Yamaguchi Gogen "The Cat"
The name Goju is quoted from a line in the Chinese Eight Poems written in the Bubishi, "Ho go ju donto", the way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness. Goju-Ryu refers to the dual nature of the style, the "hard" (Go) aspect of Goju is the power and speed of the techniques, the "soft" (Ju) aspect refers to the relaxation of the body and the smooth flow of movement, the philosophy of Goju Karate is having a balance of the two. The Goju-Ryu style believes that the opposites are complementary. If one is attacked fiercely (Go), then one defends with Ju and vice versa.
Goju-Ryu has its orgins in Okinawa where Master Higaonna Kanryo Sensei (1853-1915) who traveled to China to study Kempo and then returned to Okinawa to integrate it into the Okinawan art of Naha-te. Miyagi Chojun (1888-1953) was Kanryo Sensei's top student and sucessor to Okinawan Naha-te, until 1933 when he formally registered the name "Goju-Ryu" at the Butoku-Kai (the Japanese Martial Arts Association), although Sensei Miyagi named his system in 1931 from a line from a poem in the book "Bubishi". Around 1931 Miyagi Chojun, while living in Tokyo, met Gogen "The Cat" Yamaguchi and together they developed their understanding of karate. When Sensei Miyagi Chojun died in 1953 Sensei Gogen Yamaguchi became the head of Goju karate in Japan.
Today karate is highly fractionalized. Some groups
identify with the Goju-Kai organization in Japan, others with Okinawan Goju-Ryu,
from its Grandmaster Kanryo Higaonna, to his deciple Grandmaster Chojun Miyagi,
to his uchi deshi Sensei Miyaga An'ichi to his uchi deshi Sensei Morio Higaonna
who today is head of the International Goju-Ryu Karate-Do Federation (IOGKF).
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