There is no other art like Goju Ryu Karate.  The word “Goju,” a common Chinese idiom has two contrasting meanings combined into one word: Go, “hard” and Ju “soft.”  Akin to Yin and Yang, this traditional Chinese concept posts a universal balance as between positive and negative poles enabling each to exist.

Kanryo Higashionna (d. 1915) may be the earliest to originate a form of the Goju School.  Having mastered Naha-Te, Higashionna combined the art with a form of Chinese Boxing, which some historians call “chi-chi.”

Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953) a student of Higashionna reformed the art he learned from Higashionna and in the 1920’s he named it Goju Ryu Karate after studying the art of Kempo.  In 1929 Chojun Miyagi was invited to Japan by Gogen Yamaguchi (1909-1988) fonder and chief instructor of the Ritsumei-Kan University Karate Club in Kyoto Japan.  Yamaguchi became the successor of the Goju Ryu School in Mainland Japan.  Peter Urban (1934-2004) while in Japan trained in the art of Goju Ryu Karate under the watchful eye of Gogen Yamaguchi.  He later returned to the U.S.A. and introduced Japanese Goju Ryu Karate to America.  In 1959 he broke away to form his own style known as U.S.A. Goju Ryu Karate and the organization known as the U.S.A. Goju Association.  Goju Ryu   is not a “Style” or a “System”, it is a study of natural law & principals.  The depth to which Goju Ryu Karate takes the study of fighting arts is due to over 80 years of development.