Morio Higaonna, master goju-ryu: biography, sporting achievements

Japan - a country that for centuries has been famous for the dynamic development of martial arts. It goes without saying that thanks to the huge number of martial arts schools, a whole galaxy of masters has formed, transmitting their knowledge from generation to generation. But, as in any business, even among the best, there will always be someone who will be the best professional. And if we talk about Japanese karate, it will be Morio Higaonna. About his fate, contribution to the development of karate before and achievements will be discussed in this article.

Birth and childhood

The future master was born in the capital of the island of Okinawa, the city of Naha. It happened on December 25, 1938. Up to fourteen years of his behavior and discipline were extremely terrible. Morio Higaonna did not like to attend school and tried to spend all his time near the ocean, where he liked to surf, swim and dive. However, reaching the age of 14 years, the Japanese began to seriously engage in karate. His first mentor was Zunetic Simabukuro, who at that time was 16 years old. The first sensei, despite his young age, already had quite impressive knowledge in karate, since from six years he practiced Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu.

The first style

Okinawans themselves about these two styles say: "Shorin-ryu is a beautiful, very exquisite karate. Goju-ryu is rather complicated, difficult. " At that time, Morio chose Shorin-ryu, because he assumed that this style suited him completely, and as his ultimate goal, he chose to reach his mentor's level of courage and ease.

It is also worth noting that, thanks to training, the young man became more disciplined and was able to become the first student in his class for academic achievement.

Relationship with father

In those days when Morio Higaonna was still a hooligan boy, his father determined without any problems when the son was skipping classes at school. Our hero's father was very harsh, strict, even possible to say tough man and therefore regularly punished his offspring.

In an effort to teach Morio to be disciplined, he forced him to carry buckets of water in his hands, which, in turn, had to be raised to shoulder level. Despite all severity of punishment, the young man was not offended by his father. Morio also recalls today with joy the days when he was allowed to watch the training of his father, who had rather high achievements in the Shorin-ryu, and quite often worked together with his friends.

A new turn in life

1952 year. Simabukuro begins to train under the guidance of sensei Chojun Miyagi. The training sessions were held in the garden, which was enclosed by a high fence, which reliably protected from extraneous gazes and idlers. At that time, Simabukuro tried to interest Morio Higaonna with a new direction for him, but all attempts were useless. The future great sensei did not see a perspective in this direction. As mentioned above, Goju-ryu, in the opinion of the Okinawans, is a very difficult style. Daily heavy workouts were aimed solely at developing great physical strength in the fighters. There was no question of any elegance and aesthetics. Many young guys greatly scared the toughness of Chojun Miyagi, so they did not seek to attend his classes in the garden. But these words are not about our hero.

At the age of 16, Morio decided to visit the garden. In the end, this adventure proved to be decisive in his life. The history of karate since that moment has found a new master, who was just beginning his journey, but he had no idea about it. But first things first…

Higaonna was very much surprised by the colossal power that literally radiated by everyone engaged in the garden. Anichi Miyagi struck him the most. It was he who, for half a century, passed the knowledge of Morio.

But the training partner of Hegoana became Saburo Hit. This karate was very powerful, and his hands resembled two pieces of steel. He could repeat various basic exercises for hours. During sparring, Heath never controlled his punches and beat with all his might. And every such blow was lightning fast and inconspicuous. Therefore, young Morio was able only two years of hard training and learned to reflect at least a little the blows of the older student. But all the suffering on this is not completely over. According to Higaonna himself, during the first six years of training he was repeatedly seriously injured. And so, that from a throat, happened, there was a blood. But even such injuries did not allow him to miss any training. In many ways thanks to sensei Morio recovered fairly quickly, since the mentor had knowledge of traditional oriental medicine.

Morio was so fanatically devoted to training that he received the nickname "Kajja". In addition, he had unbending willpower, which was fully manifested in fights.

Features of classes

In the process of training Morio Higaonna, whose books began to disperse in millions of copies over time, used such exercises as the rest of the fighters. The warm-up, preparatory movements were conducted for two to three hours. Each of them was aimed at making sure that the person involved was familiar with the correct fighting culture, improving its speed characteristics.

A special place was given to various special exercises. To this end, used such shells as: mace, heavy jugs, an oval made of metal, weighing 40-100 kg, stone dumbbells. In total, there were more than 15 auxiliary devices. Each of them allowed to work out this or that element of technology, developing at the same time endurance and strength.

There were also exercises for the hands and forearms. Anichi forced them to do so until the limbs were completely numb. The training ended with free fights, in which it was necessary to be able to beat, evade, block, take on the body, navigate in space, without using the eyes.

After such loads, Morio went home literally beaten. His body and face were covered in bruises and bruises, and his hands were not raised. At that time he spent 10 hours a day in training.

Instructions

Karate is the way of real men, but even they sometimes need to listen to a woman. The widow of Miyagi sometimes called for tea at Morio's house and always instructed him. Most often she said that to achieve great results you can not drink alcohol, smoke. He also recommended the Japanese, as closely as possible to watch the master Anichi, since it was with him that the late Miyagi practiced the most.

Getting a black belt

Sensei Morio Higaonna in 1957 passes the exam for the right to wear a black belt. He was immediately given the third dan. It should be noted that over the past three decades, he is perhaps the only one who could withstand a very ancient test of skill. The history of karate says that this marathon included work with weights, followed by hundreds of hard hits on makiwara, the execution of kata and basic equipment, again beating makiwara. And this went on for 24 hours. And the last three hours there were fights with constantly changing rivals.

To date, the master test lasts for 14 hours, so it is possible that Morio is the last master who has had the time to undergo a daily test of strength.

Confrontation with a representative of the "Yakuza"

Higaonna did not sit constantly in his dojo. Quite often he came to other halls and sparred with the strongest karate players there. One of these rivals was Matasei Simoyashi - a man whose tattoos on his body were signaled about his involvement in the criminal syndicate of Japan.

In their battles, everything was real, without a hint of training. Each blow was as strong and cruel as possible. Matesi was much larger than Morio and therefore very often tried to grab an opponent for a kimono. The difference in weight was about 30 kilograms. Fights were reckless. It was only Miyagi who managed to separate the fighters.

Moving to Tokyo

At 22, Morio decides to go to the capital. Such a move was due to a number of factors. But when he arrived in Tokyo, Higaonna was amazed: the Japanese were completely sure that karate was their creation, and they did not want to hear anything about Okinawa. Plus, there was a language barrier, because on the island the dialect was quite impressive from the rest of the country.

Here he found himself a team-mate in training. They were the master of EITI, who was more known as a judoka. Nevertheless, their training was successful and Morio brought a lot of new knowledge.

The best dojo

Morio Higaonna entered the university, which, however, did not prevent him from conducting training right in the dormitory building of the school. Day after day the fame of master serine ryu began to grow, and the number of pupils became simply huge. After a while, Morio moved to the Yoyogi district, which eventually formed the best goju-ryu dojo in the world.

Moving to the USA

In the fall of 1987 the master moved to America. And in November of the same year, the Institute of Traditional Karate opens. Such a move, in his opinion, was to popularize the eastern martial art in this capitalist state.

Today's Day

In the 1990s, a new stage in the development of the karate direction practiced by Morio began. The Japanese also today travels to many countries of the world, conducts training, trains. To the great pleasure of karatekers, sensei can still be actively engaged, to this day, as in youth. The seriousness and productivity of his studies does not cause any doubts from anyone. At the same time, each of his engagements is always accompanied by the study of something new and interesting, even for experienced fighters who have been well trained.

Higaonna is one of the few teachers who has the highest degree in karate - 10 dan. Now the late master and very respected martial arts analyst Donn Draeger once said that the Japanese are the most dangerous person in a real fight throughout Japan.