Naha-te
那覇手A historical Okinawan karate stream from the port city of Naha, tied to Higaonna Kanryo and his student Miyagi Chojun. Goju-ryu came from it, and Ryuei-ryu is listed beside it.
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About Naha-te
Naha-te is one of the lines into which Okinawan karate is divided, named after Naha, a trading port of the Ryukyu Kingdom since ancient times with ties to Fuzhou, today the prefectural capital. The prefectural school karate guidebook places it in the Nishimachi district and around Kume and Izumizaki. According to the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy), Kume village was a settlement of Chinese immigrants from Fuzhou, and the guidebook gives as a theory that from 1372 to 1879 a professional group called the thirty-six families from Fujian lived there and brought Chinese fist fighting as well.
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According to the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, people began talking about Naha-te only under Higaonna Kanryo (1853–1915), who studied under Arakaki Seisho (1840–1920) and in Fuzhou under a teacher known as Ru Ru Ko. The prefecture, the Association and the Okinawa Karate Information Center call Higaonna a reviver of the line (chuko no so), not its founder. His karate continued through Miyagi Chojun (1888–1953) as Goju-ryu, named in 1930, the oldest karate school name according to the Information Center. Separately, Ryuei-ryu, likewise derived from Ru Ru Ko, was passed down in the Nakaima family, and Kyoda Juhatsu called his line Higaonna-ryu. The Cabinet Office, the Association and the Information Center list Uechi-ryu as a separate fourth line with roots in Fujian, not as part of Naha-te. The sources differ on the length of Higaonna's stay in China (fifteen years, three years or one year and four months), on the year of his death (1915, 1917 on the monument) and on when the division into three lines arose. Of the sources available to us, only the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World describes Naha-te as heavier, slower movement in the sanchin stance with emphasis on breath, and the official Okinawan sources do not describe the line by technique.
History
Naha used to be a trading port with China, the southern lands and mainland Japan, and the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association recalls its older name, Ukishima. Families from Fujian lived in Kume village, and the prefectural guidebook gives a theory that there were thirty-six of them and that from 1372 to 1879 they held offices connected with China. The Association adds that some mastered Chinese fist fighting, said to have later influenced Naha-te significantly.
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According to the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy), Higaonna Kanryo was born on 17 April 1853 (the Association gives 10 March of the sixth year of the Kaei era) as the fourth son of a firewood merchant in Naha's Nishimura district. From about seventeen he studied under Arakaki Seisho. According to the Cabinet Office he went to China in 1874, according to the Association around 1875 on a smuggling ship with a letter of recommendation, and returned in 1877 on a ship carrying shipwreck survivors, documented by the Association with an official Qing dynasty document of 21 October 1877 and the testimony of Higaonna's grandson about a three-year stay. The Cabinet Office itself notes that sources differ on the length of his stay (fifteen years, three years, one year and four months), and the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001) speaks of a departure around 1867, fourteen years abroad and a return in 1881. In Fuzhou Higaonna studied under the master known as Ru Ru Ko, whom the Association identifies with Xie Chongxiang (1852–1930), mentioning foundations of crane style, while the Cabinet Office gives several theories about his identity. Higaonna died in 1915 of worsened asthma, and the monument in Naha's Matsuyama Park, shared with Miyagi, gives 1917. Around 1902 and 1903, Kyoda Juhatsu (1887–1968) and Miyagi Chojun (1888–1953) began studying with Higaonna. In November 1930, Miyagi's student Shinzato Jinan performed kata sanchin at a kata tournament at the Meiji Shrine and was asked for the name of the school. Miyagi then named it Goju-ryu after one of the eight verses on the essence of the fist from the Okinawan manuscript Bubishi. Green places it at the All-Japan martial arts demonstration of 5 May 1930 in Tokyo and adds that Miyagi announced the name to the Dainippon Butokukai in 1933. Kyoda, a longtime teacher in Beppu in Oita Prefecture, called his line Higaonna-ryu. Ryuei-ryu, a separate line from Ru Ru Ko passed down in the Nakaima family to a single successor, was named around 1944 by Nakaima Kenko (1911–1989) and opened to other students in 1970, according to Ryukyu Shimpo.
How it differs
The official Okinawan sources, the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy), the prefectural guidebook, the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association and the Information Center, distinguish Naha-te from Shuri-te and Tomari-te by place and people. Of the sources available to us, only the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World describes a technical difference: Shuri-te with natural stances and light, fast movement, Naha-te with the sanchin stance and heavier, slower movement, and it qualifies this itself. Green and the Association give the identification of Naha-te with the term Shorei-ryu only as informal. Funakoshi himself assigns to Shorei the kata Tekki and Jion from the Shuri-te curriculum, and the Association names Itosu of Shuri as a Shorei-ryu representative.
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All official sources list Uechi-ryu as a separate fourth line rooted in Fujian, and the prefectural table of schools labels Goju-ryu as Naha-te and Uechi-ryu without a line. According to the Association, Uechi Kanbun (1877–1948) studied in Fuzhou for thirteen years under Zhou Zihe, returned in 1909, opened the Pangainoon-ryu dojo in Wakayama in 1926 and renamed it Uechi-ryu in 1940. The Information Center places the opening in 1932 and Green the return in 1907. Schools joining Naha-te with another line exist. According to the Information Center, Isshin-ryu took influences from both Naha-te and Shuri-te, and Gohaku-kai (Okinawa Goju-ryu and Tomari-te Karatedo Association) inherits both Naha-te and Tomari-te.
Technique
According to the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, in Fuzhou Higaonna learned the basics of the crane fist style and after his return taught the kata sanchin as the foundation together with the kata Peichurin, for example around 1889 to the son of one of the princely families. The encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001) says Higaonna brought nine kata without weapons from Fuzhou but names eight: Sanchin, Saifa, Seiyunchin, Shisochin, Seipai, Kururunfa, Seisan and Suparinpei, and these kata form the core of Naha-te. Green further writes that from 1905 to 1915 Higaonna taught sanchin, kakie exercise and prearranged kumite (yakusoku kumite) at the Naha commercial school at the invitation of its principal Kabayama Junichi.
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The Association lists as the kata of today's Goju-ryu Sanchin, Tensho, Gekisai dai ichi and dai ni, Saifa, Seiyunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Seipai, Kururunfa, Seisan and Suparinpei. Green characterizes Naha-te by the sanchin stance and heavier, slower movement, adds that sanchin is not the only stance, and claims that Naha-te kata build on Buddhist mudras: in his account sanchin places the practitioner in the vajra mudra (kongo) and links breathing patterns with mental training. We did not find this interpretation in the official Okinawan sources. In Karate-do kyohan, Funakoshi Gichin assigns the kata Tekki, Jutte, Hangetsu and Jion to the power-based Shorei-ryu and mentions neither sanchin nor Naha-te in this classification.
Training
According to the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001), Higaonna taught only selected students who had shown good character, and he designated Miyagi as his successor. Miyagi Chojun, born on 25 April 1888 in Naha's Higashimachi district, became his student at fourteen. Green adds that the Tomari-te teacher Arakaki Ryuko brought him to Higaonna, that he first learned sanchin and received Suparinpei as his own kata (tokui-gata), and that he traveled to Fuzhou in 1915 and again between 1920 and 1930. The prefectural guidebook states that in 1934 Miyagi taught in Hawaii on invitation, while the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association places an invitation from the Hawaiian newspaper Yoko Jiho in April 1939. The sources link school instruction with Naha from 1905, when according to Green Higaonna began teaching warm-up, sanchin, kakie and prearranged kumite at the commercial school. Among Miyagi's leading students the Association names Higa Seiko (1898–1966) and Shinzato Jinan (1901–1945). Kyoda Juhatsu (1887–1968), the second of Higaonna's students from 1902 and 1903, taught for many years in Beppu in Oita Prefecture and called his line Higaonna-ryu. Ryuei-ryu was passed down in the Nakaima family to a single successor and, according to Ryukyu Shimpo, opened to other students only in 1970 under the fourth head, Nakaima Kenko.
Today
Naha-te continues today in Goju-ryu, the most numerous Okinawan school. The 2022 prefectural survey counted 58 Goju-ryu dojo among 212 dojo, along with 55 Kobayashi-ryu, 30 Uechi-ryu and 37 schools of the Shorin-ryu group, and it does not sort dojo by Shuri, Naha and Tomari lines. Besides Goju-ryu, Ryuei-ryu, which Ryukyu Shimpo describes as a line emerging from Naha-te, Kyoda Juhatsu's Higaonna-ryu in Beppu and Gohaku-kai, joining Naha-te with Tomari-te, also claim Naha-te. The Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, founded in 2008 as the unified organization of Okinawan karate headed by the prefectural governor, names among today's schools Goju-ryu, Uechi-ryu, Gohaku-ryu, Ryuei-ryu, Kobayashi-ryu, Shorin-ryu, Matsubayashi-ryu, Shorinji-ryu, Isshin-ryu and Motobu-ryu. A monument in Naha's Matsuyama Park opposite the Fukushuen garden commemorates Higaonna and Miyagi. The prefecture opened the Okinawa Karate Kaikan in Tomigusuku on 4 March 2017 and has celebrated 25 October as Karate Day since 2005.
Did you know
The name Goju-ryu arose, according to the Okinawa Karate Information Center, from one of the eight verses on the essence of the fist in the Okinawan manuscript Bubishi, when Shinzato Jinan was asked the name of his school after the Meiji Shrine demonstration in November 1930, and is the oldest karate school name. Sources differ on Higaonna's death year: the Cabinet Office, the prefecture and the Association give 1915, the Matsuyama Park monument 1917. His Fuzhou stay is given as fifteen years, three years or one year and four months. The Association says Higaonna reached Fuzhou by smuggling ship and returned on a ship with shipwreck survivors, as an official Qing dynasty document attests. Green says Higaonna brought nine kata but names only eight. The prefecture dates Miyagi's Hawaii trip to 1934, the Association to 1939.
Frequently asked questions
Is Naha-te the same as Goju-ryu?
No. Naha-te is an older line of Okinawan karate from the city of Naha, while Goju-ryu is the school that Miyagi Chojun, a student of Higaonna Kanryo, created from it and named in 1930. Kyoda Juhatsu's Higaonna-ryu also comes from Naha-te, while the prefectural guidebook treats Ryuei-ryu of the Nakaima family as a separate line from Ru Ru Ko.
Does Uechi-ryu belong to Naha-te?
The Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy), the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association and the Okinawa Karate Information Center say no. Uechi-ryu is listed as a separate fourth line with roots in Fujian, which Uechi Kanbun brought from Fuzhou independently of Higaonna.
Who was Higaonna Kanryo?
The reviver of Naha-te (1853–1915), a Naha firewood merchant's son who studied under Arakaki Seisho and in Fuzhou under the master known as Ru Ru Ko. On returning in 1877 he taught sanchin kata as the foundation, and his students included Miyagi Chojun and Kyoda Juhatsu.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.