Miyagi Chojun
Yamaguchi Gogen
The GoJu Ryu Crest
GoJu-Ryu Style
'Go' is the Japanese word for hardness and 'Ju" is the word for softness, thereby GoJu is a hard and soft style of martial art. The system is based on the concept that all hardness and stiffness is not good. At the same time, neither is too much softness and gentleness. The two should complement each other.
Combining the two gives GoJu-Ryu karate its beautiful, disciplined movements, filled with graceful, flowing forms and strength, Actions are sometimes extremely fast and other times slow and majestic. GoJu-Ryu relies on an aggressive style of attack with emphasis on delivering hard strikes, but with easy comfort and rapid succession, maneuvering not only forwards and backwards but from side to side as well.
Miyagi Chojun
Born to a noble family in Naha, Okinawa, on April 25, 1888, Miyagi (later changed to Miyagi Chojun by the Japanese) started his life in karate at the age of nine. His teacher was Higashionna Sensei. By the time Miyagi was 20 years old, he was Sensei's disciple.
Miyagi Chojun later travelled to central China where he studied Zen and the martial arts, as his Sensei before him had done. After many years, Miyagi returned to Okinawa and formulated the GoJu-Ryu system of karate, employing the principles his Sensei had taught him. After the system of GoJu had taken shape, he felt the need for a symbolic insignia. He traced his half-clenched fist (slightly crooked due to a previous injury) to act as icon for both the lineage and philosophy of this “hard and soft” style. Blending the strong snap techniques of the soft Chinese Kenpo, his style was complete.
Yamaguchi Gogen (“The Cat”)
It was while attending Retsumeikan University that Yamaguchi Sensei, a deeply religious man, first heard of GoJu-Ryu karate and the great Okinawan: Miyagi Chojun. Curious about the system, Yamaguchi Sensei (a.k.a. 'the cat') wrote to Miyagi and invited him to come to Japan. Miyagi accepted and left shortly thereafter.
The meeting of the two was to be a fateful one, not only for GoJu-Ryu, but for all karate.
Yamaguchi Sensei immediately fell in love with the strange and intricate patterns displayed by Miyagi. He fully embraced the innovative hard and soft approach. When Miyagi Chojun Sensei left Japan to return to Okinawa he left behind him a well-trained and educated follower in GoJu-Ryu.
In 1930, Yamaguchi Sensei set out establishing a dojo. He organized the first dojo in Western Japan in 1930. Under his capable leadership the school attracted new adherents and GoJu-Ryu began to fan out across the island nation.
Developing schools, refining style, changing the course of history
Early in the Japanese development, Yamaguchi Sensei made fundamental changes in the GoJu-Ryu school that were to radically alter the course of karate. After observing his students he came to the conclusion that the strict Okinawan brand of karate, based on its Chinese origins, was too static and limited in style. He believed that just the practice steps in sparring, called “kumite”, inhibited many students; so, he devised free-style kumite (initially along the lines of boxing). It was a natural progression to go to free-style sparring. Later, the sparring (or kumite) underwent further transformation, using knowledge of other martial arts to improve it.
By freeing karate from the strictest adherence to kata and the adaptations of the competitive element, GoJu made tremendous advances in the next few years.
In 1930, Masters succeeded in their efforts to have karate admitted to the Butoku-Kai, the official government headquarters for the Japanese martial arts. The same year, GoJu headquarters were established in Tokyo next to the famous Giho Kai Judo Institute. From here, the Second World War came and ended, leaving servicemen from all parts of the world training and taking the art back home. Thus the GoJu-Ryu system spread through a vast network of dojos, in schools, offices, factories, etc.
In 1953, Miyagi Sensei passed away, leaving Meitoku Yagi to succeed him in Okinawa and Yamaguchi Sensei continuing his efforts in expanding the art in Japan. The decision to relocate the headquarters of all Japanese karate, GoJu Kai organizations, to Tokyo in 1950 resulted in a great jump population increase for the GoJu-Ryu system.
Besides Japan, GoJu-Ryu organizations exist in Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, The Philippines, Australia, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Mexico, Canada, The United States, and more.
The GoJu-Ryu Crest & Its Meaning
The fist, you will notice, is half closed and half open. This lends to the idea that GoJu-Ryu is neither totally hard nor totally soft. The fist is traced from that of Master Chojun Miiyagi: the founder of GoJu-Ryu karate.
This fist has three colours:
BLACK: Black stands for the ideals that go with a being a Black Belt in GoJu-Ryu.
RED: Red stands for the highest level of proficiency, that of the master.
WHITE: White stands for the beginner in Karate-Do.
Simply stated: white equals beginner, black equals instructor and red equals master.
The Kanji characters at the bottom of the palm say, “GO / JU / RYU”. The second row of characters stand for “KARA / TE / DO”.
All of our higher Black Belts have part of their fist symbolically filled with red dye. This indicates different ranks such as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Dan, etc. For example, a 1st Dan is indicated through the filling in of the end parts of the banner at the bottom of the fist. A 2nd Dan has the entire banner filled in with red. A 3rd Dan has the banner and the wrist sections filled in (as high up as the characters), and, finally, the 4th Dan can be easily recognized because the entire fist is red.
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