History of Goju-Ryu: Miyagis Trip to Hawaii

What’s up everybody? I’m the Goju-Ryu Philosopher, and last time on History of Goju-Ryu, I promised you that we’d be making a tropical journey, and exploring one of Miyagi’s lesser known travels. Some people think that Peter Urban was the first to bring Karate to America. Others consider Robert Trias to be the first Karateka to teach in the US. If you’re willing to count variant styles of Kempo, there are about a thousand names you could bring up. But Miyagi Chojun was actually one of the first karateka to introduce karate to the US, kind of, when he traveled to Hawai’i in 1934, spending eight months promoting the martial art in the future 50th state of America.

00:38 - This trip, undertaken at the request of a Japanese language newspaper in Hawai’i, is the only time I can find where the founder of a Karate style traveled to the West, and would introduce Hawai’i to Okinawan martial arts, and introduce an important strength training tool to Goju-Ryu. Let’s get into it! First off, it’s important to understand that Hawai’i and Okinawa had been connected for quite some time before Miyagi embarked on this trip. Located on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean, these two islands experienced a fair amount of travel between each other. In the early 1900s, a significant population of Okinawans, including relatives of the Izumikawa family that would later be instrumental in Higa Seko’s later life and teaching, and the Kinjo family who we will run into later in this story, had moved to Hawai’i and established a sizeable community. Both Japanese ex-pats, and specifically Okinawan ex-pats, made up a decent sized group of the population, and their descendants make up an ethnic group that accounts for 3% of the islands’ population.

01:37 - This population largely emigrated from Okinawa as a result of its integration into Japan, which lessened their economic prospects and exposed their culture and language to discrimination. By the 1920s and 30s, immigration from Okinawa had largely slowed, due to the Asian Exclusion acts, but there was already a large enough population for Japanese and Okinawan language newspapers to circulate regularly throughout the Hawai’ian Islands. One of these newspapers, the Yoen Jiho Sha, and its editor, Kinjo Chin’ei, would offer to sponsor Miyagi Chojun on a cultural exchange trip to teach and lecture on his Goju-Ryu style. Kinjo had briefly trained with Miyagi in his youth, before having moved with his family to Hawai’i, and his family had come from the same area of Naha, perhaps even having trained for a short period of time with Higaonna Kanryo Sensei. Miyagi was already beginning to think about the future of his style when Kinjo invited him to visit Hawai’i, having only recently named and registered with the Butokukai, and having just begun to write the Karatedo Gaisetsu.

02:34 - He would embark for this trip in April of 1934, arriving in May on the island of Oahu. Kinjo and several others held a party for Miyagi on May 10th, before beginning to give his first few demonstrations that weekend, at the Young Men’s Buddhist Association, and the Japanese Social Club. Reportedly, the first of these demonstrations had over 200 attendees, who were very impressed with his presentation. Miyagi spent about 11 days on Oahu, before traveling around Kaui, giving local demonstrations and classes, for about a month. He returned to Oahu, no later than July 29th, where a gathering was held for him, providing the only known surviving photo of Miyagi from this trip! There he is, right there! In all, this trip would last for about 8 months, and Miyagi returned to Okinawa in early 1935, from where he would go on to the Ritsumeikan University to visit Yogi Jitsuei and Yamaguchi Jitsumi, and then later to Shanghai as mentioned in the previous video.

03:34 - As far as I’m aware, this trip was the longest consecutive time that Miyagi spent in one place outside of his home in Naha, except for his mandatory military service in his youth. This trip doesn’t seem to have been the origin of any large karate organizations in Hawai’i, and as far as I can tell, Kinjo Chin’ei was not able to promote karate much more before being arrested in 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, for suspected communist activity, and placed into internment. And although the Izumikawa family had many members living in Hawai’i during that time, I can’t find any evidence that they encountered Miyagi during this trip, although Izumikawa Kanki helped to teach with Higa Seko in Saipan not even two years later. But there is one more lasting legacy that this trip had on Goju-Ryu and karate in general, even if Goju’s prominence in Hawai’i would be undercut by Kempo by the time the 50th state was granted statehood. While Miyagi was giving demonstrations and lectures on Hawai’i, he also seems to have had the opportunity to view some of the local fighting traditions and training.

04:32 - Some wrestlers in Hawai’i utilized a training implement that consisted of an iron ring, to be used to develop strength and comfortability with manipulating a body for throws and grapples. This implement piqued Miyagi’s interest, and he studied it, eventually bringing back a modified version known as the Kongoken, karate’s very own style of grappling dummy. And last but not least, I stumbled upon something while researching this video that piqued my interest. There is a persistent rumor that showed up in several articles I read that states that, during this trip, some film was taken of Miyagi Chojun Sensei. If this is true, that film would be both the only video record of Miyagi’s training, and an invaluable potential look at his training methods.

05:12 - Unfortunately, if this video does exist (and if it wasn’t destroyed during the war), no one has been able to locate it, nor has anyone even found a promising lead to locating it. I suppose, if anyone happens to have this video or know who does, let me know, but it seems as though this work is sadly lost. So that’s the story of Miyagi’s trip to Hawai’i, one of the least covered, but surprisingly most interesting, chapters of his life. Thanks so much for watching this episode of the History of Goju-Ryu series. If you liked this video, you know what to do, this isn’t your first day on YouTube.

05:48 - For comments this go round, I’d like to hear who you’d invite to teach karate at your city or your dojo, if you could choose anyone. Personally, I’d lean towards picking the subject of our next video, the no-longer secret Kung Fu influence behind Miyagi, Go Kenki! If you want to see that video when it comes out, as well as any other videos I make, this is a channel you can subscribe to, and even turn on notifications for, which will tell you about 3 hours after I post videos, apparently. Until then, I’ve been the Goju-Ryu Philosopher, and aloha! .