Japan is 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 been 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 speaking of Japanese karate, it will be Morio Higaonna. His fate, contribution to the development of karate and achievements will be discussed in this article.
Birth and childhood
The future master was born in the capital of Okinawa, the city of Naha. It happened on December 25, 1938. Until the age of fourteen, his behavior and discipline were extremely terrible. Morio Higaonna really did not like to attend classes at school and tried to spend all his time near the ocean, where he liked to surf, swim and dive. However, having reached the age of 14, the Japanese began to practice karate quite seriously. His first mentor was Tsunetik Shimabukuro, who at that time was 16 years old. The first sensei, in spite of his young age, already had quite impressive knowledge in karate, since he had been practicing Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu from the age of six.
First style
Okinawa residents themselves say the following about these two styles: “Shorin-ryu is a beautiful, very sophisticated karate. Goju-ryu is quite complicated, difficult. ” At that time, Morio chose Shorin-ryu, since he assumed that this style was completely suitable for him, and as his ultimate goal, he chose to reach the level of his mentor in courage and lightness.
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 in academic performance.
Relationship with father
In those days, when Morio Higaonna was still a hooligan guy, his father easily determined when his son skipped classes at school. Our hero’s dad was a very severe, strict, even hard 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 the severity of the punishments, the young man was not offended by his father. Morio today recalls with joy those days when he was allowed to observe the training of his father, who had quite high achievements in Shorin-ryu, and quite often engaged with his friends.
A new round in life
1952 year. Shimabukuro begins to train under the guidance of sensei Chojun Miyagi. The training was held in the garden, which was surrounded by a high fence, reliably protecting from prying eyes and onlookers. At that time, Shimabukuro tried to interest Morio Higaonna in a new direction for him, but all the creeps were useless. The future great sensei did not see any prospects for himself in this direction. As mentioned above, Goju-ryu, according to Okinawans, is a very difficult style. Daily hard training was aimed solely at developing great physical strength among the fighters. No grace and aesthetics were out of the question. Many of the young men were very frightened by the stiffness 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. This adventure ultimately turned out to be decisive in his life. The history of karate from that moment found a new master who was just starting his way, but still had no idea about it. But first things first…
Higaonna was very much surprised by the colossal power that everyone in the garden literally radiated. Most of all he was struck by Anichi Miyagi. It is he who, for half a century, has been transmitting Morio's knowledge.
But Saburo Hita became the training partner of Higoana. This karateka was very powerful, and his hands resembled two pieces of steel. He could spend hours repeating various basic exercises. During sparring, Heath never controlled his shots and beat with all his might. And each such blow was lightning fast and invisible. Therefore, the young Morio could only after two years of hard training and learned to at least slightly reflect the blows of an older student. But still the suffering did not end there. According to Higaonna himself, in the first six years of training, he was repeatedly seriously injured. Moreover, it so happened that blood came from the throat. But even such injuries did not allow him to miss a single workout. Largely thanks to Sensei, Morio recovered quite quickly, since the mentor had knowledge of traditional oriental medicine.
Morio was so fanatically devoted to training that he received the nickname "Kaja." In addition, he had unbending willpower, which was fully manifested in fights.
Features of classes
During training Morio Higaonna, whose books began to diverge in millions of copies over time, used exercises like the rest of the fighters. Warming up, preparatory movements were carried out for two to three hours. Each of them was focused on making the person involved in the correct battle culture and improve their speed qualities.
A special place was given to various special exercises. For this purpose, such shells were used as: a mace, heavy jugs, an oval made of metal, weighing 40-100 kg, stone dumbbells. In total, there were more than 15 assistive devices. Each of them allowed to develop one or another element of technology, while developing endurance and strength.
There were also exercises for the hands and arms. Anichi forced them to do numbness of limbs. The training ended with free fights, in which you had to be able to beat, dodge, block, take on the body, navigate in space without using your eyes.
After such exertion, Morio walked home literally battered. His body and face were bruised and bruised, but his hands did not rise. At that time he spent in training 10 hours a day.
Instructions
Karate do is the way of real men, but even they should sometimes listen to a woman. The widow of Miyagi sometimes called for tea at Morio's house and always advised him. Most often, she said that to achieve great results, you can not drink alcohol, smoke. He also recommended that the Japanese watch the master Anichi as closely as possible, since it was with him that the late Miyagi trained 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 assigned the third dan. It should be noted that over the past three decades, he is perhaps the only one who was able to pass the very ancient test of skill. The history of karate says that this marathon included work with weights, after which hundreds of hard blows to makiwara followed, the performance of kata and basic equipment, again beating makiwara. And so it went on for 24 hours. And the last three hours there have been battles with constantly changing rivals.
To date, the master test has already been going on for 14 hours, so it is quite possible that Morio is the last master who happened to pass the daily strength test.
Confrontation with the representative of "Yakuza"
Higaonna did not sit constantly in her dojo. Quite often, he came to other halls and sparred with the strongest karate players there. One of these rivals was Mataeshi Shimoyashi - a man whose tattoos on his body signaled his involvement in the Japanese crime syndicate.
Everything was real in their fights, 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 his opponent by the kimono. The difference in weight was about 30 kilograms. The fights were reckless. Sometimes only Miyagi managed to separate the fighters.
Moving to Tokyo
At 22, Morio decides to go to the capital. Such a move was due to several 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. In addition, a language barrier arose because the dialect on the island was quite impressive compared to the rest of the country.
Here he found a training ally. It turned out to be the master Eichi, who was more known as a judoka. However, their training was successful and brought Morio a lot of new knowledge.
Best dojo
Morio Higaonna entered the university, which, however, did not prevent him from conducting training directly in the dormitory of the educational institution. Day after day, the fame of the master of serin ryu began to grow, and the number of students became simply huge. After some time, Morio moved to the Yoyogi district, which eventually formed the best Goju-ryu-style dojo in the world.
Relocation to the USA
In the fall of 1987, the master moved to America. And already in November of the same year he opened the Institute of Traditional Karate. Such a move, in his opinion, was to popularize eastern martial art in this capitalist state.
Today
In the 1990s, a new stage in the development of the karate practice practiced by Morio began. The Japanese today travels to many countries of the world, conducts training, and teaches. To the great pleasure of karatekas, Sensei is still able to actively engage, as in his youth. No one doubts the seriousness and productivity of his studies. Moreover, each of his classes is always accompanied by the study of something new and interesting, even for experienced fighters who have undergone good training.
Higaonna is one of the few teachers who has the highest degree in karate - 10 dan. The late master and a very respected martial artist, Donn Draeger, once said that the Japanese is the most dangerous person in a real fight throughout Japan.