Okinawan Goju-Ryu


Book Description

An instructive text on the etiquette, kata, stances and powerful techniques of the renowned goju-ryu system as practiced in Okinawa. Includes a detailed section on sanchin breathing and step-by-step photos with foot patterns.







Goju-Ryu Karate-Do


Book Description




A Goju Ryu Guidebook


Book Description

A Goju Ryu Guidebook: The Kogen Kan Manual for Karate gives the reader a tool to navigate the history, exercises, equipment, techniques, kata (forms) and kumite (sparring) of Okinawan Goju Ryu Karatedo. The purpose of this guidebook is to serve as a training aid in furthering the development of karate students and instructors from the Kogen Kan specifically and all karate students generally; however, if it helps only one person, then I will consider it a success. Please keep in mind that much of this information is in notation form and may only make sense with proper instruction. This guidebook is only a tool to help in the retention of instruction and is not a substitute for it. Also, please keep in mind, that although others have assisted with this guidebook, all errors are my own. This guidebook is formatted in such a way as to be the beginnings of a filing and retrieval system. As each student collects more information, they can organize it by adding it to the "notes" area of the respective sections. It is hoped that all students will research, collect and share material about karate. It is this type of systematic approach that brings science to the art. It is also written so that a lesson plan can be developed quickly by choosing one or more activities from several sections. If more details are needed while teaching, they can quickly referenced in the rest of the manual. Each chapter is given a table of contents to further hasten referencing. It has a spiral coil binding so it will lay flat for easy viewing during training. Large font also helps in referencing the information from a distance. Much of this guidebook is written in Japanese. This is done for two reasons: first, it is important to learn Japanese, as it will help standardize everyone's martial arts training; and secondly, this will help keep this information in the purview of the serious. It is a barrier, which will hopefully weed out some who may not use the martial arts for purposes which they were intended, namely the protection of self and others. Thank you for reading this guidebook. Michael P. Cogan, MSE




Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do


Book Description

The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do presents the teachings of legendary martial arts master Shoshin Nagamine, founder of the Matsubayashi school of Shorin-ryu karate-do. Used for generations as a practical and pictorial guide, it contains over 1,000 photographs to document eighteen classic karate kata (preset forms) and seven yakusoku kumite (prearranged partner exercises), as well as basic techniques. This book is a precise and easily accessible pictorial guide to performance and perfection of traditional karate. The only book in English with photos of one of the great prewar masters demonstrating the proper execution of Okinawan karate, The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do is a bridge between karate's legendary past and the practitioners of today. This ingenious and imaginative text explains the historical landmarks in the development of style, vividly outlines its leading forms and techniques, and recalls noted Okinawan karate men of the past, including the author's teachers Ankichi Arakaki, Choki Motobu, and Chotoku Kyan.




Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts Volume 2


Book Description

In Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts: Koryu Uchinadi readers have access, for the first time, to an extensive collection of the most important documents written by and about Okinawa's most famous karate and kobudo masters and their arts, as well as to photographs of kobujutsu katas of historical significance. This two–volume anthology includes previously untranslated texts by Chojun Miyagi (founder of Goju Ryu Karate), Kenwa Mabuni (founder of Shito Ryu Karate), Shinken Taira (founder of Ryukyu Kobudo), Choshin Chibana (founder of Kobayashi Shorin Ryu Karate), and Choki Motobu (the notorious scrapper who in his maturity went on to teach many who became great masters in their own right). Patrick McCarthy–with the able assistance of his wife, Yuriko McCarthy–provides expert translation and commentary based on his extensive research into these masters and the systems they founded, as well as into the establishment of the Okinawan karate tradition in the main islands of Japan.




Karate Goju Ryu Meibukan


Book Description

This work reflects the system of education from the School of Dai Sensei Meitoku Yagi named the Meibukan. The Meibukan, in an educational sense, originated from the teachings of "the Empty Hand" that Chojun Miyagi adopted in his Goju-ryu Karate system and passed over to his student in turn, Meitoku Yagi. Sensei Yagi developed the system further and gave these teachings a personal interpretation. The reader will find many historical photographs of great Okinawan Goju-ryu karate masters who were the pioneers of this unique martial art. The syllabus in this book serves as a technical manual in which history, origins, practice, and techniques are arranged in an orderly way, allowing the identity of the style to emerge. This syllabus offers deep background that not only will serve beginning karatekas by giving them a rational framework to grasp this martial art, but also more experienced karatekas, who may reinforce or augment their existing understanding of the style's unique subtleties.




Karate-Do


Book Description

Linking the time when karate was a strictly Okinawan art of self-defense shrouded in the deepest secrecy and the present day, when it has become a martial art practiced throughout the world, is Gichin Funakoshi, the "Father of Karate-do." Out of modesty, he was reluctant to write this autobiography and did not do so until he was nearly ninety years of age. Trained in the Confucian classics, he was a schoolteacher early in life, but after decades of study under the foremost masters, he gave up his livelihood to devote the rest of his life to the propagation of the Way of Karate. Under his guidance, techniques and nomenclature were refined and modernized, the spiritual essence was brought to the fore, and karate evolved into a true martial art. Various forms of empty-hand techniques have been practiced in Okinawa for centuries, but due to the lack of historical records, fancy often masquerades as fact. In telling of his own famous teachers--and not only of their mastery of technique but of the way they acted in critical situations--the author reveals what true karate is. The stories he tells about himself are no less instructive: his determination to continue the art, after having started it to improve his health; his perseverance in the face of difficulties, even of poverty; his strict observance of the way of life of the samurai; and the spirit of self-reliance that he carried into an old age kept healthy by his practice of Karate-do.