Teruo Chinen was born June 8th 1941, in Kobe, Japan. At five years of age his family moved to shuri, Okinawa, and the following year to Naha. His father, who was in the Imperial Navy, died during the war. Sensei Chinen's grandfather was a Shorin Ryu Karate instructor and his father practiced weapons such as Bo,Si, and Nunchaku. When Sensei Chinen converted to Goju Ryu Karate as a youth, he was treated as a revolutionary by his Shorin Ryu family. He was greatly influenced at an early age by a Karate school next door to his home. The Dojo was that of Chojun Miyagi, the founder of Goju Ryu Karate-Do.

Sensei Chinen began training in 1954 under Eiichi Miyazato at the jundokan dojo. After 5 years of intensive training, Sensei Chinen left for Tokyo, Japan. In 1959 he joined with his close friend Morio Higaonna who had opened a Dojo in Tokyo. They trained together at the jundokan for five years. As an assistant to Senei Higoanna, Sensei Chinen enjoyed ten years of teaching Okinawan Gojo Ryu Karate in Tokyo. The two instructors ate and slept little, devoting all their time to hard training and the teaching of students. Sensei Higoanna and Sensei Chinen developed Randori during these years to improve fighting technique without the injuries that accompany full speed and power of kumite. Randori has become a major training technique that is unique to Gojo Ryu. Sensei Chinen credits Sensei Higoanna as the man who taught him technical Gojo Ryu. By the year 1969, the two instructor taught classes for approximately 10,000 students.

Shihan Teruo Chinen

In 1969 Mr. Chinen came to Spokane as a technical advisor to the Spokane school of karate with the responsibility for Okinawa Goju Ryu in the United States.

Sensei Chinen feels fortunate and proud to have been able to study with Sensei Ei'ichi Miyazato and to be able to train with Master Miyagi as a youth. He contends that Sensei Miyazato taught him about people and how Goju Ryu means gentleness in dealing with human relations. Sensei Higoanna taught him the importance of endless training. Never give up.

Between 1973 and 1979, he was busy traveling to Europe and South Africa, Laying the foundation for the IOGKF [International Okinawan GojuRyu Karate-Do Federation, chaired by Higaonna Morio Sensei, as a technical adviser. From 1979 to 1984 Sensei Chinen was technical advisor for the IOGKF.

In 1984 Sensei Chinen then formed Jundokan International in honor of his teacher, Sensei Ei'ichiMiyazato.

Jundokan dojos now operate throughout the United States, Africa, Canada and Europe.

Courtesy Leonardo Pereira President Jundokan International in Portugal
Okinawa Goju-Ryu Karate Association

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