Goju Ryu Karate

Goju ryu karate plays an important and significant role in the long history of Okinawan fighting arts, going back centuries if one traces the origins back through Chinese and Japanese sources. Goju ryu itself however, at least as a discernible style, has a more recent history. The art originated with Kanryo Higashionna, a former student of Shuri te Master Aragaki, who traveled to Fukien province in the second half of the nineteenth century and studied under Ryu Ryu Ko. Ryu Ryu Ko seems to have been Xie Zhongxiang, the founder of Whooping Crane kung fu, though this is by no means certain. After returning to Okinawa Higashionna began teaching his version of Naha te.

Chojun Miyagi and the Creation of Goju Ryu Karate

His most promising student came to be Chojun Miyagi. Miyagi studied with Higashionna for the last fifteen years of the masters life, interrupted by a one year visit to Fukien in search of the origins of Naha te. Unable to find a suitable teacher Miyagi instead studied under various people and returned to Okinawa with a new kata that he named Tensho, a variation on the White Crane Rokusho. Tensho is considered to represent the 'soft' side of the art while the signature kata Sanchin represents the 'hard' side. This exploration of hard and soft is reflected in the name Goju, which means Hard / Soft. Goju ryu karate therefore means the School or Hard and Soft Karate. The term itself was taken from the Bubishi, a collection of articles on Southern Chinese fighting arts (among other things) that influenced Okinawan karate. In its day this was the closest thing to a manual that existed and it continues to be studied today.

The style draws its core techniques from twelve kata, with Sanchin being the most important and heavily practiced. Stylists also continue to emphasize conditioning the body and use the makiwara (striking post) as well as traditional Okinawa weight training equipment (known collectively as hojo undo) supplemented by the kongo ken which was introduced after Master Miyagi saw wrestlers on Hawaii using something similar. Foju ryu also makes use of kakie, or pushing hands, inherited from China and nowadays somewhat lacking in karate which tends to favor longer distance sparring. The style is most effective at close quarters, though it does lack ground work.

Since the death of Chojun Miyagi, the style has become somewhat splintered. Jinan Shinzato, Miyagi's top student, was killed during World War Two. Ei'ichi Miyazato was elected to formally take over the style as its overall master but Meitoku Yagi had inherited the master's gi and belt, factors which carried significance. Furthermore, the only person Miyagi actually authorized to teach was Seiko Higa. It seems that there is no clear lineage for a student to follow any longer. Arguably the most famous Goju ryu karate master alive today is Morio Higaonna, who remains hugely popular with an international student body.