Goju Ryu is a traditional Japanese karate style, which despite being a combination of the hard and soft techniques of ancient martial arts, does not lack in fighting spirit. This unique style of karate was developed on the concept that any hard and stiff thing can be harmful, in addition to which the same amount of harm can be caused by all soft and gentle things. The fact that two opposite elements compliment each other in this form of karate adds beauty, discipline, grace and flowing form to Goju Ryu. The Goju Ryu School of karate was founded in 1930 by Chojun Miyagi, who was a martial artist of Okinawan origin.
Having been born in Naha in Okinawa, Chojun Miyagi was brought up as the foster son of an affluent businessman. It is not exactly known as to when Miyagi started getting trained for Karate-do. While some people believe that he was only nine years old at the time of commencement of his training, others say that he started his training at the age of 14. His first martial arts trainer was Ryuko Aragaki, who later introduced Miyagi to Master Kanryo Higashionna, a trainer of Naha-te. Miyagi learned under the guidance of Master Kanryo Higashionna for a several years, during which period he underwent a very hard and difficult education of martial arts.
When Master Kanryo died, Miyagi followed the footsteps of his teacher and traveled to the Chinese province of Fujian, where he studied Shaolin and Pa Kua, two forms of boxing prevalent in China. Later he blended the three styles of Shaolin, Pa Kua and Naha-te to come up with another unique style which he named Goju Ryu in 1929. Of all the Japanese styles of karate, this style had the greatest Chinese influence as it combined the hard and soft forms of the two boxing styles Miyagi had learned in China. In addition, it was also greatly influenced by the skills of the martial art that Miyagi had learnt from Master Kanryo plus the breathing techniques and isometric tension exercises used in Yoga. The one aspect that made Goju Ryu similar to various other forms of martial arts and karate was that it also stressed extremely on that arrangement of disciplining the body and mind.
Miyagi came back to his native place of Naha, after spending just a few years in China. There he then opened a training centre and taught his new karate style for several years, which made him quite famous as a practitioner of karate. Such was the reputation of Miyagi that it made Kano Jigoro, who is known as the originator of judo, to visit Okinawa so that he could learn the skills of certain specific take-downs of karate from him. He became quite popular for his efforts to make the teaching methods of karate popular and the organized. It was only due to his great efforts that Karate began to be taught in the police department of Okinawa, in its high schools and other areas of the social system.
Later, Miyagi even improvised on the hard elements which resulted in the development of Kata Sanchin - the hard side of Goju. His further research also enabled him to create Kata Tensho - the soft characteristic of Goju, which was largely inspired by the White Crane kata Ryokushu that Gokenki, Miyagi’s old friend, had taught him. Later he also created the Gekisai Dai Ichi and Gekisai Dai Ni katas, in which he fitted in the methods of the higher forms of katas into the shorter forms. He mainly developed these katas with the aim of bringing together the different styles of karate. During his final years, Miyagi’s favorite kata was Shisochin.
Master Miyagi was known to be an extremely humble man with an equally gentle temperament. He was a strong believer of the ideology of non-violence and followed it throughout his life. Besides being a reputed martial art practitioner and later a Master, Miyagi was also a great writer. Most of his writing works were related to the art of karate and have been republished and translated at least once, since they were first published during Miyagi’s lifetime. Master Miyagi suffered form his first heart attack in 1951, which he fortunately survived. However, he did not survive a second heart attack, which occurred on 8th October 1953. The legendary Master, who gave a birth to a new style of karate, died in Okinawa at the age of 65. He officially did not name any of his disciples for taking over Goju-Ryu, but the art continued to be perpetuated by his disciples and followers.
