Goju Ryu

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Categories: Karate

Goju Ryu ( 剛柔流 gōjū ryū) (Japanese for "Hard-soft style") is a style of karate, so called as it allows a combination of hard and soft techniques. The development of Goju Ryu goes back to Kanryo Higashionna, (1850-1915), a native of Naha, Okinawa. As a teenager he trained with an Okinawan master named Aragaki Seisho. At the age of twenty he sailed to Fuzhou in the Fukien Province of China and spent many years studying various martial arts, mostly under the kung fu master Liu Liu Ko, who is supposed to have been a shoemaker. He returned to Okinawa during the middle of the Meiji Era (1868-1911) and continued in the family business of selling firewood, while teaching a new school of martial arts, distinguished by its integration of go-no (hard) and ju-no (soft) kempo in one system. The word karate was not in common use at that time, and Higashionna's style was known as Naha-te.

Higashionna's most prominent student was Miyagi Chojun (1888-1953) who began training under Higashionna at the age of 12. After Higashionna's death Miyagi sailed to China and studied there for several years, returning to Naha in 1918. Many of Higashionna's students continued to train with him, including Higa Seiko (1898-1966) who inadvertently gave the style its name. After a demonstration one day, Higa was asked what the style was called. Recalling a favorite saying of Miyagi's, Higa said it was called "Goju-ryu." The name stuck. The line he was thinking of was "Successful methods require both give and take (go and ju)" which is from an anonymous poem called the Ha Po ("Eight Sayings") from a Chinese manual called Wu Pei Chih ("Handbook of Military Arts and Science") well-known in Okinawa, where its title is pronounced "Bubishi".

'Go' means hardness or external force, 'ju' means softness or internal force.

Goju-ryu combines hard striking attacks like kicks and punches with softer circular techniques for blocking and controlling the opponent. Goju-ryu's specialty over the other karate styles is in-fighting or close-quarter combat. Major emphasis is given to breathing correctly.

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Fukien White Crane

The history of karate itself is one of cultural and social exchanges with China going back to the Tang dynasty - hence the name "Tang Soo" or "Chinese hands". Before the development of Modern Karate under Gichin Funakoshi, Okinawan karate style generally took after the names of the town they came from, thus "Naha-te" and "Tomari-te" were karate styles that came from the towns of Naha and Tomari respectively.

The late 19th century saw the great karate masters going back to China for a "martial-arts pilgimage" of sorts. The great Chinese pugilist Liu Liu Ko ("Ryu ryu ko" in Japanese) in Southern China taught a handful of these Japanese students who went on to be karate legends.

The use of "tensho" or "soft" techniques in Goju-ryu reveals an obvious influence from the Fukien White Crane style (known as "Fujian Bai He" in Chinese). These are normally taught at the Brown belt to Sempai level of training.

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Kata Bunkai

One contentious aspect of karate in the martial arts world is the training of kata (pre-arranged sets). Although it is widely believed kata was developed from a real fight, detractors say that these kata are useless in a real fighting situation.

The katas taught in Goju-Ryu are rather traditional and are emphasized more than actual kumite (or free sparring). Gichin Funakoshi wrote in his "Bubishi" that karate is a cultivating art; karate begins and end in courtesy ("rei" in Japanese or "Li" in Chinese)

Kata is to be understood as a "living textbook" in which karate proper - it's techniques and philosophy - is passed down. It is not unlike how oral traditions enabled sacred scriptures or even family stories were passed down without going into writing.

The practice of kata itself provides the pracitioner a sense of structure and possibilites to use in a real fight. Techniques-within-techniques are revealed through constant practice of kata. It is not unlike how a classical cellist or violinist can go back to J.S. Bach's Cello Suites or Violin partitas, can still find new insights even after years of practising the same pieces of music.

Taikokyu kata

Taikokyu is taught in kyu levels (white belt to brown belt). The kata teaches the student a basic block and attack pattern, and how to move in 4 directions.

Gekisai kata

Taught at yellow to green belt levels, Gekisai integrates kicking with blocks and punches; it introduces the use of tensho technique; how to move in 8 directions; side-stepping and back-stepping and the cat stance is introduced. (It comes close to the idea of "irimi nage" or "entering" techniques used in Aikido.) It should be noted that there are two versions of this Kata, Gekisai Dai Itchi, and Gekisai Dai Ni. Gekisai Dai Ni incorporates slightly "softer" techniques, although it still follows an extremely similar pattern to Gekisai Dai Itchi.

Saifa kata

Taught at green to brown belt levels. The first 3 moves is the signature of the kata - a wrist-grab-throw technique that is truly iriminage technique in the aikido sense. The technique teaches how to counter being grabbed at by one or two opponents. The centrepiece of the kata is the crane kick movement. The layout of the footwork is similar to taikokyu kata.

Seiyuchin kata

Taught at green to brown belt levels, seiyuchin kata employ smashing and tearing techniques that would be nominally banned in modern karate kumite.

Traditionally, the need for karate was developed to protect villagers from unscrupulous Samurai. One can envision seiyu chin kata techniques actually being used on the battlefield. Thus, the Chinese expression "bei chan" (evil and horrifying) comes to mind when describing seiyu chin kata technique.

Traditionally, the use of acupoints in fighting is taught at this level. The centrepiece of seiyuchin kata is a stance taken directly from the White Crane style.

Shisochin kata

Shisochin ephasizes the power of goju-ryu, the hard and the soft, and integrates it in one. It is a switch between long distance combat( Shotei zuki-palm punch ) and close quarter combat( Nukite-or knife hand-and armlocks). This kata was Miyagi Chojun his favorit one, he said it best suited to his body.

Sanseiru kata

Sanseiru, meaning 36, is taught at higher black belt levels. The number 36 is based on Buddhist mythology. The kata teaches complex punching combinations. This technique was passed down from China.

Sepai kata

This kata is one four( Sepai, Kururunfa, Sesan, and Suparinpei ) that are more secretive. The true meaning of a kata becomes clear when one learns the application of it( Bunkai ). In sepai, and the three that follow, the application isn't all clear. The reason why these techniques were masqued was, when they were training it bystanders couldn't fully comprehend the depth of the application.

this kata incorporates the four directional mouvements and 45° angular attackts and as in Shisochin it uses long distance and close quarter combat.


Sanchin kata

Perhaps the most profound kata, sanchin kata has the simplest techniques, yet is the most difficult to master. Taught properly as a black belt kata, yet it is simple enough to teach at the white belt level - to prepare the student for this kata by the time one reaches black belt.

Only one stance is used - the sanchin (meaning "3 battles") stance. This stance is used for infighting, though practical yet is the most difficult stance to master. The legs protect the body from sweep kicks, the thighs are to trap low kicks. According to a taichi manual ("Zhuangzi 13 postures"), the punch draws it's power from the earth through the legs - the flip of the hips enables the strength of the whole body to be channeled and focused into one punch.

Properly employed, Sanchin kata follows the "hard" style of karate - all the muscles are to be flexed and tensed throughout the kata - actually making it the most strenuous kata. This type of strength training, taught for thousands of years, is only recenly understood in western science and is known as "iso-metric training" in body building.

In Chinese training, Sanchin kata also introduces the student to the use of "chi" (Japanese "ki") for training and fighting applications. It can be understood to be a form of "qigong" as employed in Chinese Wushu.

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Goju-Ryu Organizations

There are various Goju-Ryu karate organizations on Japan and on each country. Also there are International organizations. One of the Federations with various Goju-Ryu organizations in Japan, representing Goju-Ryu on Japan Karate Federation (JKF) is JKF Goju-Kai. This Goju-Ryu Federation of many Goju-Ryu Associations have also official branches in some countries. To see this expansion consult the World of JKF Goju-Kai.

The International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation (IOGKF) has made Goju-ryu widely popular, with schools in almost fifty countries. The IOGKF is run by its founder Morio Higaonna, a student of Miyagi An'ichi, a student (though no relation) of Miyagi Chojun.

However, Goju-ryu has developed an extremely complex web of diverse traditions founded by different students of Miyagi Chojun and their successors, and no one person can be objectively said to be the leader of Goju-ryu nor any one entity the governing body of the entire style.

Other leading figures have included Yagi Meitoku (1912-2003), who inherited Miyagi's school on Okinawa; Toguchi Seikichi (1917-1998); Iha Koshin (1925 - Present); Tetsunosuke Yasuda; and Miyazato Ei'ichi (1922-1999). Peter Urban (1934-2004), Anthony Mirakian, and Kimo Wall are prominent Americans who brought Goju-ryu to the United States. The Current Grand Master of the All-American Goju-Ryu System is GM Alberto Gotay. He's currently a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Another note worthy fact about GM Gotay is that he helped design the NYPD's self defense coarse at the NYPD's Police Academy.

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Goju Kai

The greatly revered and charismatic master Gogen "the Cat" Yamaguchi, known for his preference of using neko-ashi-dachi or "cat stance", established the Goju Kai (meaning Goju Association).

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External links

ja:剛柔流 pt:Goju-ryu