History

Style

The style of karate we practise is called: Goju Ryu, which translates to: hard soft school/family. This style was founded by the late Chojun Miyagi in the early 1930s. His sensei (teacher) was Kanryo Higaonna and his sensei was Ryu Ryu Ko. The following is some history on the various practitioners along our lineage dating back to the early 1800s, through to present day.

KANRYO HIGAONNA

He was born in Nishimura, March 10th, 1853. He had 8 siblings; 7 brothers and 1 sister. At the age of ten, he began helping his father on his boat, which helped build a strong physique. In 1867 his father, Kanryo, was killed in a fight. No one knew why the fight happened, but after that Kanryo wanted revenge. At the age of 15 he went to China to learn the deadly arts. He didn't tell his mother that was the reason, for she would have prevented him from going. When he arrived he was introduced to the great martial artist Ryu Ryu Ko Roshi. Kanryo was not allowed to be taught until he had earned the trust of the master. In those days a teacher's time must be earned through trust. Once a student had earned that trust, then the teacher would impart the knowledge.

One of the stories told of Ryu Ryu Ko's strength was from when they (Kanryo Higaonna and Ryu Ryu Ko) were working in the workshop and a young fighter who had heard of Ryu Ryu Ko's great strength, arrived. The young fighter challenged him by crushing a piece of bamboo with his hand. Ryu Ryu Ko met the young fighter's challenge by picking up another piece of bamboo and instead of crushing it, he held the 2 ends and pulled the bamboo length wise, tearing it apart. The young fighter, obviously defeated, left in silence.

For the first 5 to 6 years Kanryo only learnt one kata (kata is a series of movements passed down from generation to generation because they could not write). After this period Kanryo had gained his teachers trust and was able to receive more knowledge. His studies in China were not just about 'the arts' he also learnt about herbal medicine. This is one of the stories of medical knowledge. A student of Ryu Ryu Ko's was having a leaving party on a boat. The student wanted to test his teacher. As Ryu Ryu Ko got off the boat he attacked him. Ryu Ryu Ko evaded the student's attack, and kicked him in the bladder. After this Ryu Ryu Ko said "take these herbs so you don't get sick". The student did not. Three years later Ryu Ryu Ko got a letter saying the student had died of his injury.

After 14 years in China Kanryo's old teacher said he should go home, as there was mounting political tension between China and Japan. Kanryo followed his teacher's request and returned home. In China he learnt 9 kata, many striking techniques, weapon techniques and herbal medicine. With all this on his mind, he had forgotten he was meant to avenge his father's death. He never did.

CHOJUN MIYAGI

Chojun was born on April 25th, 1888. He went to live with his Aunty at the age of 5. His Aunty thought he should become the head of the family. To be this, he needed to be strong in mind and body. At the age of 11 he was taken to meet Ryuko Aragaki who trained in Tomari-te (a martial art, where: tomari is a place name, and te means hand). Because Chojun was a dedicated and serious student, after 3 years, Ryuko introduced Chojun to the most outstanding martial artist Kanyro Higaonna. Chojun hated to lose and was very competitive. His nickname was 'umaka de kajaa', which means mischievous child in Okinawan. Other parents told their children not to mess with him. But as he got older and started training under Kanryo Higonna he became gentler.

Like Ryu Ryu Ko, Kanryo made them do chores before they started learning karate. Most kids failed this but Chojun was used to doing lots of chores and found this easy. Chojun took any chance to train; even his trip to school was a marathon. After this trek he would go to the beach near his home where he would lift heavy stones up to 100 kg. He would move large logs, by tying a rope from the log to his neck and performing squats. He lifted heavy bags of rice with his teeth. All these aided in building a stronger body. He was a natural athlete and he enjoyed gymnastics. One time he was on the high bar and one of his hands lost grip on a dismount throwing him into the air falling head fist. At the last second he corrected himself and landed on his feet. The crowd that had been watching cheered and clapped. He also enjoyed judo but he was better than the teacher, and was asked not to come again. Chojun liked sumo but he stopped because of his father's wish. One of his father's relatives liked sumo and gambling. On a trip to an island selling goods his relative heard of a sumo tournament and he ended up betting everyone on the island. The locals heard of this and planned an attack, but before they managed to approach, his relative escaped unscathed, no one knowing where he had gone. Chojun did not finish high school, but he continued to study anyway. He was quite fond of medical books. One of his friends, Yasuhiro Konishi, took him to a bookshop where he bought a book called “Onara no Renkyu”, which means “The study of farts”; Chojun thought it was an interesting title.

He had a job in a bank as a young man, however his family told him to leave and commit his time to the martial arts. He got married to Makato, an art student and they had 10 children. In 1910 Chojun went into the military. In the army, Chojun earned the respect of the soldiers and officers, ending up teaching martial arts to the other recruits. After a year he became a corporal and worked in the medical section of the army, where he learnt about how the body works and treatment for diseases. The knowledge he gained was valuable for the development of his martial art. Chojun returned to Okinawa from the army in November, 1912, at the age of 24. This enabled him to continue studying under Kanryo. Three years later, Kanryo died peacefully in his sleep, aged 62.

The History of Karate, By Morio Higaonna, page 50, says Chojun called Kanryo Higaonna "a genius of martial arts one who is seen only once in a 100 years". He was a stern teacher exuding such stately power as to be rather frightening to observe. However in everyday life he was a person of warm hearted and noble character, with a strong sense of justice. He loved conversation and his humility and wisdom won him great respect.

Before Kanryo died, he taught Chojun all of the katas: Saifa, Seiyunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Sepai, Kururunfa, Seisan and Suparunpei. He was supposedly the only student to learn all of these katas from Kanryo.

Chojun visited China at least twice in his life. Kanryo had once said "before you die you must go to China and see Fuzhou with your own eyes". Chojun saw Ryu Ryu Ko's place and the workshop where he broke the bamboo. He stayed there for two months before returning home. When he returned home, Miyagi trained hard every day.

On May 5th, 1930 the all Japanese Martial Arts demonstration was held at the Meiji shrine in Tokyo. This was to celebrate the Crown Prince Hirohito's succession to the throne. Chojun was invited to perform but instead he sent his top student Jin'an Shinzato. After Jin'an's performance a judge asked what style of karate he had just demonstrated. There is no recording of what he said but it was most likely “Naha-Te”, which means the hand of the town where he came from, or in other text it has been said it was “hanko-ryu” (half-hard style). When Jin'an went home, he told Chojun what had happened. Chojun decided to call the style after a poem “Kenpo Haku”. A line of the poem says “ho go-ju don-tosu” (the way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness). He named it Goju Ryu because of the hard and soft techniques with the importance on breath. Goju Ryu was the first karate style to be officially named and registered on November 21st, 1930. After that the Okinawa Kenritsu Kaikan (Okinawa Prefecture Athletic Association) was established with karate as part of its syllabus.

Chojun had a great sense of humour. On one occasion he teased some kids from Ritsumei Kan University who had come to visit him to train. He warned them that there were many Habu's (poisonous snakes) around. When Chojun took the students to a place to sleep and there was a harmless snake on the floor, he said it was a “Habu”. Chojun only told them the truth when they asked where else they could stay.

Chojun was also well known to suffer from motion sickness when travelling by boat. His students and friends would tease him. His friends would say in jest “On dry land your name is Bushi Magusuku and you are the best no matter what you do. However at sea we are triumphant” (quoted Pg 81 History of Karate by Morio Higaonna).

Just before the war in 1940, Chojun created the two kata: Gekisai Dai Ichi and Gekisai Dai Ni, for all the people old, young, weak and strong. The war had a great effect on Chojun and Karate. Chojun not only lost many friends and family, he also lost his most favourite student Jin'an Shinzato. He also lost all of his research of martial arts and training materials. This made Chojun desperate to share his knowledge and his teacher's (Kanyro) knowledge with the next generation so that Karate and Goju-Ryu would not be lost in history. This prompted Chojun to revise his teaching style so that the younger generation would be able to grow up with Goju-Ryu in their lives. He achieved this by introducing them to the Gekisai katas and only introducing the harder kata's later.

When in Kyoto, Japan 1942, at Ritsumei Kan University where he was invited to teach, he asked the students to ask their parents what they thought of Karate. On the student's return, Chojun received the feedback, which came as a shock; “I think karate is for barbarians”, “it's very dangerous”, and “very frightening”, was some of the comments. From this Chojun worked hard on trying to change the people's opinions about karate in Japan. He never did return to Japan.

EIICHI MIYAZATO

Eiichi Miyazato was born in 1922 into a merchant trading family. At one time his father had been a student of Kanryo Higaonna, so on that, Miyazato was introduced and entered Chojun Miyagi's dojo in 1935, at age 13. Apart from a brief respite when he was posted to Manchuria, due to WWII, Miyazato never left his teacher's side; training with him up to his teacher's death in 1953.

After his teacher's death, Miyazato was requested by the Miyagi family and fellow students to continue teaching at the Tsuboya dojo (Miyagi Garden Dojo). He accepted and remained there until the construction of his first gym, the Jundokan, Naha, 1957. The Jundokan was later rebuilt of concrete on an adjacent site in 1970, which is where it can be found today; pictured here.

Miyazato also trained extensively in judo, reaching 8th Dan. At one time he was the all Okinawa judo champion and all Japan police judo champion. Over the years Miyazato trained students from all parts of the world. One of the more notable students was the next practitioner in our style's lineage, Morio Higaonna.

Note: Some historical records have Anichi Miyagi (no relation to Chojun Miyagi) as the successor after Chojun Miyagi. However, to put this into perspective, we will provide some facts and let the reader decide; Anichi Miyagi was born in 1931. He started training in 1948, at the age of 17. Chojun Miyagi died in 1953. Anichi Miyagi would have been 22 years old, having trained at a stretch, for 5 years. However, Eiichi was 31 years old, having trained diligently for 18 years. When Morio Higaonna met Anichi Miyagi, we will assume at the point when Morio changed from Shorin-Ryu to Goju Ryu in 1954, Anichi was 23 years old and Eiichi was 32 years old. With Morio most likely gravitating to the students closer in age, as they would most likely have more in common, why would you say a student of only 5 years was your teacher when there is another teacher with 18 years experience? Also, Anichi Miyagi has never granted any grade to Morio, which is very unusual for an alleged teacher. Sometimes history does not add up and we have only the words of those with fading memories, or the writings of people wanting to create their own history.

MORIO HIGAONNA

Higaonna was born on 25th December 1938. His father, a policeman at the time, evacuated his family to southern Japan before the invasion of Okinawa by the Americans in April, 1945. They returned a short time later to Naha City after the American occupation of Okinawa.

Higaonna's father was reluctant to teach his son, but after seeing him working on the makiwara for some four years, he finally gave in and started to teach him. Higaonna was fourteen at the time. At this time Higaonna trained in Shorin-Ryu, under sempai Tsunetaka Shimakukuro. Some 2 years later, Higaonna was convinced by his sempai to switch to Goju-Ryu. He did and this is where his journey began.

Only a few students were permitted to train at the Miyagi dojo and they did every day except for Sundays. Each day, after school Higaonna would attend to the late Myagi's garden and would often converse with Miyagi's widow over the training and philosophy of the founder. He learnt a great deal from this.

Training was hard and consisted of many kata repetitions, with thousands of repetitions on seemingly minor movement improvements. Pre-arranged sparring was performed, as was shime (a method of testing which muscles of the body are tense by slapping and checking skeletal alignment) and kakie (sticky hands).

When he left high school, Higaonna took a job in a bank. But after only a short period he left, as this job greatly disrupted his training. He had decided to devote his time to the Way of Karate.

By 1959 (aged 21) with his Sandan (3rd Dan) from Eiichi Miyazato, on advice of his good friend and senior student Shimabukuro, he left Okinawa to study commerce at the Takushoku University in Tokyo, Japan. While there he taught at a number of dojos. During the 4 year period of his study he was introduced to Master Aragaki at the Yoyogi dojo, where he later taught. Once he had his degree Higaonna continued to teach at the Yoyogi dojo, where he started to amass a large following. He continued to train there until 1982, when he returned to Okinawa. He found it difficult to continue making a living from his karate and decided to return to Tokyo and then later moved to San Diego, California.

In 1979, Higaonna formed the International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation (IOGKF). Higaonna was one of the teachers of John Jarvis from New Zealand.

JOHN JARVIS

John Jarvis began his training in Kyokushin Karate in London during 1965 under Steve Arneil. Jarvis spent a number of years in Japan training directly under Kyokushin founder Mas Oyama. It was in 1977 that via a message from the then esteemed American martial artist Donn Draeger, Jarvis decided to switch and continue his training under the Goju-ryu style. Training under Morio Higaonna, Jarvis changed his Kyokushin organization over to the International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation (IOGKF). Jarvis created his own organization named: Rembuden (rem – meaning to train with heart and spirit, bu – meaning martial, and den – a way of practise). It consists of a variety of different martial art systems namely: Karate, Judo, Iaido, and Kendo. Jarvis was the instructor of Ken Roberts, chairman of the Goju-ryu Karate-Do New Zealand organization.

KEN ROBERTS

Ken Roberts began training in New Plymouth in 1968 with a 5th Kyu instructor named Terry Downs. Twice a year John Jarvis would travel to New Plymouth to grade students. Part of this grading test was to engage in Kumite with Sensei Jarvis. Rembuden held summer and winter camps at Wainuiomata Boy Scout Camp Park, where most of the training was outdoors. The training was hard and the food very basic. Two years later Ken moved to Wellington and began training with John Jarvis at the Manners Street dojo. During this period of 3 years Ken was graded to Shodan and then he moved back to New Plymouth.

At the same time another Wellington Shodan, Tony Sharrock also moved to New Plymouth to live. Ken and Tony joined forces and began to operate a large dojo in the centre city, which was shared with the New Plymouth Judo Club. In 1975, a couple of years after Ken moved back to New Plymouth, Sensei Jarvis changed his system from Kyokushin to Goju Ryu under Sensei Morio Higaonna. As a result Higaonna Sensei came to New Zealand and was hosted by Ken in New Plymouth where they ran the first NZ Goju Ryu Gasshuku. At this time large numbers of people were joining karate clubs, including a 16 year old called Terry Hill.

Ken trained overseas with Higaonna Sensei, at San Diego and in Okinawa at the Budokan. The dan grades came for Ken over the years, and on some occasions Ken had to re-sit grades to appease the rules of the day. He was awarded many of his dan grades by Higaonna Sensei and more recently has attained the grade of 8th Dan through Goju Ryu Karate Do New Zealand.

Today, Ken is the current chairman of the Goju Ryu Karate Do New Zealand organization and continues to be an active member on the Kanbukai and in his dojo, located in New Plymouth.

TERRY HILL

His training commenced in the Kyokushinkai style of Karate back in the early seventies and moved into Goju Ryu Karate in 1977 under Ken Roberts. In 1978 Terry took up Boxing, then in 1979 he started to train in Kickboxing, moving into Olympic free style wrestling in 1988, while also training in Traditional Goju Ryu Karate Do. During his many years of training Terry has competed successfully in various Fighting Sports. In 1989 Terry placed 2nd in the National Amateur Wrestling Championships (under 90 kg division).

He also held the New Zealand Provincial (Taranaki) Light Middle Weight Amateur Boxing title (which he won in 1979)- Terry has held a variety of Amateur and Professional national Kickboxing titles, and won International Muay Thai honours against the Thais (in 1989-1990). At this same time Terry won three consecutive National Goju Ryu Karate Kumite titles and the First National Goju Ryu Full Contact title in 1991. Terry also won the first N.K.F. (National Karate Federation) Championships in both Kata and Kumite in 1988.

One of the highlights of Terry's Combative career was winning the last NZ Open Full Contact Martial Arts Championship Tournament (the forerunner to MMA/NHB Competition) in 1985 and then going on to capture the 1st World Full Contact Goju Ryu Karate title (Heavyweight division) in Okinawa, Japan in 1991.

Along with Terry's tournament success he has established himself as a leading coach and trainer in Karate, Kickboxing Sanda and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Terry has produced numerous Champion fighters in all these disciplines over the years. Most notably in Karate, Terry has produced a number of Iri Kumi (full contact fighting) Champions. There have also been other numerous champion competitors in Shiai Shobu (Point Fighting) and Kata.

The emphasis on a strong traditional Okinawan Karate base has been the main stay of the Martial Arts Association under Terry. Terry Hill is the Chief Instructor for Goju Ryu Karate Do New Zealand.