Chojun Miyagi
宮城長順
Okinawan master from Naha, founder of Goju-ryu (the first Okinawan style recognized by the Dai Nippon Butokukai) and creator of katas Tensho and Gekisai.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Chojun Miyagi was born on 25 April 1888 in Higashimachi in Naha on Okinawa. He is the founder of the Goju-ryu style (“hard-soft style”), the first Okinawan style officially recognized by the Dai Nippon Butokukai. Some sources date the naming of the style to 1929, others to 1930.
He began studying martial arts at the age of 11 under Ryuko Aragaki, who introduced him at 14 to Kanryo Higaonna. He trained with Higaonna from 1902 until his death, which the IOGKF dates to October 1916, while other sources give 1915. His training was interrupted by two years of military service in Miyakonojo, which Wikipedia places in 1910–1912. In May 1915 he visited, together with Eisho Nakamoto in Fujian Province, the grave of Ryu Ryu Koa, the teacher of Higaonna. Later he returned to Fuzhou with Gokenki and observed the practice of rokkishu there.
From rokkishu he created the kata Tensho, and in 1940 the katas Gekisai dai ichi and Gekisai dai ni, and he modified Sanchin. He introduced karate into the training of the Okinawan police and at the Prefectural Teachers College. He wrote the texts Karate-do Gaisetsu (1934) and Historical Outline of Karate-do, the Martial Arts of the Ryukyus (1936). He made new students carry stones and trees for half a year to a year before he began to teach them techniques. His students included Gogen Yamaguchi, the founder of Goju-kai, and Seikichi Toguchi, the founder of Shorei-kan.
He died on 8 October 1953 on Okinawa after a second heart attack, and YMAA gives 9 October. He named no successor. In February 1954 the Goju-ryu committee elected Eiichi Miyazato, and Meitoku Yagi was publicly recognized only in 1963.
Early life
Chojun Miyagi was born on 25 April 1888 in Higashimachi in Naha. According to the club website ogkvb, he came from a wealthy family that owned two merchant ships importing medicines from China. Around the age of five, according to the IOGKF, he became the heir of the Miyagi family because the heir of the main branch died prematurely.
His first teacher was Ryuko Aragaki, who according to the IOGKF taught Tomari-te and began teaching Miyagi at the age of eleven, that is around 1899. At fourteen, around 1902, Aragaki introduced him to Kanryo Higaonna, who accepted him as a personal student. His training was interrupted by two years of military service in Miyakonojo, which Wikipedia places in 1910 to 1912, while the club website ogkvb places it more likely in 1908 to 1910 based on his age.
Training and teachers
He trained with Higaonna from 1902 until his death, which the IOGKF dates to October 1916. After returning from the war he cared for his ailing teacher daily, and according to the club website ogkvb he was the only student who learned all the katas of Naha-te from him, but this cannot be verified independently.
In May 1915, according to Wikipedia, he traveled with Eisho Nakamoto to Fujian Province and visited the grave of Ryu Ryu Koa, the teacher of Higaonna, and the website ogkvb writes about a two-month stay in his house. After the death of Higaonna he went with Gokenki to Fuzhou, studied the local martial arts and observed the practice of rokkishu. In 1936, according to the IOGKF, he spent two months in Shanghai studying Chinese martial arts.
Contribution and innovations
In 1926 he founded the Karate Kenkyu Club in the Wakasa district together with Chomo Hanashiro, Choyu Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni. According to Wikipedia, he chose the name Goju-ryu after his student Jinan Shinzato was unable to name the style at a demonstration in Kyoto in 1929 and improvised the name hanko-ryu. The word goju comes from a poem in the Bubishi, which speaks of inhaling and exhaling as soft and hard. According to the IOGKF, Goju-ryu was formally registered with the Dai Nippon Butokukai in 1933.
Around 1918 he created the kata Tensho from rokkishu and modified Sanchin so that it is performed in a straight line forward and backward. In 1940 he created with Shoshin Nagamine the katas Gekisai dai ichi and dai ni for schoolchildren and put together the warm-up Junbi Undo, which Goju-ryu still practices today. He taught at the police academy, at the commercial school in Naha and at home in a garden dojo. In 1934 he traveled to Hawaii at the invitation of the newspaper Yoen Jiho Sha to promote karate, and in March of that year he wrote the handwritten monograph Karate-do Gaisetsu.
Philosophy and principles
Miyagi emphasized breathing and the alternation of tension and relaxation, as the name of the style, taken from a poem about the hard and the soft in the Bubishi, also suggests. He made new students carry stones and trees for half a year to a year before he began to teach them techniques. YMAA gives as his principle the motto not to strike others and not to be struck, but it does not state the origin of the saying, so we do not regard it as a documented quotation. In 1942 he published an essay on inhaling and exhaling in the magazine Bunka Okinawa.
Legends and documented facts
The origin of the name Goju-ryu is often simplified. It is sometimes claimed that Shinzato named the style, but according to Wikipedia he only improvised the name hanko-ryu at the demonstration in 1929, and Miyagi then chose the name from the Bubishi. Sources place the year of naming in 1929 and 1930.
The succession is also disputed. According to Meibukan, Miyagi died without a designated successor and several students claimed leadership, among them Miyazato, Yagi, Yamaguchi and An'ichi Miyagi. The notion that the character of Mr. Miyagi in the film Karate Kid is inspired by Chojun Miyagi is supported by Wikipedia only with a reference to a 2018 Sports Illustrated article, which we were unable to open. We have not found a documented quotation with a precise source.
Legacy
Miyagi died on 8 October 1953 at the age of 65 of a heart condition, and YMAA gives 9 October. In his last years An'ichi Miyagi studied in his garden dojo. In February 1954, according to Wikipedia, a committee of the oldest students elected Eiichi Miyazato as successor, and in 1956 or 1957 he opened the Jundokan dojo in Naha.
In 1963 the Miyagi family publicly recognized Meitoku Yagi as heir and gave him the clothing and belt of Miyagi. In 1977 Yagi was, together with Shoshin Nagamine, the first living master of Okinawan karate with the 10th dan hanshi. Among the students of Miyagi were also Gogen Yamaguchi, the founder of Goju-kai, and Seikichi Toguchi, the founder of Shorei-kan.