Customer Reviews

The History of Karate: Okinawan Goju-Ryu

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In his book the History of Karate, Mario Higaonna teaches us the correct lineage of Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate Do and its history. A very interesting text including interviews with former students of the late Grand Master Chojun Miyagi who founded Goju Ryu Karate. This book is a treasure that will allow students of traditional karate the opportunity to get to the true roots. Sensei Higaonna is exceptionally dedicated to meticulous detail of the Goju Ryu history and should be applauded by all karate ka for his diligence in getting the word out to the world.

If you train in Goju Ryu this book should be on your bookshelf and read several times. Higaonna Sensei has put into this book many stories, experiences, and views of many Goju Ryu practitioners from the past, that are a part of Goju history, folklore, and lineage. I do not agree with 100 percent of the opinions shared in this history book, but I agree with the far majority of the material in this book and consider it an enjoyable and benefical read. I sincerely hope it is republished again in the near future so more people have access to this information.

For those wanting to understand the "total picture" and the build up of the Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate style, this book cant be put down after opening. Infact you will want to read it 2 or 3 times. A "must read" for those attempting a dan grading and a fantastic resource for those engrossed in "the Way".
Nearly as good as the buzz of training under Sensei personally.....

Chalk up another terrific book published by Dragon Books. Morio Higaonna's work (translated by his wife, Alanna Higaonna) does for goju ryu karate what Shoshin Nagamine's book "Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters" has done for shorin-ryu karate. Finally the rest of us have access to the thoughts of the surviving (at the time of publication) old time karate men. Higaonna has gone out of his way to locate the men who studied under Kanryu Higaonna and his top student, the humble and skilled Chojun Miyagi.

Higaonna relates the recollections of men like Seko Higa, Seisho Aniya, An'ich' Miyagi, Meitoku Yagi, Yoshimi (Gogen) Yamaguchi, Seiko Kina, Shichi Arakaki and many more. This volume is packed with valuable historic photos, and includes a number of tables which compare Okinawan, Fujian, and Mandarin names for forms and weapons. There is an appendix with a number of interesting referrences, including laws imposed upon Okinawa by the Satsuma clan after the Island came under japanese domination, and brief biographies of prominent figures whi influenced the development of Goju, such as White Crane Master Go Ken-ki. There is a glossary as well as an index. The only glaring error I found was in the index, where the names of Okinawan persons were cataloged by their first and not last names--evidently a computer error nobody caught.

For anyone with a driving interest in Okinawa karate or general Okinawa history, this is an important volume which should not be neglected. What a pleasure to read! Higaonna's 4 volume series, "Traditional Karate-Do: Okinawa Goju Ryu" volumes 1-4 is also highly recommended for those seeking a perfect technical guide.

Morio Higaonna doesn't write bad books. Along with this book, there is is 4 volume set of Goju-ryu technical books that are great reference material. He obviously cares how he is perceived by people reading his work and takes great care that his name is attached to only quality material.

What I love about this book is that it is well written, very clear with a good index. It is well organized chronologically and the pictures are actually some that you haven't seen in other books and are interesting. There are pictures of Miyagi that I haven't seen before, as well as pictures of turn of the century China and Okinawa. It gives a great overview of how things looked and a generally good feeling of how things must have been at the time.

What I don't like about this book is that I find it biased in a few different ways. Some may be intentional to make the Goju-ryu style more historically and culturally significant that it actually is (not to say it isn't, but there's no need to twist the truth over it). Others are simply because of Higaonna's inexperience as a historian. He has done a lot of first hand digging in China and around Okinawa to get direct accounts from as many sources as possible. This is done well. The conclusions that he draws from the reports that he has are a little shaky at times however.

He will sometimes assert or dismiss a formerly accepted view because his instructor "would probably have told him if it were true" or "the teaching of Tote was done in secret at the time" with no supporting evidence. It would be better to say that he doesn't know, and leave it at that.

Despite these flaws, the book contains a lot of new information that has been researched directly by the author and people who worked with him. It represents a considerable amount of effort that created a book well worth your time.

An excellent overview of the lives of Chojun Miyagi and Kanryo Higaonna. Gives the reader the opportunity to really understand the spirit of karate.

History of Goju-Ryu by Morio Higaonna Sensei.
This (too expensive) book is deceiving. Even though we are hungry for the history of our Karate-do, what we need is "facts".
The information in this book is contradictory with other sources like Seikichi Toguchi's "Okinawan Goju-Ryu" I and II, Shoshin Nagamine's "Tales of Okinawa great masters", Patrick McCarthy's "The bible of Karate - Bubishi" and Mark Bishop's "Okinawan Karate: teacher, styles and secret techniques" regarding the dates an personality of some masters. Sensei Higaonna (who is 7th Dan Goju-Ryu) put his sempai Anichi Miyagi on an altar but throws mud over Masters like Seko Higa!!?? He doesn't talk about the technical quality of other senior Sensei like Meitoku Yagi, Seikichi Toguchi, Eiichi Miyazato, Kanki Izumigawa, Seiichi Akamine, etc.
I think we have enough of this "only we have the real form of the Kata and the truth of the style".

Gojo ryu, one of the main styles of karate on Okinawa, has benefited greatly from the expertise of Sensei Higaonna, the author of this well-researched book. He is a master technician of combat and also, in keeping with tradition, an accomplished man of letters. Thus he is a modern embodiment of the scholar/warrior that is held as the ideal in both Western and Asian cultures.

Concerning the text of his book, it is endorsed by a virtual "who's who" of Gojo-ryu. He covers in great detail, in an engaging style, the various aspects of martial arts on Okinawa and the surrounding islands, including the Chinese influence. After this general background, he goes into much detail with the history of Gojo-ryu's masters and influences, starting with Kanryo Higaonna and working his way to modern times. Some great photos add to Higaonna's gift of story-telling, including one that has in it, unlabelled, Shinpan Gusukuma of Shorin-ryu notoriety. This is worth noting since photos of him are uncommon (of course excluding a book of kata and kumite).

Overall, why this book demands to be read by serious karate historians is that the author conducted dozens of interviews over a thirty year period of people who had first hand knowledge of events that have otherwise failed to be printed in languages other than Japanese. Moreover, the author's own expertise in the Naha-style of karate gives him intimate knowledge of the subject matter from a technical aspect.

What I am left with after reading it for a second time, and this time during one sitting, is that Okinawan karate is very much related to the perfection of character, more so than is commonly discussed in dojo around the U.S. Almost all of the masters in this story are obsessed with right living. That means something, and more to me personally as I grow older.

I would recommend Mark Bishop's Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniquesas a detailed, readable and usually accurate account of the major and minor traditions of Okinawan combat arts. Of course it is not entirely correct, but who can get that story right, especially a non-Okinawan? Gambatte!

Enjoy!

This book is a must have for any karate student. Morio Hiagonna explains in great the detail the history of Goju ryu.He talks about the the masters of this art including Kanryo Hiagonna and Chojun Miyagi and their lives. A very well done book.