Higaonna Kanryō
| Higaonna Kanryō | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 10, 1853 Nishimura, Naha, Ryūkyū Kingdom |
| Died | Oct 1915 Naha, Okinawa |
| Other names | Higashionna Kanryo, "Higashionna West" |
| Style | Naha-te |
| Teacher(s) | Arakaki Seishō, Kojo Taitei,Xie Zhongxiang, Wai Xinxian, possibly also Kojo Tatei, Iwah |
| Rank | Kensei, Founder of Naha-te |
| Notable students | Chōjun Miyagi, Kenwa Mabuni, Kyoda Juhatsu, Koki Shiroma, Higa Seiko, Shiroma Shinpan (Gusukuma) |
Higaonna Kanryō (東恩納 寛量 Higaonna Kanryō?, March 10, 1853 – October 1915), also known as Higashionna West, was a Ryukyuan martial artist who founded a fighting style known at the time as Naha-te. He is recognized as one of the first students of Fujian White Crane Kung Fu masters, namely Ryū Ryū Ko, in the Fuzhou region of China who returned with those skills to Okinawa. His student, Chōjun Miyagi, would later found Gōjū ryū Karate.
Higaonna was born in Nishimura, Naha to a merchant family, whose business was selling goods to the north of Okinawa and shipping firewood back to Naha. Firewood was an expensive commodity in the Ryukyu Islands. His family belonged to the lower Shizoku class known as the Chikudun Peichin.
The characters of his family name (東恩納) are pronounced "Higaonna" in Okinawan, and "Higashionna" in Japanese. In Western articles the two spellings are often used interchangeably. He had an older relative, 5 years older, called Higaonna Kanryu who lived in Higashimura and was known as "Higashionna East".
In 1867, Higaonna began to study Monk Fist Boxing (Luohan Quan) from Aragaki Tsuji Pechin Seisho who was a fluent Chinese speaker and interpreter for the Ryūkyūan court. At that time the word karate was not in common use, and the martial arts were often referred to simply as Ti ("hand"), sometimes prefaced by the area of origin, as Nafaa-ti, Shui-ti, or simply Uchinaa-ti.
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