By Sensai Elijah Bond
Gōjū-ryū (剛柔流), Japanese for "hard-soft style", is one of the main traditional Okinawan styles of karate, featuring a combination of hard and soft techniques. Both principles, hard and soft, come from the famous martial arts book used by Okinawan masters during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bubishi (Chinese: 武備志; pinyin: Wǔbèi Zhì).[1] Gō, which means hard, refers to closed hand techniques or straight linear attacks; jū, which means soft, refers to open hand techniques and circular movements. Gōjū-ryū incorporates both circular and linear movements into its curriculum, combining hard striking attacks such as kicks and close hand punches with softer open hand circular techniques for attacking, blocking, and controlling the opponent, including joint locks, grappling, takedowns, and throws.
Major emphasis is given to breathing correctly in all of the kata but particularly in the Sanchin kata which is one of two core kata of this style. The second kata is called Tensho, meant to teach the student about the soft style of the system. Gōjū-ryū practices methods that include body strengthening and conditioning, its basic approach to fighting (distance, stickiness, power generation, etc.), and partner drills.
Here are some notes on footwork I've prepared to start you off on the right foot. As well as some helpful terminology that will come in hand later.
History[edit]
The development of Gōjū-ryū goes back to Higaonna Kanryō, (1853–1916), a native of Naha, Okinawa. Higaonna began studying Shuri-te as a child. He was first exposed to martial arts in 1867 when he began training in Luohan or "Arhat boxing" under Arakaki Seishō, a fluent Chinese speaker and translator for the court of the Ryukyu Kingdom.[2]
In 1870, Arakaki went to Beijing to translate for Ryukyuan officials. It was then that he recommended Higaonna to Kojo Taitei, under whom Higaonna began training.
With the help of Taitei and a family friend, Yoshimura Chomei (who was an Udun or Prince) Higaonna eventually managed to set up safe passage to China, lodging, and martial arts instruction. In 1873 he left for Fuzhou in Fujian, China, where he began studying Chinese martial arts under various teachers.[3][4]
Higaonna Kanryō, c. early 1900s
In 1877 he began to study under Ryū Ryū Ko. Tokashiki Iken has identified him as Xie Zhongxiang, founder of Whooping Crane Kung Fu. Zhongxiang taught several Okinawan students who went on to become karate legends.[5] However, since Ryu Ryu Ko had died by 1915 when Chojun Miyagi went to Fuzhou in search of him, and Xie Zhong Xiang died in 1926, the two may not be the same person.
Higaonna returned to Okinawa in 1882 and continued in the family business of selling firewood, while teaching a new school of martial arts, distinguished by its integration of gō-no (hard) and jū-no (soft) kenpō into one system. Higaonna's style was known as a type of Naha-te. Naha-te included other earlier teachers such as Arakaki Seisho and the Kojo family style. However, after Japan annexed Okinawa and defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War, the Patron of Naha-te, Yoshimura Udun, and his pro-China faction lost power in Okinawan politics, they migrated to Fuzhou, Taiwan or Hawaii and the older schools of Naha-te were largely lost. Through this period until 1905 when karate was openly taught in Okinawan schools, Kanryo Higaonna kept Naha-te alive by giving students private lessons at his home.
Gōjū-kai history considers that Chinese Nanpa Shorin-ken was the strain of kung fu that influenced this style.[6]
Higaonna Morio (no relation with Kanryo's family) noted that in 1905, Higaonna Kanryō taught martial arts in two different ways, according to the type of student: At home, he taught Naha-te as a martial art whose ultimate goal was to be able to kill the opponent; however, at Naha Commercial High School, he taught karate as a form of physical, intellectual and moral education.[7]
Higaonna Kanryo's most prominent student was Chōjun Miyagi (1888–1953), the son of a wealthy shop owner in Naha, who began training under Higaonna at the age of 14. Miyagi had begun his martial arts training under Ryuko Arakaki at age 11, and it was through Ryuko Arakaki that he was introduced to Higaonna. Miyagi trained under Higaonna for 15 years until Higaonna's death in 1916.[8]
In 1915 Miyagi and a friend, Gokenki, went to Fuzhou in search of Higaonna's teacher. They stayed for a year and studied under several masters but the old school was gone due to the Boxer Rebellion. Shortly after their return, Higaonna died. In 1917 Chojun Miyagi once again went to Fuzhou for a short visit to explore local martial arts schools. After he returned, many of Higaonna's students continued to train with Miyagi and he introduced a kata called Tensho around 1918, which he had adapted from Rokkishu of Fujian White Crane.[9]
In 1929 delegates from around Japan were meeting in Kyoto for the All Japan Martial Arts Demonstration. Miyagi was unable to attend, and so he in turn asked his top student Jin’an Shinzato to go. While Shinzato was there, one of the other demonstrators asked him the name of the martial art he practiced. At this time, Miyagi had not yet named his style. Not wanting to be embarrassed, Shinzato improvised the name hanko-ryu ("half-hard style"). On his return to Okinawa Prefecture, he reported this incident to Chōjun Miyagi, who decided on the name Gōjū-ryū ("hard soft style") as a name for his style.[10][11] Chojun Miyagi took the name from a line of the poem Hakku Kenpo, which roughly means: "The eight laws of the fist," and describes the eight precepts of the martial arts. This poem was part of the Bubishi and reads, Ho wa Gōjū wa Donto su "the way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness," or "everything in the universe inhales soft and exhales hard."[12]
In March 1934, Miyagi wrote Karate-do Gaisetsu ("Outline of Karate-do (Chinese Hand Way)"), to introduce karate-do and to provide a general explanation of its history, philosophy, and application. This handwritten monograph is one of the few written works composed by Miyagi himself.[13]
Miyagi's house was destroyed during World War II. In 1950, several of his students began working to build a house and dojo for him in Naha, which they completed in 1951. In 1952, they came up with the idea of creating an organization to promote the growth of Gōjū-ryū. This organization was called Gōjū-ryū Shinkokai ("Association to Promote Gōjū-ryū"). The founding members were Seko Higa, Keiyo Matanbashi, Jinsei Kamiya, and Genkai Nakaima.[14]
In 1940 Chojun Miyagi created the kata Geki-Sai-dai-Ichi and Geki-Sai-dai-ni. Geki-sai-dai-Ichi was also incorporated into the Okinawan Karate tradition as Fukyugata-Dai-Ni. Fukyugata-Dai-Ni is practiced by other schools such as Kobayashi Shorin-Ryu and Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu.
There are two years that define the way Gōjū-ryū has been considered by the Japanese establishment: the first, 1933, is the year Gōjū-ryū was officially recognized as a budō in Japan by the DNBK Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, in other words, it was recognized as a modern martial art, or gendai budō by the Japanese Government. The second year, 1998, is the year the semi-governmental Nippon Kobudo Kyokai (Japan Traditional Martial Arts Association), under the Cultural Ministry of Japan, recognized Gōjū-ryū Karate-do as an ancient form of traditional martial art (koryū) and as a bujutsu.[15] This recognition as a koryū bujutsu shows a change in how Japanese society sees the relationships between Japan, Okinawa and China.
After Miyagi's death (1953), the family communicated that the founder of the style wanted Eiichi Miyazato to succeed him. the Goju Ryu committee, formed by major students of Miyagi (which included among others Nakaima, Madanbashi, Meitoku Yagi, Iha Koshin) at a meeting in February 1954 voted almost unanimously Eiichi Myzato as the official successor to Chojun Miyagi.
Until 1998, the only karate styles recognized as Koryu Bujutsu were newer styles founded in mainland Japan such as Wado Ryu and Itosu Ryu. Goju Ryu was the first style recognized by the NKK(Nippon Kobudo Kyokai), and Goju-Ryu's official representative with the NKK was Morio Higaonna, and the organization he founded, the IOGKF was Goju Ryu's representative organization in the NKK.
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