Miyagi Chojun Sensei was born on April 25, 1888 in Naha.  Miyagi Sensei's family belonged to the gentry.  Having two trading ships, the Miyagi family was engaged in the importing of medicine from China, supplying both the government and private merchants.  The family was one of the wealthiest in Naha.  Miyagi Sensei's father was named Miyagi Chojun.  He was the third son of the Miyagi family. 

When Miyagi Chojun Sensei was five years old, the successor to the main family passed away.  Thus, Miyagi Chojun Sensei was adopted as the heir by the main family even though he was his father's first son.

 Also, when Miyagi Chojun Sensei was eleven years old, his mother took him to a karate master named Aragaki Ryuko.  (Aragaki Ryuko Sensei is the grandfather of Aragaki Shuichi, an advisor to the International Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate-do Federation today).  Having lived through the hard and tumultuous years of the Meiji Restoration, and the Sino-Japanese War, Miyagi Sensei's mother was convinced that a man had to be both mentally and physically strong in order to face the world as the head of a family.

At the Dojo of master Aragaki Ryuko Sensei, Miyagi Sensei had mainly trained using the makiwara, chishi, and nigiri-game which were used to strengthen and develop muscles.   Aragaki Sensei introduced his young student, Miyagi Sensei, to his friend, Higashionna Kanryo Sensei when Miyagi Sensei was fourteen years old.

 Because his fame had spread throughout Naha, many people came to Higashionna Sensei hoping to become his disciples.  But Higashionna Sensei did not take some one as his disciple unless he thought that the individual had a personality which was capable of the discipline required for the serious study of karate.  Even after one was accepted as his student, Higashionna Sensei observed the student's behavior until he was convinced that the student was serious about studying karate.

 The young Miyagi Sensei did all the tasks of cleaning and sweeping the house, weeding the garden, chopping wood and carrying water buckets, with much enthusiasm.  When he was a young boy Miyagi Sensei often helped with the chores at home.  Higashionna Sensei eventually accepted Miyagi Sensei as his personal disciple, and started to teach him his art, Naha-te.  At the time, Miyagi Sensei was not yet sure that he would continue to practice karate throughout his life but he already loved karate more than anything else.

Miyagi Chojun Sensei's senior disciple, Shinzato Jin'an Sensei gave a performance of Kata at the All Japan Martial Arts Tournament which was held to celebrate the Coronation Ceremony of Hirohito in 1930. After his performance, Shinzato Sensei was asked by a master of kobudo (traditional martial arts) which school of karate he belonged to. Shinzato Sensei could not answer that question for at the time, there was no need to have a name for each karate style. When Shinzato Sensei went back to Okinawa, he told Miyagi Sensei about the encounter. Miyagi Sensei thought about this problem for a while. Finally, he decided that it was necessary to have a name for his martial art style in order to promote and spread his art and also in order to cooperate with other schools of Japanese martial arts.

Miyagi Chojun Sensei named his art "Goju Ryu", meaning "Hard and Soft" after the precepts of traditional Chinese kempo. Miyagi Sensei was the first master among the different schools of karate to name his art. Although Miyagi Sensei called his art Goju Ryu, he seldom used the name and did not put a sign with "Goju Ryu" written on it at the Dojo.  In December 1933, the art of Miyagi Sensei was formally registered as "Goju Ryu" at the Butoku-kai, the Japanese Martial Arts Association.

Kata: By Tom Everett

Kata is the vehicle through which the art of Karate has been passed down. The practice of kata goes back to China, however it holds true that from the beginning of man kind the act of recreating battle must have occurred. When the men of the tribes would come back from a long hunt or battle they would sit around the fire and discuss the events. Children would listen and then act out those events. Using those reenactments, the skills used where passed down from father to son. We follow the same principle with the passing on of karate.

Know before we start believing that kata is the know-all-end-all, let me make one thing clear. Kata cannot and should not teach you self defense. Despite the lip service paid to some kata—”this kata has all the secrets” or “this was the most closely guarded kata”—kata is nothing more than a geometrical collection of kyhon jutsu, and can teach you nothing that you should not have already learned. Although the practice of kata is very therapeutic and holistic, it is not the answer to learning self defense. The kata is merely meant to culminate the lessons one should have already learned. With that in mind, let’s take a close look at kata.

What are you doing when you perform a kata? You are reenacting, in a solo manner, defensive themes. You are not practicing them, you can’t be, you are solo. You see, in order to properly practice defense themes you must reenact the act of violence. In order to do that, there must be someone else involved. The kata is like the movies, you always win. Everything happens exactly like it was planned and you are the hero once again. Now, let’s step out of fantasy and back into reality. When you take another person and have them apply an aggressive act of violence, with all the variables and changes that could happen, then you are studying human aggression and how to effectively deal with it. It has always been man’s nature, I am sure through inherent animosity, to assault one another. When this happens, working Saifa on them will not get the job done. However you may, depending on the act of violence, be able to use some of the principles out of Saifa to thwart the aggression.

I believe that when you break down the individual components of a kata into set composites you then begin to see the defensive themes, and, in my opinion, no one kata is any better than another. Some may have more defensive themes than others, but that is not to say that the defensive themes used in kata A are better than the ones used in kata B. Think about this, a punch is a punch, a kick is a kick, a joint only bends in one direction, and pain does not discriminate. With this in mind why does the same move that is done in three different kata have to be different? It doesn’t, although you can have variations (Henka) of the same move, you do not need a different application for every kata. Why make this anymore difficult than it all ready is?

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