Kanki Izumigawa


Kanki Izumigawa was a karate master who learned Goju-Ryu from Seiko Higa on Okinawa and Saipan. Higa had studied under Kanryo Higashionna and trained with Chojun Miyagi. In his youth Izumigawa also studied karate under Juhatsu Kyoda, who was himself a senior student of Kanryo Higashionna. Izumigawa was born in Okinawa to a samurai family and was the founder of the Senbukan Dojo, which had its headquarters in Kawasaki City and branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Ota and Kanagawa Prefecture. The Senbukan dojo was established in 1939 and is currently the oldest Goju-Ryu dojo in Japan. His son Kanbun carried on his School in Japan. Seiichi Akamine helped him to spread Goju-Ryu and Seiko Higa tradition in mainland Japan, travel to South-America to spread Karate-do and founded the Ken-Shin-Kan school. Kanki Izumigawa's senior students included Busen Arakawa, Sosui Ichikawa, Tsutomu Takato, Hyotaro Harada, Kenneth Murakami and Keisetsu Yoshimaru.
The Senbukan dojo was inherited by Kanbun Izumigawa, and later renamed to Senbukai. After Kanbun Izumigawa died in 1982, the dojo was inherited by the second son Katsuya Izumigawa who continues to head the dojo and organisation today.