Born
in 1909, in southern Kyushu, Jitsume Yamaguchi showed earl interest in martial
arts. Early on he studied styles such as Judo, Jigen-ryu Kenjutsu, Kendo,
Laido, Jo-do and Kusari. Is wasn’t until his college years in law
school, where he had already established his first Karate club and dojo,
that Yamaguchi was introduced to the founder of the Gojo style – Master
Chojun Miyagi. At the age of 22 Yamaguchi studied under Master Miyagi.
In Japanese
Gojo means hard-soft. The art of this style lies in finding the balance
between two opposites. This is an extremely fast, always moving, hard style
with easy effort and graceful counterattacks. Yamaguchi was accustomed to
harder styles of martial arts but quickly fell in love with Goju. In observing
his personal style, Master Miyagi gave the name Gogen to Yamaguchi, Meaning
“rough”. Yamaguchi was so successful in mastering Goju that
Miyagi awarded him with the highest rank in the style and made Yamaguchi
the head of the Goju School in Japan. In 1959 Yamaguchi received his 10th
Dan by Miyagi.
Goju was a more traditional style of martial arts with a strong emphasis
on Kata and Yakusoka Kumit (prearranged sparring). Yamaguchi
believed that Kata and prearranged steps alone inhibited the possibility
for combinations and follow through of techniques. He wanted to open up
movements and allow for freedom to play with movements. This is when he
changed the future of Karate and created Jiyu Kumite, free sparing.
He is credited for the improvement of the old style and pioneering the modern
form of Karate. Yamaguchi also combined knowledge of other styles to create
Shiai Jyu Kumite, a tournament or sport style. In this style he
placed some restrictions; kicking and punching were allowed, but elbowing,
clawing and other finger and open hand moves were discouraged. When in the
dojo and not at competition there was no restriction on the type of moves
allowed. Yamaguchi’s personal favorite strikes were those using elbows
and kicks while attacking the stomach and head. Next>>
