Logo & Name (Our Identity)
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More information regarding our affiliation, partnerships and professional relationships will be posted in the near future. Please contact Eugene Kitney, Sensei for more information regarding this matter in the interim.
Designed and Digitized by: Eugene Kitney, Sensei. The Logo as indicated below, as well as the elements individually, especially the Samurai mask, is the exclusive property of gojukan.org and Eugene F Kitney.
The Name: Kaizen Gōjūkan
Kaizen (改善) is a Japanese term that means continuous improvement, taken from words 'Kai' (改) , which means continuous and 'zen' (善) meaning improvement. Some translate 'Kai' to mean change and 'zen' to mean good, or for the better. The Kaizen method of continuous incremental improvements is an originally Japanese management concept for incremental (gradual, continuous) change (improvement).
Kaizen is actually a way of life philosophy, assuming that every aspect of our life deserves to be constantly improved. The Kaizen philosophy lies behind many Japanese management concepts such as Total Quality Control, Quality Control circles, small group activities, labor relations and most certainly education of the mind, body and spirit. Key elements of Kaizen are quality, effort, involvement of all concerned, willingness to change, and communication.Japanese companies distinguish between innovation (radical) and Kaizen (continuous). Kaizen means literally: change (kai) to become good (zen).
The foundation of the Kaizen method consists of 5 founding elements:
- Teamwork
- Personal discipline,
- Improved morale,
- Quality circles, and
- Suggestions for improvement.
Out of this foundation three key factors in Kaizen arise:
- Elimination of waste (muda) and inefficiency
- The Kaizen "5S" Framework for good housekeeping
- Seiri (整理) - tidiness
- Seiton (整頓) - orderliness
- Seisō (清掃) - cleanliness
- Seiketsu (清潔) - standardized clean-up
- Shitsuke (躾) - discipline
- Standardization.
The same Japanese words Kaizen that pronounce as 'Gai San' in Chinese mean: Gai= The action to correct. & San= This word is more related to the Taoism or Buddhism Philosophy in which give the definition as the action that 'benefit' the society but not to one particular individual.
The quality of benefit that involve here should be sustain forever, in other words the 'san' is and act that truly benefit the others.
A dōjō is a training hall for the Japanese martial arts. In Japanese, dōjō (道場) means literally "place of the Way". It is traditionally led by a sensei, meaning master or teacher.
More Coming soon
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| Official Masthead for Letterhead & other publications. |
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| Official logo indicating our affiliation to the I.K.G.A. Watermark of this logo used on Certificates for rank endorsed by I.K.G.A. Honbu dōjō |
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| Official Logo used on websites, printed material etc. Yūdansha may wear this as an embroidered logo on their gi |
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| Official Logo used on Certificates and Uniforms |
The Style: Karate-dō Gōjū-ryū
Our style of training is Gōjū-ryū. Gōjū-ryū ( 剛柔流 Japanese for "Hard-soft style", is a style of karate, so called as it allows a combination of hard and soft techniques. 'Go' (剛) means hardness or external force, 'Ju' (柔) means softness or internal force. Gōjū-ryū combines hard striking attacks like kicks and punches with softer circular techniques for blocking and controlling the opponent. Major emphasis is given to breathing correctly. For more information on the various aspects of Gōjū-ryū, please visit our links to the "I.K.G.A." section of this website. The technical aspects of the system will be discussed in greater depth else where on this site.
The Insignia: Samurai Mask Set
Samurai (侍 or sometimes 士) is a common term for a warrior in pre-industrial Japan. Most samurai were bound by a strict code of honor (bushidō 武士道 ) and were expected to set an example for those below them. It is from this term, Bushidō and those warriors (Samurai) that lived by the the code that so much incorporates Kaizen, that the inspiration came for our logo. Bushidō, was an ethical code of conduct, developed between the 11th to 14th centuries and was formalized during the opening years of the Tokugawa shogunate for the members of the Samurai class.
According to the Japanese Dictionary Shōgakkan Kokugo Daijiten: "Bushidō is defined as a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period." Inazō Nitobe (新渡戸 稲造), author of Bushidō: The Soul of Japan describes Bushidō as an unwritten code: "...Bushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the knights were required or instructed to observe. It is not a written code; at best it consists of a few maxims handed down from mouth to mouth or coming from the pen of some well-known warrior or savant. More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten, possessing all the more the powerful sanction of veritable deed, and of a law written on the fleshly tablets of the heart. It was founded not on the creation of one brain, however able, or on the life of a single personage, however renowned. It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career."
The Kanji / Script
The Kanji usedOfficial logo indicating o is simply representative of the terms 山口派空手道剛柔流 Kanji for Yamaguchi-Ha Karate-dō Gōjū-ryū (The Yamaguchi Group Karate-dō Gōjū-ryū).
All these terms having been explained or eluded to above.
Color Usage
For more information regarding our Dōjō and instructor, please follow the links in the menu to the left and above.
