Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Histoire Du Karate-Do L’ecole Goju-ryu

 my translation from the work by Kenji Tokitsu


I – L’ecole Goju-ryu


The school of Goju-ryu was founded by Chojun Miyagi who had renewed the art of Naha-te transmitted by Kanryo Hiagonna.

1 – From Naha-te to Goju-ryu : K. Hiagonna (1853 – 1915)

K. Hiagonna was born in 1852 or 1853 in Naha which is the most important maritime port of Okinawa and the center of local commerce. His family was occupied with commerce and from transporting heating wood. From the age of 10 he began to work with his father on the small boats.  According T. Otsuka, master of the Goju-ryu school and researcher, he had been initiated into karate by an inhabitant of Kume called the Old Master of Doru. At 17 he began to study the art of combat under the direction of Sesho Arakaki (1840-1920), A Chinese from Kume who was a client of his father. He worked only a short time with this master, because he was called to Peking in 1870. Appreciating the qualities of this young man, he recommended him to one of his colleagues from Kume, D. Kugusuku.  Let us note at the time of his youth, G. Funakoshi had studied some time under the same two masters.

D. Kugusuku was a man very open who occupied the function of interpreter. It was he, who first, permitted to certain Okinawans to enter the secret art of Kume. Summer like winter, the training took place on the beach, while those with Arakaki took place in the woods. They were taking place one morning, when k. Higaona gained his post on a (small) boat. He resumed thus with the art of combat from the South of China what was elaborated (practiced) by a population with the principle means of transportation being the (small) boat.  The equilibrium that (balance) one builds on a (small) boat is the model of reference and the focus is laid on muscular work and the power, with low and short kicks.  The Chinese of Kume were originally from the North, of whom one habitually distingushed the art of combat from that of the North, region where the transports were dominated by the horse and wher on took a focus on the mobility, the paridity and the amplification of these movements.

Pallaleling this in his art, K. Hifaonna, took the Chinese of the Province of Fujian, under the diretion of his master. By listening to his elders who had taken the occasion to train in China, he was consumed with the desire to go there him also one day to look further into its art. In 1872, he left for China, with the funds necessary to live for one year.  He stayed there 15 years and we know little his life in China.  In 1875, interventions and changes in the relations between Japan and China, the Japanese put an end to the tributary relations and to the regular exchanges which linked Okinawa to China.  It was without doubt that which rendered the long duration of his stay of Hiagonna in China, where the stay of those from Okinawa was habitually limited to  two years.

K. Higaonna took the teaching of the school Lui-qia-quan which was one of the five great schools of Southern Shaoin from China. According to S. Nagamine he studied with Liewlyuko, and with Waishinzan. From the start, this training consisted solely of the placement of the feet and breathing exercises lasting to 5 hours a day. He pass the rest of his time doing domestic work: cleaning some dojo and some gardens. The montonous repetitions and the difficulty of language were such that he nearly reounced his project several times.  A poem received from one of his friends from Okinawa returned to him his courage:
            An ordinary patience is carried by all,
            The real patience is from supporting the insupportable.
About the same time, he began to receive different kata:  Sanchin, Seenchin, Shisochin. He was often not able to get up after training.  Sometimes the exhaustion was such that he pissed blood. About after ten years, he received the qualification of master of this school.


He returned to Okinawa in 1887.   The king has just been dismissed (actual word ‘relieved’? Turned out ?), the relations with China were severed and society was in turmoil; nearly two thousand officers found themselves  unemployed losing to the time their power and their rank. An ironic poem of this epoch well described this situation.

            The times have changed.
            Not situtation, not heirarchy, not important propriety.
            That which moves the world, it’s money, isn’t it?

Before the change which turned Okinawa upside-down, he renounced all social ambition, and become a pessimist, passed his days somberly.  He didn’t want to teach his art in the least.  However the rumor that he was an authentic adept of todei was widespread.  He earned his living as a dealer and, in 18898 according to the Encyclopedia of Budo, or in 1890 according to S. Nagamine, he opened a dojo in Naha.

            S. Nagamine tells a story that he collected from one of his predecessors named Iba no Aji Tanme, of Tomari.

            This occurred in 1897, Master Kanryu was 45 years old.  One evening after having been drinking in the Quarter of Pleasures, he returned escorting a young man who lit his path with a lamp. Suddenly, three large ribald strapping individuals barred their route.  One of them cried “There, the old adept, Higaonna!”  he put out the lamp with a kick and threw a punch at the stomach of Master Kanryu. He, retreating half a step, parried the attack with his right arm. The man cried in  pain and fled. The two others were equally turned back.  The man who had attacked was Sakuma Kanta, combatant as celebrated as Choki Motobu. Sakuma ad said that since Master Kanryu had parried his punch, he had become very ill and that he thought his arm was broken and he had run away scared.

            I have retained this precept from Master Kanryo:

           Even if you know 100 techniques, one alone determines your fate. A single strike, is at the time the first and the last technique. The adept of the art must know how to entrust his life to a single technique.

            Teaching was not for K. Higaonna a means to earn his living and he continued his activities as a dealer.  In the beginning, his students were few in number. His school was frequented by the young men of the well off families and so started to draw attention after 1900. The most brilliant students were Sigehatsu Kyoda, Tsunetaka Gusukuma and Chojun Miyagi.  When this last entered his school, he was 14 years old.  K. Higaonna distinguished very quickly his qualities and decided after about 3 years to make him his successor. In 1907 C. Miyagi introduced his friend K. Mabuni in the dojo. K. Higaonna died in 1915 at the age of 63, C. Miyagi took the succession and k. Mabuni founded Shito-ryu.

            K. Higaonna was assured the perpetuation of his art of Chinese combat on Okinawa, while inheriting the secret tradition of the Chinese of Kume and in the completion of his studies in China. It is why his art was conserved the traditional name of Naha-te. With C. Miyagi, he took the name Goju-ryu and became one of the four schools best know in modern karate.

2 - The foundation of Goju-ryu,  C. Miyagi (1888 – 1953)

Chojun Miyagi born in 1888 at Naha to a family of rich merchants. He began to study the martial arts under the direction of K. Hiagonna beginning when he entered school. When leaving school, he was occupied in the family business,  continued karate and was married at the age of 20 years. His exceptional qualities were appreciated by K. Higaonna who considered himas his successor.  He did his military service from 1909 to 1911.  He thought of leaving then to assemble a fishery, where there were already established some immigrants coming from Okinawa.  At the demand of his Master Higaonna, he renounced this project to go to study the art of combat in China.  In 1915, he left for the province of Fujian for a stay of several months.  It was then that his master died without leaving a family. Miyagi, on his return, took charge of the funeral ceremonies and took the succession of his master. He was then 28 years old.

At the end of this period C. Miyagi made numerous trips, both to improve (perfect) and to insure the spread (diffusion) of karate. He returned several times to Fujian and also returned to Pekin while passing by the Coree. At the same time he made a dozen trips to the center of Japan to assure the spread of karate and trained some students.

It is at this point of departure of certain problems that the school of C. Miyagi will meet later.  This school is, in effect, the only one to be developed at the time in the center of  Japan and in Okinawa.  The founding masters of three other schools more well known schools installed themselves in the center of Japan and  did not have students in Okinawa, while Miyagi spent half his time traveling.  The students of the schools that he founded in the center of Japan could train with him only during these trips.  One wants to say in the best cases, they would not have been assisted in their studies a dozen times in their life.  Miyagi didn’t stay in the same town training them, so he could pass to (train) a student hardly more than a month on each trip.

Today within the school Goju-ryu, there exist divergences which originate from this period.  For example  certain groups of Goju-ryu from Okinawa pretend to be themselves the only ones transmitting the authentic Goju-ryu, to the difference from adepts from the center of Japan who have however known an expansion more important in Japan and to foreigners.  In effect, without the knowledge of Okinawa, the adepts from the center of Japan, founded it solely on the current split given by Miyagi to the occasion from his trips, the subtleties of the art, thus, could not be transmitted to them, especially if one makes comparison to the adepts on Okinawa.  In fact, on Okinawa, at the same time during the absences of Miyagi, the training of the school continued under the direction of colleagues of Miyagi, formed by K. Higaonna.

Let us note that this problem is particular to the school of Goju-ryu. The question of transmission presents itself in a different manner in the three other schools.  Because we can say that they were founded on the terrain of Japanese culture, with the consequence of  certain differences in the design and the method of practice. We will return there.

The trips that were made to Okinawa in 1922 and 1926 by J. Kano, founder of Judo, had profoundly marked the masters of Okinawan Karate, among them Miyagi.  J. Kano was at this time a member of the [House of Pairs and decorated with the Order of Merit which, instituted by the Japanese government, was the highest distinction of the State.  In Japan then, the new social hierarchy corresponded to power and the marks of respect related to giving decisions that were very pronounced.  In this hierarchy, J. Kano was well situated above the highest dignitary of Okinawa, the prefect, of which the face to face arrogance of these administers was a thing allowed.

During his first trip, J. Kano made a speech about Japanese budo which provoked, from the Okinawan adepts, a reflection on the cultural quality of their art and the conscience of their vocation.  Indeed, at that time, the inhabitants of the island lived in a situation of inferiority compared to the Japanse culture. When J. Kano returned in 1926, the karate masters organized a demonstration in his honor, and C. Miyagi was charged to be the commentator to him.   J. Kano treated him as an equal, though he was a provincal of 30 years, and younger than him.  This wasn’t in the practices (perhaps this was not normal practice).  This attitude surprised Miyagi, who was filled with respect.

Miyagi made the most of this relationship later to his disciple Niisato who cited it:
“Seen from a distance, Master Kano resembled an old man, but when he was near, one had the impression that he was a giant from the mountains. It is completely strange.”

What impressed C. Miyagi by this matter wasn’t simply admiration of J. Kano, but also the ideal image of an adept of Budo which he wished to realize in his own art.,

Man must increase his own being by the practice of Budo, as demonstrated by J. Kano.  I would like to make karate worthy of being in the rank of Budo, by its quality.  You, my disciple, do you understand this, and do you wish to follow me for this goal?”

It was after this meeting with J. Kano that Miyagi decided to develop and spread this local Okinawan art by conceiving it as an art unique and independent.  Let us recall that J. Kano had invited G. Funakoshi in his dojo, the Kodokan, in 1921, and had given to him important support for his activity [teaching?] and its spread.  The attitude of J. Kano was the opposite of  sectarism [holding only to one’s own belief?] ; for him, his art, judo, was a part of budo, held with the general sense of the term.  Which differs considerably with the attitudes of practitioners these days.

In 1928 Miyagi went for the first time to the center of Japan with the principle amim to attend the Butokkusai (reads Holiday of the Virtue of Budo) in Kyoto, and to study the possibility of spreading karate on the central island of Japan (Hondo). He presented demonstrations of his art at some universities in the Kyoto area, but karate did not draw the attention of the public. He thus judged that it was premature to organize teaching and contented himself with the demonstrations.  For Miyagi, it was initially necessary to make understood the quality of karate to adepts of Japanese budo. The most important thing was the necessity to take part in the demonstrations given on the occasion of the Butokusai, which will be a determining factor for the future situation of karate.  He made some steps in this end beside some persons of influence,  such as J. Kano.  In 1929 he returned to visit G. Funakoshi who was already in Tokyo since 1921.  He was surprised by the conditions of life of G. Funakoshi who was already 61.  His poverty impressed C. Miyagi, son of rich merchants. At the same time, he must again admit the difficulties that go with returning to his enterprise of spreading karate in all Japan.

In 1931, in the course of a trip to Hawaii, he made some demonstrations in some Japanese schools.  But there, as on Japan he didn’t receive sufficient attention from the public to begin teaching karate.  On his return from Hawaii, he stopped in Tokyo and returned a visit to J. Kano.  He solicits him again about the participation in the Butokusai. He returned also to visit G. Funakoshi and demonstrated his karate for some of his students.

To situate the environment of  Japanese society in this period of time, let us recall that in 1931 the imperial Japanese army had begun to invade Chinese territory.  A militaristic atmosphere had started to bathe Japan. Budo, together from the martial arts, was naturally thought by the population for military needs, and is assumed from the military ideology which accompanied then the worship of the Emperor.  It was thus, not without reason, that the American army of occupation, after the second world war, prohibited the practice of all martial arts.   It was karate which first escaped from this prohibition while defining itself as (like) boxing, an equivalent of a noble occidental sport, exempt from all the militaristic imperialist ideologies.

It is in any case in this environment that in 1933 Miyagi made his first demonstration with at the Palace of Budo (the Butokuden) in Kyoto before some adepts of other disciplines. For these adepts (martial) this karate demonstration was not their first, but karate did not obtain a place among the budo disciplines.  By consequence no master of karate a title of Master equivalent to that of kendo or judo for example. Miyagi’s demonstration certainly contributed to give the budo adepts a strong opinion, concrete and positive of karate;  and more his karate was different from that of Funakoshi.  Miyagi published on this occasion his first writing called ‘Karate-jutsu gaisetsu’ (General explanation on the art of karate).  Let us not at this time he used the term ‘jutsu’ (technique) and not ‘do’ (the way).

In 1934, he returned for the second time to Hawaii to stay for one year, invited by the Japanese community to teach karate.  The war was presented as the background for this invitation, because the invasion of China by Japanese soldiers had caused among Westerners in Hawaii aggressive attitudes towards Japanese immigrants.  These latter decided to take karate to defend against attacks. They recalled then the last visit of Miyagi two years before. We don’t possess any details on his stay in Hawaii.

He returned to Japan in march 1935, and presented himself for an examination for the title of Master, which was made of of three levels.  Miyagi who was the first person to present himself in karate, a discipline which was not know like budo, directly obtained the title of Kyoshi (2nd level). It is exceptional for the founders of three other schools did not obtain the title of Renshi (3rd level0. H. Otsuka obtained it in 1938, G. Funakoshi and M. Kenwa in 1939. At this time the titles were indispensable to make karate as well known as budo.

A little time after obtaining the title of Kyoshi, Miyagi returned to Okinawa;  he meditated on the form karate should take to be more easily accepted like budo. He proposed abolishing the ancient term of karate such as Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te, which much accentuated  the local color and hindered the extension of its image.  He meditated then on the name to give his school to approach the other Japanese budo. He thought to adopt the suffix ‘do’ in place of ‘jutsu’ in the term often used of ‘karate-jutsu’.  Remembering that the term ‘karate-do’ had been used several years before, adopted and defined by G. Funakoshi.  It is significant,  that often other masters are, by a similar process, coming at the same time to this idea of ‘karate-do’.  Miyagi returned to visit with other renowned Okinawa karate-ka and invested some money to found an ‘Association for the development of Karate-do in Okinawa’.  All the notable figures of karate on Okinawa participated in this association, which shows the influence of Miyagi and the high esteem he enjoyed.

That same year Miyagi named his school Goju-ryu. He adopted this name on the basis of the “Eight precepts of the art of combat” (Kenpo taiyo hakku0 which are found in the traditional book of Naha-te called Bubishi with a translation is given at the end of this book. The precepts are the following:

1.      The spirit of man resembles that of the universe.
2.      The blood circulates like the movement of the moon and the sun.
(note; the circulation of blood is a metaphor for the full transmission of the art)
3.      Essentials are inhalation and exhalation with force (go) and suppleness (ju)
4.      The body over time adapts to changes.
5.      As soon as the limbs meet a void, they are placed (moved) according to the right technique.
6.      The (Your) center of gravity advances, retreats and the opponents retreat and return.
7.      The eyes must see the four sides.
8.      The ears must listen in the eight directions.

Its on the third phrase (force: ‘go’ and suppleness: ‘ju’) that Miyagi had formed the name of Goju that he ad added the suffex ‘ryu’ which signified school. This suffix was used to designate the schools of budo in japan. The term ‘ryu’ signifies the presence of water, the idea of the school of budo expresses that of the transmission of one generation to another the semblance of the presence of a river.  It is this movement that makes a school. The schools of budo have today a tendancy to become rigid institutions. Have the rivers frozen?


3 – The Kata of Goju-ryu
The dozen kata of the Goju-ryu school.

            C. Miyagi had fized a dozen kata for his school. These kata are the following;
            1 – Sanchin. This kata is considered the base kata, carrier of the essence of Goju-ryu.  One learns to  concentrate their force by breathing and while hardening the muscles of the body. One foten strikes  the body of the one who executes the kata to verify and stimulate the contraction of the muscles. This kata characterizes the hardness and the force (go) of the school Goju-ryu and what it symbolizes. One studies it for its depth.
            2 – Tensho. Miyagi composed this kata after having studied the Southern Chinese art of combat (Rokkishu), during his voyage to Fujian. This kata represents the suppleness (ju) of the school Goju-ryu. One executes the open hadn and with a work of breathing. It is the complement of the kata Sanchin; both together comprist the pair go-ju.
            3 and 4 – Gekisai ichi and Gekisai ni. These two kata were composed in 1941 by C. Miyagi for beginners as basic kata allowing the study of elementary techniques of attack and defense.
            5 – Siafa. According to T. Otsuka the Chinese name of this kata was Zuo fa, that which returns a method to <<overcome, by techniques of seizing, an opponent who attacks>>. This kata is composed principally of technique which rely on the following principle; attack immediately with the hand which parries.
            6 – Seienchin or Seiyunchin. The Chinese name of this kata is Sui yun jing. Sui means to follow freely (change of the situation of the combat), yun designates the movement and jing the force or energy.  Seienchin is thus the kata by which one learns ae acquires a mobile energy which adequately follows the moving situation of the combat. Its particular technique is to use the legs as a means of displacement, but not for kicks. The techniques of the legs (stance), the movement, permits assurance of the best efficiency of the hand’s techniques.
            7 – Shisochin. The Chinese Name is Shi zen jing; Shi means true power, zhen designates the act to strangle or to press, jing means the force or energy.  This name designates then the kata by which one apprehends the techniques of an attack by strangulation (wrapping) and pressing, and also the defense against these techniques.  In effect in this kata, on can find the means to disengage from techniques of strangulation (wrapping) and  the key, to dodge (escape) certain throwing techniques and counter attacks while breaking the arms of the oppenent with palm strikes.
            8 -  Kururunfa. The Chinese name is Kun lun fa which designates the method of kun lun, methods taught at the Budhist Temple of mount Kun lun.  In this kata appears a guard (stance?) nammed yama gamae, Guard of the Mountain.  It is probable that the name of this kata came from this Guard. This kata is comprised of a large number of projection techniques, particurarily a technique called tako te, the hands of the octupus, permitting effective seizing of the opponent. One also utilizes a particular displacement to effect, when one approaches near the opponent, a parry following a seizure.
            9 – Seisan. The name of this kata taken probably from the Chinese expression; shi san shi which signifies the thirteen energies. According to the Yi jing, the book of changes, one of the important classical Chinese texts which is the basis of Taoism and of Confuscionism, the phenomena of the universe manifest themselves across thirteen energies.
            10 – Seipai. This kata probaboy came from the technique shi ba shou, techniques from the base of Shiba luohan quan, one of the styles of Southern Shaolin quan. Seipai and Shiba both mean to say 18.  This kata is composed of 18 fundamental techniques of fist strikes, kicks and parries. We could think from the technical design of this kata symbolized by the figure 18, where there have been the following kata named 36 (Sanseru), 54 (Wuseshi or Gojushiho), 108 (Iparinpe) etc….
            11 – Sanseiru. This name which says 36, or the double of 18, figure which is called san shi liu in Chinese.
            12 – Suparimpei or Ibairinpa.  These names could say 108, figure what is pronounced yi bai ling ba in Chinese. In Buddhist thought, each human  being has 108 roots of misfortune, and he must endeavor to dominate them in the course of his life. This figure, 108, makes allusion to the original Buddhism meaning of this kata and to the number of techniques that were to be studied.  In effect that kata Suparinpei is considered as the synthesis of techniques of the Goju-ryu School. It begins like Sanchin and continues with the techniques of mawashi-uke, of keri, of tobi-keri and different forms of tsuki and of parrying. The techniques are very varied, it is for this that this kata is placed at the end of the apprentiseship techniques of this school.
            This kata is formerly called Betchurin close to the Chinese term bai bu lian whose direction is to bind, to connect, to join these hundred steps. The figure 100 is here significant a very important number nearly infinite, and the word has not has the direction of techniques. Bai buulian thus has a significance: a kata in which a great number of techniques are relized.

            The kata Tensho and the two Gekisai are the creations of Miyagi. All the others were transmitted by K. higaonna and he made some modifications.

The classification of kata: kaishu-gata and heishu-gata.
The 12 kata of the Goju-ryu school are often classified in three categoreis: kihon-gata, kaishu-gata and heishu-gata.
            Kihon-gata designated as basic kata. The style has one, the kata Sanchin.
            Kaishu-gata would say kata to the open hand. The school has 10: the two Gekisai, Saifa, Seiunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Sesan, Sepai, Kururunfa and Suparinpe.
            Heishu-gata could be called closed hand kata. The cshool counts one: the kata Tensho.




[translators note, from the Bibliography 23. Otsuka Tadahiko, ‘Gojukensah Karatedo Kyojon’ (text studied of the school Gojukensha), Ed. Goju kensha karatedo Renmei, Tokyo, 1986.]

   This was one of my translation efforts. Any errors are my responsibility.

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