Kanryo Higashionna (1853-1916) was a native of Nishi-shin-machi, Naha, Okinawa. He was born into a merchant family, whose business was selling firewood, an expensive commodity in the Ryukyu Islands. 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Naha (那覇市; -shi) is the capital city of 沖縄県 Okinawa Prefecture (Okinawan Uchinā) in Japan. ... This article is about the prefecture. ... Location of Ryukyu Islands Flag of same The Ryukyu Islands or Nansei Islands (南西諸島 Nansei-shotō, which translates literally as southwest islands), are an island chain stretching southwestward from the island of Kyushu in Japan. ...

In the early 1860s he began studying the Okinawan martial arts under a teacher named Aragaki Seisho, and most likely under several others. At that time the word karate was not in common use, and the martial arts were often referred to simply as Te ("hand"), sometimes prefaced by the area of origin, as Naha-te, Shuri-te, or simply Okinawa-te. Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... Two Karate practitioners engaging in competition style Karate. ...

In 1877 Higashionna sailed to Fuzhou in the Fukien province of China. He spent at least several years there; accounts range from five to twenty, though the latter seems unlikely. He spent his time studying with various teachers of the Chinese martial arts. One of his first teachers was a kempo teacher named Ryoto. It was he who introduced Higashionna to kempo master by the name of Liu Liu Ko (some sources give his name as Ryu Ryuko--in any case it may well have been a nickname). Very little is known about Liu Liu Ko, except that he was supposed to have been a shoemaker, and that Higashionna recalled him as being enormously strong. Fuzhou (Chinese: 福州; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chou; EFEO: Fou-Tcheou; SLC: Hùk-cieu; also seen as Foochow or Fuchow) is the provincial seat and the largest prefecture-level city of Fujian province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Fujian (Chinese: 福建; pinyin: Fújiàn; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal System Pinyin: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of China. ... Kenpo or Kempo (拳法; lit. ... Kenpo or Kempo (拳法; lit. ...

In 1885 Higashionna returned to Okinawa and continued the family business. He also began to teach the martial arts in and around Naha. His style was distinguished by its integration of both go-no (hard) and ju-no (soft) techniques in one system. He became so prominent that the name "Naha-te" became identified with Higashionna's system.

Higashionna was noted for his powerful Sanchin kata, or form. Students reported that the wooden floor would be hot from the gripping of his feet. Best known by its Japanese name, Sanchin is a martial arts training routine (Japanese: kata) of Fujianese origin that is considered to be the core of several styles, the most well-known being the Goju Ryu and Uechi Ryu styles of Karate as well as the Chinese martial arts of... Kata (åž‹) (literally: form) is a Japanese word describing detailed patterns of defense-and-attack movements practiced either solo or in pairs. ...

Several of Higashionna's students went on to become influential masters of what came to be called karate, amongst them Miyagi Chojun, Kyoda Shigehatsu, Koki Shiroma and Higa Seiko. Chojun Miyagi Sensei Chojun Miyagi was born in Naha, Okinawa as the son of a wealthy businessman on April 25, 1888. ...