Goju-Ryu Comes to America

Gojuryu karate-do was first introduced to the America’s by its founder, Grandmaster Chojun Miyagi. Miyagi Sensei was invited by Chinyei Kinjo and the Okinawan News Paper, the Yoen Jiho Sha to demonstrate and teach his art to the Okinawan’s that lived in the American territory of Hawaii. Miyagi Sensei stayed for almost a year and toured the Islands giving demonstrations.

The introduction of Gojuryu to the mainland of the United States was threefold. Peter Urban Sensei was the first instructor to introduce Japanese Gojuryu in 1959. Urban was a student of the famed Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei and was instrumental in establishing Yamaguchi’s Goju-Kai in the United States. Later Urban would go on to form his own American Goju System. Also in 1959 Jack Coleman Sensei introduced Gojuryu to Ohio. Coleman was a student of Kanki Izumikawa Sensei and after his return from Japan began teaching in Toledo, Ohio. Coleman’s efforts helped established what later became the Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai, and John Roseberry Sensei, a student of Seikichi Toguchi Sensei, began teaching Shoreikan Gojuryu at the Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois.

In 1960, Anthony Mirakian Sensei was the first to introduce the Okinawan Gojuryu Meibukan to Watertown, Massachusetts. Mirakian first trained under Seikichi Toguchi Sensei and later became a senior student under Meitoku Yagi Sensei. Also in 1960 Masaichi Oshiro Sensei, a student of Yamaguchi and Yagi began teaching Gojuryu in Hawaii.  In 1963, Gosen Yamaguchi Sensei (2^nd son of Gogen) established a dojo in San Francisco, making it the first Goju-kai dojo on the west coast.

By 1964, Yamaguchi Gosei (1^st son of Gogen) had arrived in San Francisco and founded the Goju-Kai Karate-do USA. William Rueter, a student of Masaichi Oshiro, introduced Gojuryu to Nevada, Ichiro Takahata begins teaching Shoreikan Gojuryu in Oklahoma and Larry Pickel, a student of Eiichi Miyazato, founded the Jundokan of Indiana. Pickel began teaching in Chesterfield, Indiana. Pickel’s dojo would spawn one of American Karate’s great leaders, Glenn Keeney Sensei.

The late 1960s saw a surge of practitioners from Seikichi Toguchi’s Shoreikan immigrate to the States: 1966 Shoichi Yamamoto in Kansas, 1967 Akira Kawakami in New York and in 1969 Toshio Tamano in California.

In 1968, Motto Yamakura Sensei, a student of Seigo Tada Sensei, arrived in Boston and began teaching Seigokan Gojuryu and John Roseberry begins teaching Shoreikan Gojuryu to Nebraska. In 1969, Teruo Chinen Sensei, a student of eiichi Miyazato Sensei arrives in Spokane, Washington and establishes a Jundokan Gojuryu Dojo. Chinen Sensei remained in the US and eventually founded the Jundokan International. Mike Mancusso Sensei, a student of eiichi Miyazato sensei, returned from Okinawa and began teaching in New York and in 1970 Natambu Bomani sensei, also a student of Miyazato Sensei, returned and began teaching in Ithaca, New York.

Since that time, there have been many people to help spread Gojuryu throughout the United States, some of those people include;

Ichiro Naito, Morio Higaonna, Frank Van Lenten, Robert Taiani, Chuck Merriman, Lou Angel, Jim Weinhoft, Glenn Keeney, Richard Stamper, Scott Lenzi, Anthony Marquez, Roy Oshiro, John Porta, Chuck Phillips, Natambu Bomani, Lloyd C. Johnson II, Lloyd C. Johnson III, Kawasi Mabatu, Kimo Wall, Kow Loon Ong, Chris DeBiase and countless others.

 

Rough Year

This year has been a rough hard year for traditional budo; we have seen the loss of several of the older generation of traditional karate and Kobudo sensei.

Koshin Iha Sensei - Gojuryu

William Dometrich Sensei - Chitoryu
Taika Seiyu Oyata Sensei – Ryukyu Kempo/Ryute Oyata Shin Shu Ho Ryu
Kensei Taba Sensei - Shogenryu
Takayoshi Nagamine Soke - Matsubayashiryu
Giyu Gibo Sensei – Shorinryu Shorinkan
Tatsunori Azuma Sensei - Kobayashiryu
Seikichi Gibu Sensei – Shorinryu Butokukan
Masayuki Shimabukuro Sensei – Seito Shitoryu/ Muso Jikishin Eishinryu

I am fortunate that I have been able to train with several of these great men over my lifetime. We are quickly approaching a time where there will be no pre WWII students that became teachers left. The founders are gone and shortly their first generation will have passed through this life too (a large part of the second generation as well), I am afraid that with these great losses, many of the old ways of karate will also cease to exist in the next decade.

I am approaching the 19^th anniversary of my dojo (January 1st), and 45 days after that I will have my 36^th anniversary of budo training. I have practiced karate every day, with very, very few exceptions, since I began training and I have taught either at my own dojo or my fathers for the last 22 years.  This year has been a challenge for me, not in my training or in my private dojo, but in the politics of commercial dojos,  I have grown tired of teaching people who want everything handed to them, I have done my best to pass on the older ways of karate as I have learned them, but again I fear people may not want to learn them. It may not be the passing of all these great men, but also the attitude of the current generation that is the downfall of true budo.

I recently had a conversation with a with a man that I feel is a good (and old friend) with whom I talked about the very same fear, we discussed the difference in what was being done when we were younger, versus how things seem to be going now. My friend does not have his own dojo, but he visits other people’s dojo for training and teaching. I had discussed with him that even though I had just spent a great deal of time remodeling my dojo that I was at a place in life where I was tired of trying to teach, that I wanted to simply stop. Use the dojo for my own personal training and nothing else, train with the occasional guest and offer advice and corrections to my yudansha level students, but that was it, no more kyu grades. He confided in me that he wanted a dojo, but it would probably have to wait until he retired. We had a lengthy discussion throughout the two day period. One thing that he said to me was “If people like us do not teach, people that have trained with the masters, and have studied traditional karate, then it will die, if we do nothing, and others feel the same way, then it will die and maybe we could have stopped it”. This has really got me thinking and while I have made no decision one way or the other, none the less, he has a great point.

Observations

I recently attended the 23^rd PKC International Karate Tournament, something that I have done for the past 23 years. As usual Mr. Keeney puts on a first rate event.

As I sat and watched some of the competitors perform their kata, I had a few come and ask me for advice, which I tried to give and  I had a few ask me why I wasn’t competing, I told them I still needed more practice, but they didn’t believe me, despite the fact that it is very true.

I always enjoy going to these events to visit old friends and catch up, I do not make competition a part of my training and in fact we do no type of training for tournaments unless a student specifically asks me to help them, because they want to do it.  I like to spend my time training in the traditional methods.

I had a great time and some great conversations with some old friends. One thing I have noticed is how much karate and Karate competition has changed over the years, since I first competed in 1978. It is almost like a different world sometimes. I think one of the downfalls is the commercialization of karate, and the lack of time people spend on basics.

As I was writing this I got an email, that got my attention and I read the article posted by the author, he said what I was feeling and trying to put into words, so I am going to share it here to illustrate my point;

“One of the things I try to constantly instill in my students is the realization that simply practicing a kata over and over again doesn’t necessarily make you better, if what you are doing is flawed to begin with. You are simply repeating bad technique and making it harder to improve past the level of mediocrity. None of us, including myself, is perfect, but the attitude one should take is to never be satisfied with what you are doing, even while acknowledging perhaps that you have moved closer to the ever-moving and actually unattainable goal of perfection.”  - Wayne Muromoto.

I agree with Mr. Muromoto and couldn’t have said it better. As a teacher, I know the pitfalls of trying to keep a dojo running and trying to keep students interested, in today’s world this is hard, and people want instant gratification and not many people are willing to put in the hard work. That is why I closed my commercial dojo and now have only a private dojo. I think it is the responsibility of the sensei, at the very least to instill good basics and moral ethics. If we do not get a hold on the decline of karate in America, who will? I have friends who are excellent karate-ka in their own rights, that choose not to teach, but if people like that who are men (or women) who have walked the traditional path and trained hard, do not pass on what they learned, where will we be?

Not only is the decline of traditional karate a concern to me, but also the moral decay of America. I think it is my responsibility to my students, to not only teach them, but also to instill proper etiquette, morals and behavior in them. Not build tournament champions, but build better people.

I think part of the problem is that students become discouraged with the pursuit of perfection. Perhaps a better solution is to seek progress, to seek to polish the techniques of karate over a period of time. Forget about trying to be perfect, have some patience and try to leave each training session with just a little bit of improvement. In time you will achieve what you once thought was perfection, but by then you will realize that there is still more polishing that can be done.