Why lineage matters
In traditional karate no book replaces the teacher. The kata, the way of breathing in Sanchin, the meaning of each application and the way to run a dojo pass from person to person over years of training. That is why, when talking about a school, the question "who did you learn from?" matters as much as "what can you do?". Lineage is the answer to that question.
From Okinawa to Japan
The root is the Naha-te of Okinawa, taught by Kanryō Higaonna (東恩納寛量). His student Chōjun Miyagi (宮城長順) organized that knowledge, added what he studied in southern China and named the result Goju-ryu.1 Miyagi also taught on mainland Japan, and in 1939, at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, he began directly teaching a young man named Seigo Tada.2
Seigo Tada and Seigokan
In 1945 Tada founded Seigokan in Kyoto and devoted the rest of his life to teaching the Goju-ryu he had learned, training students in Japan and abroad.2 After his death in 1997 the school stayed in the family: today it is led by Seigo Tada III (三代目 多田正剛), sōke and president of the organization, from the headquarters in Himeji.3 Read the biography of Seigo Tada.
The lineage in Brazil
In Brazil, Seigokan Brasil is led by Shihan Leonardo Carion, National Director, who has trained generations of karateka in Rio de Janeiro, and by Sensei Joetsu Narita, Vice-Director.
Narita began training with Carion in Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1980s. He later deepened his training in Japan with Shihan Shinsaku Murata, a disciple of Seigo Tada, and with Seigo Tada himself. He now leads the Gairinkai dojo in Curitiba and keeps alive here the way of teaching he received from his teachers. Meet the senseis of Seigokan Brasil.
What lineage guarantees, and what it does not
A short, documented lineage does not automatically make anyone a good karateka. What it does guarantee is that the principles, the details of the kata and the meaning of the applications reach the mat with less distortion, and that there is a clear reference point, the school's headquarters in Japan, to check what is being taught. The rest depends, as always, on training.
