Introduction of Goju Ryu Karate
"Goju Ryu Karate" was the first Karate school promoted and developed in Hong Kong , "Goju Ryu" was a familiar name of Karate for Hong Kong peoples but they did not clearly know the root of "Goju Ryu Karate". As we want to understand the root of "Goju Ryu Karate", firstly we should look at the relationship between Japanese Karate and Okinawan Karate. Japanese Karate was developed by Japanese Masters, who learned from Okinawa peoples, while Okinawa people learned martial art from Chinese martial artists.
Before 1929,there was no name of the style (ryu) for Okinawa Martial arts, peoples use the name of the place which they lived to identify the style of their martial art; such as Ryu Kyu-te, Naha-te, Shuri-te……, at that time most of the martial arts in Okinawa was came from China, therefore Okinawan martial art was named "To-te" (meaning martial art from China).
Naha is one of the harbors in Okinawa . A famous martial artists named "Kanryo Higaonna", the martial art he taught was named "Naha-te". In 1930, his successor "Chojun Miyagi" named the art as "Goju Ryu", in 1935 "To-te"was officially named as "Karate-do", and Chojun Miyagi Sensei was called "Founder of Goju Ryu karate-do".
Chojun Miyagi Sensei treated martial art as his life, he predicted that Karate will become one of the popular Martial art over the world, and the spirit of Karate will contribute to people in their modern life. Chojun Miyagi Sensei's prediction becomes true, today, more than hundred thousands people practicing Karate over the world.
About I.O.G.K.F. (International Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate-do Federation)
In the past 20 years, the population of karate students was increased sharply over the world, this caused the shortage of Goju Ryu Karate instructor. Many unqualified learners played as the instructor role. As resulted to this it cause difference in Goju Ryu Karate about the history, skills and philosophy.
At 1930, "Goju Ryu Karate-do" was named by Chojun Miyagi Sensei, who lived in Naha city, Okinawa. Before this, there is no name for the local martial art, peoples use the name of the place for the name of their martial art, and this martial art was named Naha-te (Naha is the biggest city in Okinawa), later, Naha-te was brought to main land of Japan and spread over to the world.
Many of the Goju Ryu instructors found that there are different versons of Goju Ryu (it is not reasonable in the same style (ryu) found different verson). To find out the original Goju Ryu, they all go to the place where Goju Ryu Karate spread out to the world --- Japan, however they faced the same problem in Japan. Finally they understand that Karate is come from Okinawa, then they go to the birth place of Karate ---- Okinawa to look for the ture. After the search, they find out why there are different versions in Goju Ryu, the answer is that some of the Japanese students go to Okinawa and follow Choju Miyagi sensei to pratice Goju Ryu during summer holiday, after they go back to Japan, they exaggerate that they were the personal disciple of Chojun Miyagi Sensei, it promoted their status for attracting more peoples to learn Karate. At that time, Karate is not popular in Japan, but Japanese appreciated the arts from China, this cause Karate becomes more popular in Japan. Japanese was defeated in World War II, and Okinawa was governed by the military of United States. Travelling between Okinawa and Japan was prohibited. Thus, the Japan Karate instructors were unable to have further studying Goju-ryu from Chojun Miyagi Sensei.
Karate becomes a popular martial arts over the world. After Okinawa was handed over to Japan by military of United States. Both Karate masters in Japan and Okinawa were able to reach each other, and they clearly understand the true history of Goju Ryu Karate, however most of the peoples still misunderstand that the original Karate was invented from Japan and treated Japan Goju Ryu Karate as a standard. At last, it draws to peoples' attention because of the different versions of Goju Ryu Karate.
After understand the history of Goju Ryu Karate, many Goju Ryu Karate Ka feel that it is necessary to standardize Goju Ryu Karate, they agreed to organize a world wide Goju Ryu Karate Federation to preserve the technique and philosophy of Grandmaster Chojun Miyagi. As memorial Goju Ryu Karate is original from Okinawa the name of the federation is called "INTERNATIONAL OKINAWAN GOJU RYU KARATE-DO FEDERATION" <I.O.G.K.F.>
In August 1979, the first gasshuku (training for peoples come from different countries) for IOGKF was held in Poole, England. In this meeting, the senior disciple of Choujun Miyagi Sensei ---- SEIKO KINA Sensei, AN'ICHI MIYAGI Sensei, SEIJIN NAKAMOTO Sensei and SHUICHI ARAGAKI Sensei, all of them were take place to instruct and passing the original Goju Ryu Karate to the attendants. It was aimed though the international gasshuku to pass the traditional Goju Ryu Karate to their followers. At present, there are over 50 countries affiliated the federation. The federation also set the rules and badge, agreed by Chojun Miyagi's family federation was approved to use Miyagi family's logo《
》as the badge of <I.O.G.K.F.>, perpose is to remind us to reorganze, preserve and develop Chojun Miyagi's Goju-ryu Karate and philosophy and train hard to promote traditional Goju Ryu Karate over the world.
