| Chojun Miyagi is one of the most important figures in | | | | reputable martial artist on Okinawa especially but also |
| the development of modern day karate do. | | | | increasingly among mainland Japanese practitioners. In |
| Throughout his life he worked tirelessly to spread the | | | | that year a former student of Miyagi's, Chinyei Kinjo, |
| empty hand art around Okinawa and mainland Japan. | | | | the president of the Hawaiian-published newspaper |
| During this time he survived the Battle of Okinawa, | | | | Yoen Jihosha, invited Miyagi to Hawaii in the hope |
| not only physically but also emotionally after losing a | | | | that his presence and training would help to improve |
| son, his top student - Jin'an Shinzato - and numerous | | | | the self-esteem of Okinawan immigrants living there |
| other friends and trainees in the fighting along with | | | | who suffered from discrimination. The master left in |
| two daughters on a ship full of evacuees headed to | | | | April or May and stayed for almost a year. |
| Kyushu. Following the American invasion he also lost | | | | It seems that Miyagi was very comfortable in Hawaii, |
| meticulous records that he had kept on the history | | | | which is itself very similar to Okinawa. He was |
| of his art despite taking great efforts to keep them | | | | welcomed with great respect and enthusiasm and |
| safe. | | | | was able to reach not only expat Okinawans but also |
| Miyagi received direct transmission of te (the original | | | | Filipinos, Hawaiians and even some Westerners. One |
| word used by Okinawans to describe, at least in part, | | | | of the people he taught was the somewhat famous |
| what would later become known as karate) from his | | | | judo expert and pro-wrestler Okishikina. The latter |
| teacher Kanryo Higaonna who himself had learned his | | | | introduced some of his Western wrestler friends to |
| fighting style from the Chinese master Ryu Ryu Ko in | | | | Miyagi with the result being one of the larger and |
| Fujian province, China. Ryu Ryu Ko primarily taught | | | | apparently stronger pro-fighters squealing in pain after |
| the practice of the kata Sanchin along with various | | | | introducing himself and attempting to test Miyagi's |
| methods of body conditioning. These methods of | | | | strength by squeezing his hand tightly...only to receive |
| training were elementary forms of weight training | | | | the same treatment at a later date when it had been |
| designed to stretch and strengthen the body and are | | | | explained to Miyagi that the wrestler was attempting |
| known by practitioners of Goju ryu karate as hojo | | | | to test his strength. |
| undo. Implements originally used in hojo undo include | | | | The upshot of the trip to Hawaii and exposure to |
| the nigiri game (gripping jars), the chi ishi (weighted | | | | Hawaiin wrestlers is that Chojun Miyagi returned with |
| stones placed at the end of a thick stick) and the | | | | the training device that came to be known as the |
| sashi ishi (large stone weights). | | | | kongo ken. Whereas the Hawaiians had used a more |
| Originally, the kongo ken was not used in hojo undo | | | | rounded steel ring, Miyagi made it more elongated |
| and the origins of the instrument lie neither in | | | | and closer in approximation to a human body. |
| Okinawa or China, but rather on the opposite side of | | | | Nowadays the kongo ken is still used by those |
| the Pacific Ocean, in Hawaii. | | | | training with traditional hojo undo equipment. |
| By 1926 Chojun Miyagi was well established as a | | | | |