GoJu Ryu the  'hard-soft style' is one of the main traditional Okinawan styles of karate, featuring a combination of hard and soft techniques.

The combination of Okinawan and Southern Chinese martial arts, developed into what we now know as GoJu Ryu, a system that relies on close range fighting techniques

Put simply 'Go' means hard, referring to closed hand techniques like punching,kicking and linear movements whilst

'Ju'  means soft, referering to circular techniques for blocking and controlling the opponent, often diverting incoming energy and using that force or strength against them.

Emphasis is given to breathing correctly with deep breathing from the stomach (hara)

and the energy nucleus called 'tanden'

It's this combination of harder striking attacks with softer open hand circular techniques that characterises the GoJu style

The Okinawans combined Chinese martial arts with the existing local practices to form To-de (China hand), sometimes called Okinawa-Te’.

Three districts , Naha, Shuri and Tomari, give their names to three distinct styles,

Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te .

Naha-te is named for the area around Naha,in the past it was an important commercial capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a hub of many and varied cultual exchanges, including martial arts... today its the capital of Okinawa.

The leading exponent of Naha-te training was Kanryo Higaonna Sensei.

Originally a Naha-based student of Seisho Aragaki he was one of many Okinawans who travelled to mainland China and is said to have studied with Wei Shin Zan and Liu Liu Ko.  

Undoubtedly he practised KungFu...Higaonna Sensei’s most notable student was Chojun Miyagi Sensei who went on to found and name Goju-ryu Karate.

Chojun Miyagi Sensei introduced the katas Gekisai Ichi and Ni, and Tensho. One of Chojun Miyagis' most notable students was Eiichi Miyazato, who went on to establish the Jundokan,which is one of the main dojos practicing goju ryu in Okinawa today.  TsuyoiKokoro Dojo is a part of this school. We pay great respect to those that lay the path before us and established such traditional methods of karate training, but seek to keep our practise and training relevant to our lives and experiences today...