Brief History of Goju Karate

“A person is born gentle and weak.  At his death he is hard and stiff.  Green plants are tender and filled with sap.  At their death they are withered and dry.  Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.  The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.  Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.  A tree that is unbending is easily broken.  The hard and the strong will fall.

 The soft and weak will overcome.”

-Lao-Tzu

Kanryo Higaonna (sometimes the kanji are read “Higashionna”) was born in the city of Naha in Okinawa in the year 1883.  He came from a high-ranking keimochi family that opened a firewood business in 1868.  After some economic struggles, Kanryo left Okinawa in the year of 1868.  After spending 14 years in China studying with the Kempo master Ryu Ryuko, Master Higaonna returned to Okinawa in 1881.  About 20 years later, Higaonna opened a martial arts school and developed a developed self-defense system called Naha-Te; a combination of Naha (an Okinawan city), and Te (a barehanded fighting technique). 

            One of the master’s famous students, Chogun Miyagi, studied with the Master while in Okinawa, and later on, traveled back to Fukien Providence for additional study.  Miyagi returned to Okinawa in 1917 [about the time of Master Higashionna’s death] and modified the art, adding katas, and formalizing the system.  Realizing that the theory of a “One Strike Kill” would not be well accepted in the educational programs of the day, Sensei Miyagi began developing an art that combined soft movements (breathing katas) with dynamic tension exercises (hard movement).   

            Around 1930, Master Miyagi also gave the style the name, Goju, (meaning ‘hard-soft style’).  This is one of the first systems processing a name not denoting its place of origin.  Master Miyagi died in 1953.  Among Master Miyagi’s better-known students are: Seiko Higa; Seikichi Toguchi; Meitoko Yagi; and Gogen Yamaguchi.  Sensei Yamaguchi went on to become the Headmaster of the Japanese Goju System. 

            During the same year of Miyagi's death, a young sailor named Peter Urban was introduced to karate, in Yokohama, Japan.  After training for one year with Richard Kim, Peter Urban traveled to Tokyo and was introduced to Gogen Yamaguchi, where he was accepted as a student.  In 1957, Peter Urban opened a small Dojo in Tokyo and competed in the all-Japan College Championships that same year.  In 1959, Urban moved to America, and opened his first American Dojo, in Union City, N.J.  The following year, he opened another school on 17th Street in Manhattan.

            Peter Urban was reportedly one of the men responsible for establishing structured tournaments in America, one of the first being the North American Karate Championships in 1962, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  Three years later, at the age of 31, Urban’s first book, The Karate Dojo, was published.  Urban opened his famous Chinatown Dojo in 1967, making Japanese karate open to the public.

            In the early 1970’s, Urban returned to Japan to ask Gogen Yamaguchi permission to establish in America, a karate system separate from Japan’s.  Yamaguchi refused, saying the rules of Bushido stated that no white man could achieve Nirvana (point of enlightenment).  Urban, dissatisfied with the decision, retorted that these same rules stated that Japan could never lose a war.  This statement offended the Sensei.  Realizing this, Urban prepared to follow samurai custom, to cut off a finger in apology.  Yamaguchi’s oldest son stopped him.  However, the damage was done.  Urban returned to America and incorporated himself as the founder of American Goju.

            Master Urban has taught several people over his lifetime.  One of those students is Hanshi Albert Gotay.  Hanshi Albert Gotay is one of the men credited with spreading Master Urban’s version of Goju to the cities of New York and Westchester.  Shihan Ben Kwaitkowski, one of Gotay’s students in Westchester County is responsible for spreading USA Goju in Riverdale, NY through one of his students named Kyoshi Julio Rodriguez.  Since Kyoshi Rodriguez received his Black Belt in December of 1993, the following individuals have been promoted to Black Belt or above under the umbrella  of USA GoJ-Ryu Karate-do:

Pavel Pena (4th  Dan), Thomas Haywood (4th Dan), Michael Livshitz (4th Dan),  Astrit Maksuti (2nd Dan), Rochelle Frederick (2nd Dan), Waymon Madison (2nd Dan), Babera Alegria, Jonathon Cordero, Omar Sanchez, Nelson Graciano, Francisco Martinez, Crystal Madison-Rodriguez, Samantha Weinstein, Sarina Shahmoon-Kleinman, Ellie Shahmoon-Kleinman, Ramon Castillo, Joseph Rivera, Jean Segera, Jeremy Sapadin, Leah Gunn, Nickolas Avaliani, Ori Needleman, Toy Eng, and Sklyer Cruz.    

THE FOLLOWING LIST OF BLACKBELTS ARE CURRENTLY BEING MENTORED UNDER KYOSHI JULIO RODRIGUEZ

Renshi Michael Litchitz              Renshi Pavel Pena                        Renshi Thomas Haywood                Sensei Waymon Madison       Sensei Krystian Perez House of Goju                                                                      Complete Playground