H anshi Gogen Yamaguchi was born on January 20, 1909 with the name Jitsumi in the city of Kagoshima on the southern end of Kyushu, Japan. His father was Tokutaro Yamaguchi. When Hanshi Yamaguchi was young, he already showed a great interests in Martial Arts.

After his family moved to Kyoto, he began the serious study of Karate-do with Takeo Maruyama Sensei at the Maruta Dojo in Miyazai Kyushu. Mr. Takeo Maruta was a carpenter from Okinawa by trade and student of Chojun Miyagi . Mr. Maruta, who was a Goju practitioner was drawn to the young Yamaguchi's serious attitude and his willingness to train hard. Mr. Maruta taught Yamaguchi all he knew about the Goju system.

In 1928, he studied Law at Kansei University. From 1929 to 1937, he studied at Ritsumeikan University and received Law Degrees.  He started a Karate club and invented its free sparring form while studying at the University.  At that time, all karate schools in Okinawa and Japan practiced kata and pre-arranged application exercise and never attempted to practice free form sparring.

In 1937, he received the name Gogen from Chojun Miyagi who authorized him to promote the school of Goju-Ryu Karate in Japan.

In 1950, he founded the national organization of All Japan Karate-Do Goju-Kai in Tokyo, Japan.  Hanshi Gogen received 10th Degree Black Belt from Chojun Miyagi in 1951.

Hanshi Gogen Yamaguchi has developed what we call “modern Karate”. From a technical point of view, he had unified all Karate exercise by employing an extremly well organized method. 

As a result of the introduction of free-style sparring, the art of Karate had became a more active and popular art in Japan as well as in other parts of the world.  Although he studied such martial arts as Judo, Kendo, Iaido, Jo-do, and Kusari-gama (art of chain) in his younger days, Karate had from the beginning captured most of his enthusiasm.