Goju Ryu History
It must be understood that there are numerous sources of History on Okinawan Karate, but few reliable, accurately recorded sources.
Most sources are of a verbal and, very often, subjective nature. It must also be noted that a lot of information, along with some of the top karate men, was lost during World War II, when Okinawa was basically flattened during the fierce battles that took place there.
Memory is not a reliable source, and the unavailability of actual factual information, has led to many 'claims' and 'myths' surrounding the issue - a word of advise is to appreciate and understand that the real 'masters' hardly had time for politics, theories and recording- they simply trained and researched by self-training.
This is where the contribution of Higaonna Morio Sensei's research, which has led him all the way to China a few times, can be considered as a treasure to serious Goju Ryu practitioner’s world wide.
For the everyday student of Goju Ryu, two useful sources that provide a basic insight are the History researched by Higaonna Morio Sensei, as recorded on the IOGKF website and the History recorded by the Okinawan Government, available on their website.
Recommended Reading
| IOGKF Sources | Okinawan Goverment Sources |
| History Related to Naha Te Life Story of An'Ichi Miyagi |
Okinawan Karate Homepage Okinawan Karate History Naha Te/Goju Ryu |
Books, Publications, Precis
|
TITLE |
AUTHOR |
PUBLISHER |
COMMENTS |
|
Asian Fighting Arts |
Donn F. Draeger; Robert W. Smith |
Kodansha International Ltd. Tokyo and Palo Alto |
|
|
Okinawan Karate |
Mark Bishop |
A & C Black, London, 1989 |
His criticism on 'Sanchin' kata not in perspective |
|
Karate - The art of Empty Hand Fighting |
Hidetaka Nishiyama, Richard C Brown |
Charles E Tuttle Company, 1960 |
|
|
Karate Do -My Way of Life |
Gichin Funakoshi |
Kodansha International, tokyo, New York & San Francisco, 1975 |
|
|
The Bible of Karate, Bubishi |
Patrick McCartney |
Charles E Tuttle Company, 1995 |
A translation of the famous writing |
|
The History of Karate |
Morio Higaonna |
Dragon Books, 1996 |
|
|
The Way of Karate |
George E Mattson |
Charles E Tuttle Company,1963 |
|
|
Traditional Karate Do, Edition 1 |
Morio Higaonna |
Minato Research and Publishing, 1985 |
|
|
Traditional Karate Do, Edition 2 |
Morio Higaonna |
Minato Research and Publishing, 1986 |
|
|
Traditional Karate Do, Edition 3 |
Morio Higaonna |
Minato Research and Publishing, 1989 |
|
|
Traditional Karate Do, Edition 4 |
Morio Higaonna |
Minato Research and Publishing, 1990 |
|
|
The Karate Dojo |
Peter Urban |
Charles E Tuttle Company, 1967 |
Some interesting perspective on Etiquette and Traditions |
Miscellaneous
| A Book of Five Rings | Miyamoto Musashi | The Overlook Press, 1974 | A translation by Victor Harris |
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