Miyagi-Do Karate

"When the fight comes to you, you have to be ready to fight back."

―Miyagi-Do's motto^[1]

Miyagi-Do Karate (宮城道, "the way of Miyagi") is a form of karate that originated in Okinawa. It is a peaceful and balanced martial arts form that teaches students to defend oneself, protect others, and bring internal peace. The first United States dojo was founded by Mr. Miyagi in 1984, when he taught Daniel LaRusso. Daniel reopened the dojo in 2018 to teach a new generation of students. The Okinawan branch was taken over by Chozen Toguchi at some point after 1985.

Description

"Miyagi-Do is about defending yourself and protecting others. Not seeking credit."

―Daniel LaRusso to Robby Keene^[src]

Miyagi-Do Karate focuses on internal peace and focus, and only advocates using Karate for defense. Miyagi-Do uses Kata as the basis for its teachings.

Film Series

The Karate Kid

After Mr. Miyagi saves Daniel from Johnny and his gang (Cobra Kai students), who were beating him up, he requests Cobra Kai's sensei John Kreese to leave Daniel alone, but this conversation eventually cultivates in them agreeing that Daniel would compete against Johnny and Kreese's other students in the All Valley Karate Tournament.

Mr. Miyagi starts training Daniel for the tournament, but his methods are so unorthodox that Daniel believes Miyagi is just making him do chores, which frustrates him. However, Mr. Miyagi eventually makes Daniel realize that all the chores he was doing are really defense tactics. From then on, Daniel's skills improve.

Daniel vs johny — Daniel performing the Crane Kick at the All Valley Tournament

At the 1984 All Valley Tournament, Daniel reaches the finals where he faces Johnny. After winning the first two points, Johnny starts fighting aggressively, allowing him to tie the score. Then, in the final encounter, Daniel uses the Crane Technique to defeat Johnny and win the tournament.

The Karate Kid Part II

A few months after the tournament, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel travel to Mr. Miyagi's home Okinawa, where they are reunited with Miyagi's former childhood friend and current enemy Sato (Enmity is one sided, on Sato's end), and the latter's aggressive nephew Chozen. Chozen often harasses Daniel.

During the O-bon festival, Chozen invades and holds Kumiko (Daniel's girlfriend) hostage at knifepoint, and also forces Daniel into a fight to the death. Chozen proves to be a formidable foe, even countering Daniel's crane kick, and manages to gain the upper hand as the fight progresses, even when Mr. Miyagi giving Daniel verbal advise once. Eventually, Mr. Miyagi and several others start using the drum technique, which makes Daniel realize how to win. Daniel then wins the fight by utilizing the drum technique, to deflect Chozen's attacks and land a series of devastating counter-attacks.

The Karate Kid Part III

Some time after returning from Okinawa in 1985, Daniel expresses desire to defend his title at the All-Valley Tournament, but decides not to after Mr. Miyagi requests him. However, Daniel is soon brought in by Terry Silver, who unbeknownst to him for a long time is Kreese's friend that plans on taking revenge on him and Miyagi for ruining Kreese's life following the tournament in 1984. After Terry reveals his true motives, Mr. Miyagi decides to train Daniel for the All Valley.

In the finals of the 1985 All Valley tournament, Daniel is repeatedly being beaten up by Mike Barnes (person Terry hired to beat and abuse Daniel). Mike even scares him to the point that Daniel doesn't want to continue. However, after encouragement from Mr. Miyagi, Daniel participates in the sudden death round, where he uses the kata method he learned from Mr. Miyagi, to flip Mike and win the tournament for a second straight year. With this victory Cobra Kai is shut down (for now) as John Kreese and Terry Silver walked away in humiliation with the fans throwing T-shirts at them.

The Next Karate Kid

In the spring of 1994, Mr. Miyagi travels to Boston to attend the fiftieth anniversary of the 442nd Infantry. There, he meets Julie Pierce, who is the granddaughter of his war buddy Jack. Julie, however, is an angry girl due to her parents recent death. She often acts out. However, after Mr. Miyagi takes her to a Buddhist monastery to teach her the true ways of karate and how to handle her anger issues, Julie learns through direct lessons about balance, coordination, awareness and respect for all life. A now more calm Julie, begins to bond with Mr. Miyagi and when Julie is fighting her rival Ned, Mr. Miyagi tells her to concentrate, which helps her defeat him. After Mr. Miyagi defeats Paul, the two walk off together.

Cobra Kai

Season 1

"Inner peace, focus, balance. These are just some of the skills that you will master when you join Miyagi-Do Karate. I'm Daniel LaRusso, and before I was the number-one auto dealer in the Valley... I was two-time All Valley under-18 champion. Now, you can learn the secrets of Okinawan karate, true karate, by joining the Miyagi-Do Team. Don't be a snake in the grass, be a champion. Tweet us at #TeamMiyagiDo. And all lessons are free. That's right, free. Because at Miyagi-Do, it's not about the money. It's about the karate."

―Daniel LaRusso^[src]

In 2018, Daniel begins training Robby Keene in karate the same way Mr. Miyagi trained him. After Robby loses to Miguel Diaz in the All Valley Karate Tournament, Daniel reopens Miyagi-Do and enlists Robby as his first student in order to stop Cobra Kai.

Season 2

Daniel soon gets more students which includes his daughter Sam, a bullied kid named Demetri, Stiven, Jason, Jared, and five Cobra Kai defectors (Nathaniel, Frank, Abe, Little Red, and most notably Chris). Tension between the Miyagi-Dos and Cobra Kais began to rise just as John Kreese return to teach Cobra Kai which nearly turn to a fight at Moon's party and then a massive school fight between the two rivaling karate dojos. However, following the school fight which results in Sam being seriously injured and Cobra Kai star Miguel being rendered unconscious and in critical condition as a result of Robby inadvertently kicking him off the railing, Daniel shuts down Miyagi-Do.

Season 3

CraneTechniqueScroll — A scroll of the crane kick from Okinawa, kept by the Miyagi family

During a trip to Okinawa, Daniel is visited by Chozen Toguchi who taught him how to disable an opponent using ancient pressure points techniques. He showed Daniel his dojo in Okinawa, where he continued the teachings of Mr. Miyagi. Back at the Valley, Sam reopened Miyagi-Do Karate after she, Demetri, Frank, Abe and Lil Red are subjected to bullying by the Cobra Kai's. Amanda initially shut down the idea when she learned of it. Sam, Demetri, Stiven, and Jared went to help Chris who was fighting with Cobra Kai's at the Arcade. During the fight, Miyagi-Do had the upper hand on Cobra Kai, until Tory, along with Big Red and Edwin, arrives, which causes Sam to suffer a panic attack and basically shut down as she thought and felt that tragedies similar to the high school karate war would occur because of Tory’s presence, as well as the tide to shift in the Cobra Kai's favor. Chris is beat up by Mitch and Doug, Hawk grabs Demetri's arm and pins him to the ground, Mikey fighting Stiven and Tory beating Jared. After being pressured by his fellow Cobra Kai's to break Demetri's arm, Hawk does so, despite his initial reluctance and Demetri's pleading. After breaking his arm, Demetri screams in pain, much to the Cobra Kai's amusement. After Amanda experienced the depths of John Kreese's mentality, she and Daniel allowed the dojo to re-open. Daniel also resumed his role as the sensei of the dojo. As Cobra Kai became increasingly volatile and threatened the safety of everyone in the valley, thanks to Demetri, Miyagi-Do Karate and Eagle Fang form a truce as the larger enemy is Cobra Kai. The three dojos fought when Cobra Kai attacks Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang at the LaRusso home, ultimately ending with Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang defeating Cobra Kai, partly because of Hawk's defection from Cobra Kai. After fighting Kreese at the Cobra Kai Dojo and finding out that Robby joined Cobra Kai, Daniel and Johnny entered into an agreement with Kreese where the loser of the upcoming All Valley Karate Tournament would cease sensei-ship. Daniel and Johnny merged their two dojos to prepare for the tournament.

Season 4

Miyagi-Do S4 All Valley — Miyagi-Do at the 51st Annual Karate Championships

Johnny and Daniel begin co-teaching, but their differing personalities and styles, lead to difficulties early on. However, when the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students build an Okinawan sparring deck, things start to look up. Things further looked up when Daniel and Johnny teach their respective karate styles to each other. However, when Daniel begin spending time with Miguel, Johnny becomes jealous and wary of Daniel. After the return of Daniel's old enemy Terry Silver, Daniel tells Johnny he needs to take over training to beat him, but this angers Johnny and the two argue, eventually deciding to fight to determine who trains the students. The fight proves to be even, with Johnny even countering Daniel's pressure point technique. The fight ends in a draw, which then causes Daniel and Johnny to break off their partnership. Johnny leaves with Eagle Fang, while Daniel continues to train Miyagi-Do.

Despite the partnership not working out, Daniel does soon gain Eli (formerly Hawk) who decides to join Miyagi-Do. They work to prepare for the All-Valley tournament. During the skills competition of the tournament, Miyagi-Do is initially in the lead, but at the end, they finish in second place, behind Cobra Kai. During the individual matchups, Miyagi-Do performs well but they are behind Cobra Kai due to Robby teaching the latter Miyagi-Do which Daniel and Sam notice. The finals for the boys division is between Eli and Robby, while the finals for the girls division is Sam and Tory. The first match is Eli and Robby. After Robby wins the first point by utilizing Miyagi-Do, Daniel who initially was against Cobra Kai's style, has a change of heart and advises him to use what he learned at Cobra Kai. Eli follows through, which keeps the match even. The match eventually goes to a sudden death, the first time since Daniel's match with Barnes in 1985. Eli defeats Robby to win the title for the boys division. Heading into the finals for the girls division, Daniel and Johnny reconcile and both agree to help Sam. When Sam is down 2-1, Daniel advises her to use what she learned from both him and Johnny. Despite doing so, Sam would lose to Tory, making Cobra Kai the Grand Champion and the winner of the bet. While Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang were beaten, a proud and victorious Terry Silver announced that he'll franchise Cobra Kai dojos throughout the entire valley for all youths willing to become a member of the dojo and learn their way of the fist, which was something that he previously wanted to do in 1985 if he had Mike Barnes beat Daniel.

Despite the loss, Daniel refuses to give up and shut down the dojo as he morally knows that Cobra Kai would damage the Valley and inflict volatile situations if he followed the agreement. He enlists Chozen's help to defeat Cobra Kai forever. However, much to the unawareness of Daniel and Miyagi-Do, Terry had paid the referee to help Tory and Cobra Kai win, which implies that Sam and Miyagi-Do would have won had the referee been fair, while John Kreese was arrested by the police after being framed by Silver for attacking Stingray, charging Kreese for aggravated assault and attempted murder. Also, unbeknownst to Silver, the two charges against Kreese are valid as Kreese aggressively assaulted and almost killed Johnny and Daniel six months prior to the tournament. When the police officers position Kreese to be handcuffed, Kreese elbows an officer in the face which will add a third charge against Kreese for assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Season 5

After the All-Valley Tournament, Miyagi-Do meet up where Daniel explains that he is adhering to his bet with Cobra Kai and is shutting the dojo down. Daniel says that Miyagi-Do will still remain inside of them regardless of what happens. Later, the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs would confront the Cobra Kais at the water park regarding territories. However, it resulted with all three dojos being kicked out of the water park.

After Miyagi-Do reopening, both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students, along with Anthony LaRusso who joined Miyagi-Do after non-stop bullying from the Cobra Kais, begin training with Chozen. He gives each student an egg as well as time to hide but are picked off with ease by their new sensei. After Anthony's idea, the lesson ends with the students learning a new lesson on how to protect something of value.

Later, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang goes to the Cobra Kai dojo to fight against them in order to qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. During the girls match, Sam wins her match and because the organizers are impressed with the dojo, Miyagi-Do qualifies. After finding out that Terry Silver beat up Stingray and framed John Kreese, The Miyagi-Fangs, along with Tory, decided to break in the Flagship dojo to find the video of the beating. The break-in leads to a fight between Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do, and Eagle Fang, where Mitch announces his betrayal by joining Cobra Kai again. The Miyagi-Fang students protect Anthony from the Cobra Kai students while he uses Demetri's tablet to upload the video of Silver confessing his crimes to Tory. After a lengthy fight between the students, Daniel and Silver arrive. The two sensei's fight with Daniel winning, successfully shutting down Cobra Kai.

Rules

空手無先手: Karate for Defense Only.
- Literally: Karate Mu Sente (Karate Doesn't Make the First Move)
先正其心: First learn rule number 1.
- Literally: Saki Sei Sono Kokoro (Take the Previous Rule to Heart)

Training

"In order to fully learn Miyagi-Do Karate, you have to unlearn your misconceptions about what constitutes training."

―Daniel LaRusso^[src]

Main article: Mr. Miyagi's Training

Main article: Daniel LaRusso's Training

Main article: Chozen Toguchi's Training

While sensei's differ slightly with the lessons, the core of Miyagi-Do is relatively the same.

Fighting Style

220px-Miyagi Chojun — Chōjun Miyagi (1888-1953), the founder of Gōjū-ryū karate

Miyagi-do is an Okinawan style of karate primarily based on defense. It is theorized to be inspired by Gōjū-ryū, which was studied by Robert Mark Kamen and founded by Chōjun Miyagi (宮城長順, the inspiration for Mr. Miyagi, who appeared in a photo in Back in Black and Miyagi-Do). The photo used for the founder of Miyagi-do, Miyagi Shimpo Sensei, is of Sakugawa Kanga, a teacher of to-de (the precursor to modern karate). The photo also resembles Morihei Ushiba, the founder of aikido. Furthermore, the patches on gi worn by students of Sato's Dojo strongly resemble Gōjū-ryū patches. The term "Goju Ryu" means "Hard-Soft Style" and like its fictional counterpart, Goju Ryu Karate emphasizes on soft blocks and hard strikes, and also traces its roots back to Chinese Crane Kung Fu.

Miyagi-Do's techniques include several blocks (such as "wax on, wax off," "sand the floor," "paint the fence," and "paint the house"), kicks (notably the "crane technique" and an unnamed two-legged kick), punching, counterattacks (such as the "drum technique") and a kata which appears to be influenced by the Seiunchin kata.

Miyagi-Do also appears to incorporate elements of judo throws; this was seen when Miyagi rescued Daniel, when he told Daniel to "step back" during his match with Chozen, when Daniel flipped Mike Barnes (resembling a kiri gaeshi), and when an adult Chozen threw Daniel on a mat.

There is also weapons training in Miyagi-Do, namely with spears, nunchaku, sai, and tonfa.

As revealed by Chozen Toguchi, there is an aspect of Miyagi-Do that Mr. Miyagi never taught Daniel about, one involving killing an opponent through disabling them using pressure points before delivering a killing strike. Chozen explains that these techniques were developed during a time when, hunted by enemies, Miyagi-Do users had to be able to kill in self-defense. Chozen tells Daniel that the lesson behind the pressure points is "if an enemy insists on war, then you take away their ability to wage it."

Students

1945

Jack Pierce (Commanding officer, was given karate lessons in exchange for dance lessons; 1944 - 1945)

1972

Chozen Toguchi (taught by Sato Toguchi)
American Soldiers (taught by Sato Toguchi)

Trivia

While it wasn't shown in The Next Karate Kid, the San Fernando Valley dojo was mentioned by Mr. Miyagi, when he offers to watch over Julie Pierce. Julie's grandmother Louisa Pierce takes care of the Dojo garden in an effort to help both Julie and Louisa let off steam.
In Cobra Kai Season 3, Chozen Toguchi teaches Miyagi-Do in Okinawa after his redemption following his defeat in The Karate Kid Part II.
Miyagi-Do students Stiven, Jason and Jared quitting is due to the fact their actors (Tony Vo, Flaco Reyes and Marc Canonizado) were part of the stunts team that was replaced before Season 4.
With the exception of Sam, Anthony, Stiven, Jason, and Jared, all other named Miyagi-Do students (Demetri, Hawk, Robby, Chris, Nate, Abe, Little Red and Frank) have once been a member of Cobra Kai.