Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 142

greatest achievements lie in
popularization and the organization of
karate teaching methods. He
introduced karate into Okinawa police
work, high schools and other fields of

society. He revised and further
developed Kata Sanchin -(it was
originally done with open hands and
Miyagi changed it to be done with
closed hands) the hard aspect of Goju,
and he created Kata Tensho
- the soft aspect from the
movements of the white
crane, which was famous in
Fujien where he had
studied.
Tensho
was
influenced by the White
Crane kata Rokkishu, which
he learned from his longtime friend Gokenki. These
kata are considered to
contain the essence of the
Goju-Ryu style. The highest
kata, Suparinpei is said to
contain the full syllabus of
Goju-Ryu kata. Shisochin
was Miyagi's favorite kata at
the end of his years.
With
the
goal
of
unification of various karate
styles which was in fashion
at that time, he and Shoshin
Nagamine created Shuri telike katas Gekisai Dai Ichi
and Gekisai Dai Ni in 1940,
taking techniques from
higher forms notably
Suparinpei also upper block
was uncommon for GojuRyu at that time and
incorporating them into

shorter forms. It is said he created
these kata to bridge the gap between
Sanchin-kata and Saifa kata, which
contains much more complex moves
compared to Sanchin kata. However,
Gekisai katas are lear ned before
Sanchin-kata nowadays.
Chojun Miyagi was a man of
extremely mild temperament and it is
said that he was a very humble man.
He lived according to the principles of
non-violence. Master Miyagi died in
Okinawa on October 8, 1953 from
second heart attack.
Some of his more notable students
were Seko Higa (also a student of
Kanryo Higaonna), Seikichi Toguchi
(founder of the Shorei-Kan dojo),
Miyazato Ei'ichi (founder of the
Jundokan dojo), Meitoku Yagi (founder
of the Meibukan dojo, he eventually
accepted late master Miyagi's gi and
obi from Miyagi's family), Tatsuo
Shimabuku (founder of Isshin-ry_), and
in Japan, Gogen Yamaguchi (founder
of the Goju-Kai).
Recently a full blown Biography
called “Bushi Chojun Miyagi” has just
been released by Don Warrener (Rising
Sun Productions) noted Goju Ryu
practioner of karate sense 1966. This
book like the others Warrener has
penned comes with a DVD of the all
the Disciples of Miyagi plus a CD of
the entire text that can be loaded onto
a computer for reading anywhere.