Chōjun Miyagi

Chojun Miyagi, born in Higashimachi, Naha, Okinawa, on April 25, 1888, and dead on October 8, 1953, was an Okinawan martial artist who founded the Goju-ryu school of karate by blending Okinawan and Chinese influences. He began studying Okinawan martial arts under Ryuko Aragaki at eleven and, at fourteen, was introduced to Kanryo Higaonna, under whom he trained for about fifteen years until Higaonna died. In 1915 he travelled to Fujian Province in China, where he studied local martial arts and adapted a set of hand exercises into the Tensho kata. He named his system Goju-ryu, meaning hard soft style, in 1929. After returning to Naha he opened a dojo, and his greatest achievements lie in the popularization and organization of karate teaching methods.