Morio Higaonna
martial artist
Morio Higaonna (東恩納 盛男, Higaonna Morio; born December 25, 1938) is a world renowned Okinawan karate master who is the founder and Chief Instructor of the Traditional Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate-do Federation. He also founded the International Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate-do Federation (IOGKF). He is a holder of the highest rank in Goju-Ryu karate, 10th dan. Higaonna Sensei has written several books on Okinawan Goju-Ryu karate, including the technical series, "Traditional Karate-do: Okinawa Goju Ryu (1985) and "The History of Karate: Okinawan Goju Ryu" (1st edition1996). Martial arts scholar Donn Draeger (1922–1982) reportedly once described him as "the most dangerous man in Japan in a real fight."
Early life
Higaonna was born on December 25, 1938, in Naha, Okinawa. He began studying Shorin-ryu karate at the age of 14 with his father and then with his friend Tsunetaka Shimabukuro. It was Shimabukuro who recommended that Higaonna learn Goju-ryu karate, introducing him to Chojun Miyagi's garden dojo in 1954, one year after the founder's passing. At the time, Eiichi Miyazato was the head of the dojo, but Higaonna was taught by An'ichi Miyagi, whom Higaonna recognizes as his first and main instructor in the Goju-ryu system.
When Miyazato opened the new Jundokan dojo in 1957, Higaonna followed An'ichi Miyagi over and began training there. In that same year he obtained his black belt.
“Morio Higaonna” enters the record as martial artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Morio, Higaonna and martial can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2599967. VIAF identifies the subject as 91978027. The Library of Congress control number is n89640211. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1985, 1922 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “Morio Higaonna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.