Why do you say authentic gojuryu?

Today, I received and email from a visitor to my web site that asked me why I choose to list what I teach as “Authentic Okinawan Gojuryu” instead of just Okinawan Gojuryu, why I made a distinction.
 

The short story is that I choose to make a distinction, because there are several karate schools in the state of Indiana that list their styles as being Okinawan Gojuryu, when in fact that is not what they teach.

Now I can see that this might ruffle some feathers, so I will attempt to give a better explanation of what I mean. Even though most of the dojo in Indiana can trace their lineage back to a single source, they are teaching something far different.

The dojos I got my start in were the Komakai Dojos (Former Indiana Jundokan), the original head of the dojo was Larry Pickel Sensei, who was a student of Eiichi Miyazato Sensei.  Pickel Sensei taught what he learned while in Okinawa at the dojo, the dojo went through a name change, which I wrote about previously, and in 1967 two major things happened Pickel Sensei joined the dojo to the old USKA and then later in the year, he took a break from Karate. He sold his interest in the dojo to his senior student and successor, Glenn Keeney Sensei.

Now Keeney Sensei, became the head of the dojo and suddenly found himself without a teacher, so for a bit he looked to a friend he had made in the USKA, James Kennedy Sensei from Kokomo, Indiana. Kennedy Sensei helped advise and mentor Keeney Sensei. With the lack of Gojuryu Sensei in America at the time, Keeney Sensei, found a new teacher in Phillip Koeppel Sensei and began training in Shoreiryu Karate-do. He also trained under Shoreiryu style head and USKA president Robert Trias Sensei.

Let me make a clarifying point here, Keeney Sensei always maintained that in his dojo we learned Jundokan Gojuryu as it was brought back and taught by Larry Pickel Sensei in 1964, he also said that we learned Shoreiryu as taught by Trias Sensei and Koeppel Sensei prior to 1982. At the Komakai we learned two separate styles of karate, two different sets of kihon and waza, and the styles were kept separate from each other and a definite distinction was made between the two.

So before you ask, no I do not include Keeney sensei in the group I was talking about before, because he taught two very distinctive styles in one dojo, but he maintained them as separate.

In my father’s dojo, he as the senior student of Keeney Sensei, still maintains both styles, he teaches them separately and makes a distinction between the two. If you ask him, or see an advertisement, it will list that he teaches Okinawan Gojuryu and Shoreiryu (or shuriryu).

Now like I said there are a few dojo in Indiana that do teach authentic gojuryu;

My father, Curt Jones Sensei, who teaches not only all of the gojuryu kata, but also all of the shoreiryu kata.

Larry Davenport Sensei, who was a student of Larry Pickel Sensei , Glenn Keeney Sensei, and Chuck Merriman Sensei. In his dojo he only teaches the Gojuryu he learned from these teachers.

There is a former IOGKF dojo, up in northern Indiana that is still in operation.

There was a Kenshikai dojo down in New Albany that taught Tetsuhiro Hokama sensei branch of Gojuryu.

And of course there is my dojo

No what I am talking about are those dojo that say they teach Traditional Okinawan Gojuryu but teach 7 gojuryu kata and 8 shorei kata, and some other kata from different sources. They only say that they are Traditional Okinawan Gojuryu, they don’t say anything about shoreiryu or where ever the other kata come from. They teach a combined curriculum but call it Gojuryu. Some of the dojo may even be able to trace part of their lineage back to Mr. Keeney but they are not teaching what he taught. Those dojo would be better off to refer to themselves as Goju-shorei-ryu or any other name.

Perhaps it isn’t even their fault, maybe they don’t even know that they aren’t doing a true version of Okinawan Gojuryu, maybe theri teacher never told them, or their teachers teacher.

So before someone asks me what I think is a true version of Okinawan Gojuryu, I will go ahead and give a very brief summary. To be Okinawan Gojuryu, one must practice Junbi-undo, hojo-undo, and at least the 12 kata found commonly shared by all of the Gojuryu Kai-ha namely; Sanchin, Gekisai Dai Ichi, Gekisai Dai Ni, Saifa, Seiunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Seipai, Kururunfa, Seisan, Suparenpei and Tensho. Now depending on the line you come from, there may be more kata (please see my article on Koden and Shoden kata for more), but this is the basic syllabus. So if you not at least doing all of these kata and are doing something different, then you aren’t teaching Gojuryu.

I am not meaning to offend anyone by this post, I am just trying to make a distinction between what it is that I teach in my dojo, and what others are teaching, even though we both say we teach Gojuryu.