Heiko Ryu is of the Goju Ryu lineage, tracing its teaching line from Seko Higa and Miyagi Chojun, the students of Higashionna; to Izumikawa Kanki, Ichikawa Sosui, the outstanding researcher/historian Ohtsuka Tadahiko, and Con (Dean) Athanassiou in Australia, and the current Chief Instructor Paul Tomassini.
Operations and club activities are in Melbourne, Australia; but links are established with various Goju organisations throughout Australasia.
The below diagram illustrates our lineage, the karate lineage is on the left, additional Chinese influences are on the right:
 Kanryo Higashionna 1851 - 1915 |
 Yuchoku Higa 1910-1994
(no picture available)
Yang Ming Shi 1910-1994 |
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 Seiko Higa 1898-1966 |
 Chojun Miyagi 1888-1953 |
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 Sosui Ichikawa 1924-... |
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 Kanki Izumigawa 1909-... |
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 Tadahiko Ohtsuka 1940-... |
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Heiko Ryu was registered in 1989 as the dojo name for Paul Tomassini and his students. This name is consistent with old traditional notions that the practice of martial arts has the further purpose of refining the character and spirit of the practitioner, yielding both practical and metaphysical outcomes. In the early 90s the name was personally approved by 9th Dan Tadahiko Ohtsuka, founder of the GojuKensha Saishinkan.
Paul was the student of Con (Dean) Athanassiou, who may be remembered by Melbourne’s martial artists of the 1960s and 70s. Dean and his father Tony were the principals of the Silver Top Taxi dojo, one of Australia’s first full-time dojos. In 1972 Dean visited Japan to pursue further improvement in the Kyokushinkai style under Mas Oyama. Under exceptional circumstances, Dean was befriended by Ohtsuka Sensei and returned to Australia with a commitment to study the GojuKensha style.
Paul commenced his martial arts training in March 1975 with the GojuKensha club at La Trobe University (Bundoora Campus) and received his Shodan Ho grade after an intensive 3-plus years of training. In his fourth year he was entrusted with the class, but left in 1979 when he graduated, and relocated to Port Hedland (North-West coast of Australia). He established a small club in Port Hedland, and for the 2 years he lived there he persisted with “temperate-zone” training methods under incredibly hot and humid conditions . Predictably the class was small, comprising only the few students who were just as silly as he was! In 1981 Paul returned to Melbourne and opened up a club in Wheelers Hill, in the south-west of Melbourne. With small relocations the club has existed continuously since then. The major dojo is currently in Glen Waverly, and further branches are located in Malvern, Keysborough and Berwick.
In 1982 Dean Athanassiou, the Chief Instructor of GojuKensha Australia left karate and passed on stewardship of the style to one of the senior students. Soon after obtaining his fifth dan, Paul was the first of the original seniors to leave the organization (1995) and today is part of an extended cooperative of former GojuKensha seniors located throughout Melbourne and beyond. With the Chief Instructors of KenshinRyu, GenshuKu, KinshinKai and Dean Athanassiou himself, they form the Goju League of Instructors.
The Heiko Ryu style follows the lead of Ohtsuka Sensei in continuing the old Okinawan tradition of visiting “the old country” (China, the geographical and cultural centre of Asia) to continue the study and development of budo. We have expertise in various “modern” Tai Chi Chuan and Yunfa (forms and applications) as well as some familiarity with White Crane & Monk Fist training methods, Chin Na and the YamaneRyu bojutsu method promoted by Kyoshi Patrick McCarthy.
In particular we seek a deeper understanding of the roots of GojuRyu kata/bunkai, probing past the Okinawan connection through to Monk Fist and White Crane methodologies. Our background in Tai Chi provides a unique counter-perspective to this study as well as the opportunity to continue our active involvement in the martial arts into the middle years and beyond.
We have a second major interest in establishing close-quarter combat simulations where the full range of “taijitsu” found within the ancestral GojuRyu kata/bunkai can be safely integrated.
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