Founder Sensei Chojun Miyagi

Founder Sensei Chojun Miyagi

Sensei Chojun Miyagi was born on April 25, 1888, in Naha and was part of one of the richest families in Naha, Okinawa, which owned two merchant ships to importing medicines from China and supplying both the government and private merchants.

Sensei Miyagi’s father was called Chosho Miyagi. He was the third son of the Miyagi family. The successor of the main family passed away when Sensei Chojun Miyagi was only five years old, but that didn’t prevent him to be was adopted as heir by the main family, even though he was the first son of his father. Later, when Sensei Chojun Miyagi was eleven years old his mother took him to a karate master named Ryuko Aragaki (Sensei Ryuko Aragaki, who is the grandfather of Shuichi Aragaki), who had an active role in influencing his path to Goju-Ryu Karate, and later also became an advisor to the International Federation of Goju-Ryu Karate-do of Okinawa. Having lived through the hard and tumultuous years of the Meiji Restoration and the Sino-Japanese war, Sensei Miyagi’s mother was convinced that a man has to be mentally and physically strong in order to face the world as the head of the family therefore the education provided to Sensei Chojun Miyagi was based on these principles too.. In the dojo of Master Sensei Ryuko Aragaki, Sensei Miyagi trained mainly using the makiwara, the chishi and the nigiri-game, which all in all were used to strengthen and develop muscles and strength.

Later, the teacher introduced his young disciple to his friend Sensei Kanryo Higaonna when Sensei Miyagi was fourteen years old. Because his fame had spread throughout Naha, it was usual that many people came to Sensei Kanryo Higaonna to become his disciple. However, Sensei Kanryo Higaonna was not easily taking anyone as a disciple unless he believed that the individual had a personality that made him capable of focus on the necessary discipline for the serious study of karate. Even after having accepted a few students, Sensei Kanryo Higaonna usually observed carefully their behavior to convince himself whether the were serious on their study purpose. The young Sensei Miyagi did all the work of cleaning and sweeping the house, weeding the garden, cutting of firewood and carrying buckets of water with great enthusiasm. When he was little, he often helped with household chores. In the end, Sensei Kanryo Higaonna accepted Sensei Miyagi as his personal disciple, and began teaching him his art, Naha-te. At that time, Sensei Miyagi was still not sure that he would continue practicing karate all his life, but he already loved it more than anything else.

Sensei Kanryo Sensei was 49 years old at this point and known by the nick name ‘Ashi no Higaonna’ (meaning ”Legs” Higaonna) because of his exceptionally strong legs. Although warned of the severity of the training, Chojun Miyagi’s expectations were far exceeded when he began his training in Naha-te. Later, Sensei Kanryo Higaona started to teach and prepare Sensei Chojun Miyagi on a personal one-on-one instruction about the the entire Goju-Ryu system.

After the World War I swept across the globe, Chojun Miyagi was called upon for mandatory military service and became a soldier at the age of 20. When he was later discharged at the age of 22, he rushed back home to Okinawa upon hearing that his teacher’s health had significantly deteriorated. Chojun Miyagi desperately wanted to learn the rest of the Naha-te style from his teacher and also take care of him in his later years. Chojun Miyagi would bring Sensei Kanryo Higaonna everyday to his own home to take care for and learn from him. He became the only student to learn all the Naha-te kata from Sensei Kanryo Higaonna, who passed away three years later in 1915. Many Okinawans referred to Sensei Kanryo Higaonna by the title of “Bushi”, which means “distinguished master of the martial arts”. Also in 1915, Chojun Miyagi fulfilled the final wish his teacher had for him and made the trip to Fuzhou in China. He travelled by boat on the same route Sensei Kanryo Higaonna did many years before him. He visited the house of Ryu Ryu Ko and demonstrated the katas he had learned to an old man who was a former student of Master Ryu Ryu Ko. During his two month stay, Chojun Miyagi recorded much information about Master Ryu Ryu Ko teachings.

Upon his return to Okinawa with 29 years old Sensei Chojun Miyagi took his teacher’s place and began teaching devotedly Naha-te. He worked to further develop the fighting system he had inherited from his master. Sensei Chojun Miyagi developed later Tensho kata based on the Rokkishu kata he learned in China. He also researched and created warm up Junbi Undo exercises for the body. Furthermore, Sensei Chojun Miyagi revised Sanchin Kata to be performed in a straight line, moving both forward and backwards, instead of turning around. He taught at his home in the now famous Garden Dojo, and also at the Naha Commercial High School. Later on he was hired to teach at the Okinawan Police Academy. In 1926 Sensei Chojun Miyagi founded the Karate Kenkyu Club, bringing together the top Masters of the main styles of karate to unite under the common goal of spreading true karate to future generations. The Masters in this club were Chojun Miyagi, Chomo Hanashiro, Choyu Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni. In 1933, Sensei Chojun Miyagi officially registers the name of his school as Goju-Ryu in the imperial organization of Japanese martial arts, the “Butoki-kai”. In 1940 Sensei Chojun Miyagi creates the Gekisai Dai Ichi and Dai Ni katas to popularize karate in schools and in the next years he was resposnsible for teaching and expanding Goju-Ryu in Okinawa and internationally. From 1948 until his death in 1953, Master Chojun Miyagi taught and demonstrated everything he knew to Sensei An´ichi Miyagi his protégé, from the Okuden (highest level Goju-Ryu techniques) to the Hiden (secret Goju-Ryu techniques).