Karate Masters

Grandmaster

Kanryo Higashionna

Founder of Naha-te Karate-jutsu (1853 - 1915)

Grandmaster Kanryo Higaonna (Higashionna was the original Okinawan pronounciation) was born on March 10, 1853, in Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. His father, Kanyo, worked as a merchant sailing between the small islands of Okinawa trading everyday goods.

Higaonna began his martial arts training in 1867 in Monk Fist Boxing (Lohan Quan) from Aragaki Seisho. In 1870, at the age of 16, he traveled with his instructor to Fuzhou, China. Once in Fuzhou he studied the Chinese martial arts under the great Master RuRuKo (Xie Zhonh Xiang in Chinese). RuRuKo was the founder of Whooping Crane gongfu and was a student of Pan Yuba who, in turn, was a student of Lin Shixian, a master of White Crane gongfu.

Higaonna also received instruction from numerous other gongfu masters including Wai Xinxian. Hiagaonna remained in China for a period of 5-13 years. In addition to studying empty hand and weapon arts, he also became accomplished in herbology and Chinese medicine, including acupuncture.Chojun Miyagi (founder of Goju-Ryu and successor to Higaonna) said of Higaonna, “My sensei possessed incredible strength; the severity of the training he underwent in China is beyond comprehension…. Kanryo Sensei’s speed and power were truly superhuman; his hands and feet moved faster than lightning”.

Words cannot express his real ability. We can only say that his skill was incredible, but even this fails to do him justice.In the year 1881, he returned to Okinawa where his martial arts would become known as Naha-te though he always referred to it as chuanfa. Kanryo Higaonna taught these martial arts to the people of Okinawa and at the same time continued his own research and practice. In order to teach the youth of Okinawa he developed a teaching method that was specifically designed to develop the mind and body; to improve both physical well-being.The first occasion on which the previously secretive art of Naha-te “opened” to society in general, occurred in October 1905, when Higaonna began teaching at the Naha Commercial High School.

When teaching, Higaonna was an extremely hard task master. However, in his everyday life he was a quiet and humble man and one who was renowned for his virtuous character. He was a person who had no need or desire for worldly things. He leads a simple life that was devoted to the study and practice of martial arts.There are many stories that relate tales of Kanryo Higaonna’s life and training. The power of his legs was legendary so that often he was referred to as “Ashi no Higaonna”, (“legs Higaonna”) in Okinawa. His virtuous character was widely known and respected, and because of his popularity the people of Naha bestowed him with the name, Obushi Higaonna Tanmei:, a name which reflected the affection and respect they had for this great man and supreme martial artist.Kanryo Higaonna’s unparalleled skill in the martial arts aside, his great and distinguished work was in bringing the Chinese martial arts from China to Okinawa, and from there spreading these arts among the people of Okinawa.Kanryo Higaonna is now bestowed with the title “Kensei (sacred fists) Kanryo Higaonna” a title which is eminently fitting. His name is synonymous with Okinawan martial arts and Naha-te, and his spirit is destined to live on forever as a great and valued treasure within Okinawan culture.Kanryo Higaonna’s whole life was devoted to karate. He passed away in December 1915 at the age of 63.

Chojun Miyagi

(1888 - 1953)

Chojun Miyagi was born on April 25,1888. He began his Karate training in Shuri-te and at the age of 14 was introduced to Kanryo Higaonna with whom he began his study of Naha-te. Like his teacher before him, because of his great natural talent and fierce determination, he progressed very rapidly. The training was severe beyond belief at times but he practiced ever harder with an enthusiasm unmatched by any of the other students.Chojun Miyagi became “uchi deshi” (private discipline) of Kanryo Higaonna.

He studied with his teacher for 14 years before his teacher’s death in 1915.Chojun Miyagi, as successor to his teacher’s “te”, pushed himself to the limits of endurance in his desire to emulate his teacher’s extraordinary skill. In 1915 he journeyed to Fuzhou, China, the city where his teacher had studied martial arts to further his research. This was one of three trips he made to China during his lifetime.On his return to Okinawa he began to teach the martial arts out of his home in Naha. Later, he also taught at the Okinawan Prefecture Police Training Center, at the Okinawan Master’s Training College, and at the Naha Commercial High School (where his teacher had once taught).

Chojun Miyagi worked hard to spread Karate throughout Okinawa and mainland Japan, and to earn his toudi a status equal to that of the highly respected Japanese martial arts of Judo and Kendo. To achieve this he traveled frequently to mainland Japan where he was invited to teach at Kyoto University, Kansai University and Ritsumei Kan University. In 1933, Goju-Ryu Karate was the first Okinawan martial art to be registered with the Dai Nippon Butoku-Kai, the center for all martial arts in Japan. This was a milestone for Karate as it meant it would aligned with the highly respected martial arts of Japan.Chojun Miyagi dedicated his whole life to Karate. He was responsible for structuring his toudi (which he later named Goju-Ryu) into a systemized discipline which could be taught to society in general. This teaching system that he formulated enabled Karate to be taught in schools for the benefit of the young, and to reach vast numbers of people throughout the world. However, his private teaching at his home remained strictly in adherence to the principles and traditions of his teacher, Kanryo Higaonna, and his teacher before him, RuRuKo.

The naming of Goju-Ryu came about more by accident than by design. In 1930, Chojun Miyagi’s top student, Jin’an Shinzato, while in Tokyo demostrating the Karate of his teacher, was asked as to what school of martial arts he practiced. As Naha-te had no formal name he could not answer this question. On his return to Okinawa he reported this incident to Chojun Miyagi. After much consideration, Chojun Miyagi chose the name Goju-Ryu (hard and soft school) as a name for his style. This name he took from a line in the “Bubishi” (a classical text on martial arts and other subjects) is shown below. This line reads, “Ho Goju Donto”. It is necessary to point out that these precepts have a much greater importance than simply as the source for the naming on Goju-ryu. They present great insight into the indispensable knowledge and application of the sciences practiced by the martial arts masters of this time. Without proper and complete research and study of these paradiagms, the true essence of Goju-ryu can never be truely understood

Gogen Yamaguchi

January 20, 1909

Gogen Yamaguchi was born on January 20, 1909, in Kagoshima city on the southern island of Kyushu. Already as a youngster he showed great interest in the Martial Arts.During his early school days he trained kendo, (Japanese fencing) and it was during this time that he started his karate training under the tutelage of Mr Maruta, a carpenter from Okinawa.Mr Maruta, a Goju practitioner, was drawn to the young Yamaguchi’s serious attitude and his willingness to train hard.

Mr Maruta taught Yamaguchi all he knew about the Goju system. During his college days as a law student, Yamaguchi established his first karate club at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.Soon the dojo became famous in the city, known for it’s hard training and fierce breathing exercise. In those days karate men practised only kata (formal movements) and yakusoku kumite (prearranged sparring) and were unable to have matches between each other since they did not hold back their techniques.It was during this period that Yamaguchi created the first stages towards what is known as jyu kumite (free fighting) and established rules to decide the winner of a match. Some of the rules are still in use today in what is known as sport or competition karate.In 1931, at the age of 22, Gogen Yamaguchi was introduced to the founder of the Goju style, – Master Chojun Miyagi. This meeting proved to have a profound affect upon Yamaguchi’s outlook on karate. Previously he had only considered the hard aspect of Goju but after his meeting with Master Miyagi he was determined to train himself spiritually as well as physically.Master Miyagi thought highly of Yamaguchi who seemed to have mastered the hard aspect of Goju so well and gave him the nickname Gogen, meaning `Rough’. He then appointed Gogen Yamaguchi as his successor of the Goju school in Japan.

During the years to follow Gogen Yamaguchi often spent long stays at Mount Kurama where he subjected himself to ascetic exercises and hard training with sanchin, meditation and fasting.Between 1938-1945 he was sent to Manchuria on government and military assignments. On several occasions during his stay there, he could thank his skills in karate and his mental training that he stayed alive. During the Japanese-Russian war 1945 Yamaguchi was taken prisoner of war and sent to a prison camp in Mongolia. He was kept there under harsh conditions for two years.Once again his strength and skill were severely put to the test. During all these years he still continued to train and develop Goju-karate. After his release and return to Japan, Yamaguchi became one of the most exciting figures in karate history. Known throughout the world as the `cat’ because of his grace and speed in movement and because of his favourite fighting stance which is called neko ashi dachi (cat stance).

Kenwa Mabuni

1889

Mabuni Kenwa was born in Shuri, Okinawa in 1889. Mabuni was a 17th generation descendant of the famous warrior Uni Ufugusuku Kenyu. Perhaps because of his weak constitution, he began his instruction in his home town in the art of Shuri-te at the age of 13, under the tutelage of the legendary Ankō Itosu (1831–1915).He trained diligently for several years, learning many kata from this great master.

One of his close friends, Chōjun Miyagi introduced Mabuni to another great of that period, Kanryō Higaonna . Mabuni began to learn Naha-te under him. While both Itosu and Higaonna taught a “hard-soft” style of Okinawan “Te”, their methods and emphases were quite distinct: the Itosu syllabus included straight and powerful techniques as exemplified in the Naihanchi and Bassai kata; the Higaonna syllabus stressed circular motion and shorter fighting methods as seen in the kata Seipai and Kururunfa. Shitō-ryū focuses on both hard and soft techniques to this day

Although he remained true to the teachings of these two great masters, Mabuni sought instruction from a number of other teachers, including Seishō Arakaki, Tawada Shimboku, Sueyoshi Jino and Wu Xianhui (a Chinese master known as Go-Kenki). In fact, Mabuni was legendary for his encyclopedic knowledge of kata and their bunkai applications. By the 1920s, he was regarded as the foremost authority on Okinawan kata and their history and was much sought after as a teacher by his contemporaries. There is even some evidence that his expertise was sought out in China, as well as Okinawa and mainland Japan. As a police officer, he taught local law enforcement officers and at the behest of his teacher Itosu, began instruction in the various grammar schools in Shuri and Naha

In an effort to popularize karate in mainland Japan, Mabuni made several trips to Tokyo in 1917 and 1928. Although much that was known as “Te” (Chinese Fist; lit. simply “hand”) or karate had been passed down through many generations with jealous secrecy, it was his view that it should be taught to anyone who sought knowledge with honesty and integrity. In fact, many masters of his generation held similar views on the future of Karate: Gichin Funakoshi (founder of Shotokan), another contemporary, had moved to Tokyo in the 1920s to promote his art on the mainland as well.By 1929, Mabuni had moved to Osaka on the mainland, to become a full-time karate instructor of a style he originally called Hanko-ryū, or “half-hard style”. The name of the style changed to Shitō-ryū, in honor of its main influences. Mabuni derived the name for his new style from the first kanji character from the names of his two primary teachers, Higa(shi)onna and I(to)su. With the support of Ryusho Sakagami (1915–1993), he opened a number of Shitō-ryū dojo in the Osaka area, including one at Kansai University and the Japan Karatedō-kai dojo. To this day, the largest contingent of Shitō-ryū practitioners in Japan is centered in the Osaka area.Kenwa Mabuni died on May 23, 1952.

Funakoshi Gichin

(1868-1957)

Funakoshi Gichin was the founder of the Shotokan-ryu style of Karate. Funakoshi was born in the Okinawan capital of Shuri into a family of the Shizoku class (upper class).He began his karate training at the age of 12, with master Azato and then with Master Itosu. He worked for many years as a primary school teacher, but then resigned to open a karate school. He was chosen by the Okinawa Karate Masters for a karate demonstration to be held in Kyoto, in 1922.

He remained in Japan and began to teach karate in some Tokyo University clubs.Master Gichin Funakoshi was instructed by Yasutsune Azato and Yasutsune Itosu. He was also responsible for changing (or defining, depending how you look at it) the meaning of the word Karate-do. He changed the “kara” symbol in Karate from the old symbol, meaning “China”, to the new symbol, meaning “empty”. In his book Karate-Do Nyumon, he writes: “Just as an empty valley can carry a resounding voice, so must the person who follows the Way of Karate make himself void or empty by ridding himself or all self-centeredness and greed. At first times were very hard, but soon karate became to grow; in 1935 Funakoshi pupils built the Shotokan dojo, and karate was taught in many places in Japan.

Make yourself empty within, but upright without. This is the real meaning of the ’empty’ in Karate. “…Once one has perceived the infinity of forms and elements in the universe, one returns to emptiness, to the void. In other words, emptiness is none other than the true form of the universe. The 2nd World War was a ruin for karate. The Shotokan was destroyed, karate people was dispersed, many died. Okinawa was nearly destroyed too. After the war Funakoshi reorganized karate in Japan, Gichin Funakoshi died in Tokyo in 1957.