and eventually taught him all the kata in the Goju-ryu syllabus. Normally, Miyagi would only teach Sanchin to his pupils for several years, and even then he might only teach them Seisan and Seiunchin. To complement his karate training, Yagi enjoyed many activities including shodo, playing the piano and shamisen, and chinese chess.

A year before Miyagi’s death in 1953, Yagi opened his own dojo in the Daido district of Naha. He named his school of Goju-ryu Meibukan, meaning “house of the pure minded warrior.” The name and crest of his school both utilize the first kanji in his given name, 明 (Mei), which has several meanings, including purity. It is made up of the kanji for sun and the kanji for moon, reflecting the duality of nature, which is inherent to Goju-ryu. Today, the main headquarters for the Meibukan school are in the Kume district of Naha. Yagi’s number one goal was for his students to promote peace, be good people and contribute to society.^[1]

Meitoku Yagi began developing a series of kata in the 1970s and 1980s, which he named Meibuken kata. The first of which is Tenchi, meaning “heaven and earth.” It was originally two kata, Fukyu Kata Ichi and Fukyu Kata Ni. The two kata can be put together so that if two karateka were to perform each half an attack in the first kata would correspond with a block in the second, for example. The Meibuken kata are different from the kata in the Goju-ryu syllabus in many ways, including having vertical closed hand chambers, and having a different yoi position, reflecting Yagi’s Chinese roots, and his time spent studying martial arts there.