Text is taken from TOGKF brochure

Welcome to TOGKF. You, probably, know what the karate is. Some of you will read about karate in books or magazines, or will see karate on TV or in cinema. Some of you will hear about karate from your friends and familiar. We ask you now to forget for the moment anything you know about it and to handle a subject with clean mind or "with mind of beginner". It is an ideal way of studying karate.

What is karate?

Kara means "empty". Te means "hand". So, karate may be translated as "the empty hand" - art of a self-defense without any weapon.
In Traditional Karate Institute you will study dynamic and powerful martial art. You learn, how by means of correct breath, coordination of your own body and concentration to achieve huge force. You will learn how to use you body that will help you during self-defense and in your daily life.
But karate is much more than only physical aspect. It is complete discipline including Ko Ko Ro, heart or spirit, and KARADA, physical body.
By training a body we can strengthen our mind and tame spirit. The most important purpose of karate is the creation a harmony inside us, so that we could express our true nature and be improved as human beings.

Goju-ryu

There are many karate schools and all of them start their history from an Okinawa island. However, originally there were only three styles and each of them carried the name of city where it was developed. There are: Tomari-te, Shuri-te and Naha-te. After some time Tomari-te and Shuri-te were united to form school known as Shorin-Ryu, while Naha-te kept its clearness and became known as Goju-Ryu.

Meaning of Goju-Ryu

According to east philosophy, for achievement of harmony and order in the world all things should have the balanced nature. Therefore there are day and night, fire and water etc.
The founder of our style, Grandmaster Chojun Miyagi has chosen the name Goju-Ryu having been based on concepts of Chinese martial arts. Go means hard or firm, Ju means soft or elastic. So Goju-Ryu may be translated as "The School of Hard Soft". It concerns both characteristics of our style and its base philosophy.

Essence of Goju-Ryu Karate

One should know that all secret essences of Goju-Ryu are in "Katas"

"Katas" (programmed forms) are not just an expression of form. They are practical using of fighting techniques, which can at any time be transformed into any form. In "Kata" itself the essence of karate has got the certain form. One should always remember that Kata is the crystallized essence of karate. Only through improvement of "Katas" you will achieve "gokui" - initial consciousness.

Goju-ryu Karate-do is an expression of universe harmonious chord within its own essence

Flexible as a willow, firm as a mountain Tai (mountain frequently mentioned in the Chinese poetry). Unbreakable form of harmony of sky and earth develops only when two extremes of firm and soft completely incorporate in one body. We can find out such a harmony of hard and soft within the nature and in university uniformity. We can express harmony of a nature in ourselves by means of Goju-Ryu Karate-do.

Goju-ryu is the way of looking for truth (way of self-perfection)

Practicing Goju-Ryu Karate-do we try to build up an ideal human nature of physical and spiritual unity by training our bodies and spirits. Originally, strategy concept was not "to win" by fight. An ultimate goal is the victory by self-perfection. The one who is inspired by it should not forget Japanese hieroglyph "nin" (to stand over). One should always strengthen his/her self-perfection, improve strategy of a victory without fight and search for a final secret.