Gogen Yamaguchi |
山口 剛玄
Gogen Yamaguchi was born on January 20th 1909 in Kagoshima city on southern Kyushu, Japan.
He
began his martial arts training at an early age under Toshiaki Kirino
of the Jigen Ryu school of the sword. Because of his serious attitude to
training, he was taken as a student by a carpenter from Okinawa,
Mr Takeo Maruta, who taught him all he knew about the Goju Ryu system of
karate.
Yamaguchi
enrolled in university in 1928, studying Law, first at Kansei
University, then in 1929 at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. It was
while at Ritsumeikan that Yamaguchi opened his first karate club. Soon
this dojo became famous for it’s hard training and fierce fighting
spirit.
In 1931 aged 22,
Yamaguchi met Chojun Miyagi, the founder of the Goju Ryu. This meeting
had a profound effect on Yamaguchi who until this meeting had only
practiced the hard side of the art, and after the meeting became
determined to study the “soft” side of the system as well as the
spiritual aspects of martial arts.
Miyagi
was so impressed with Yamaguchi’s training that in 1937 he gave
Yamaguchi the nickname Gogen, meaning rough (his real name was Jitsumi
Yamaguchi, but from that point on became known as Gogen Yamaguchi). He
then appointed Yamaguchi as head of the Goju Ryu in Japan.
From
1938 to 1945 Yamaguchi served in the Imperial Japanese army in
Manchuria. During this time he had many “opportunities” to test his
karate skills. He was taken prisoner during the Japanese / Russian war
and spent two very harsh years in a prison in Mongolia.
He
returned to Japan after the war, and continued his study and teaching
of karate. In 1950 he established the Zen Nihon Karatedo Goju Kai in
Tokyo which welcomed students from all over the world to come and train
in the art of Goju Ryu. In 1951 Yamaguchi Hanshi was awarded 10th Dan.
In 1969 Yamaguchi Hanshi was honored by Emperor Hirohito of Japan with
the the Blue Ribbon Medal, the Ranju-Hosho (medal of honour), for his
services to the martial arts.
Yamaguchi
Hanshi, a master of Yoga and a Shinto priest, as well as a consumate
martial artist was a man that truly united both aspects of go and ju
into a concerted union. He died on May 20th 1989.
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