Born in Gibo village in Okinawa, he began training under his great-uncle Nabe Matsumura — a direct student of the legendary Sokon Matsumura — at a young age. For years he trained in near-total secrecy, as the old masters were selective about who they taught the deeper aspects of the system.
In 1924, Soken emigrated to Argentina, where he lived and worked for nearly three decades. He did not teach publicly during this time, quietly maintaining his practice while the rest of the martial arts world moved on without him. When he returned to Okinawa in 1952, he found that the karate landscape had changed dramatically — sport-oriented styles had proliferated and much of the old knowledge had been diluted or lost. Soken made it his mission to preserve what remained.
He taught openly in his later years, and it is through his students — including those who trained while stationed in Okinawa with the U.S. military — that Matsumura Seito reached the United States. Kyoshi Dean’s instructors were among those students, which is why the lineage taught at this dojo connects directly to Soken himself. Master Soken continued training until the end of his life and is widely regarded as the last practitioner to have received the complete Matsumura Orthodox system.