One wall of the dojo carries the whole curriculum on printed sheets, each with the U.S.A. Goju fist above the name. Students face it while they train. This is what it says, in the order it hangs.
Several of these are spelled differently here than you will find them elsewhere in Goju. That is not an accident and we have not tidied it up. They are written the way Grandmaster Peter Urban wrote them, and this dojo has written them that way since it opened in 1972.
Kata
Grandmaster Urban called the katas the essence of karate. These are the ones taught here.
- 7 Sanchin
- 8 Tenshoi
- 9 Chinchoi
- 10 Gesaku Di
- 11 Gesaku Shu
- 12 Gekisi
- 13 Sifa
- 14 Sanseru
- 15 Senchin
- 16 Empeha
- 17 Hungetsue
- 18 Sayson
- 19 Saysochien
- 20 Kankaku
- 21 Saypi
- 22 Korurunfa
Levels, technique and weapons
The board is the whole curriculum, not only the kata. These hang alongside them.
Levels
- Jodan
- Chudan
- Gedan
Technique
- Empego
- Mawashie Uke
- Circle Palm
Weapons
- The Bo
- The Nunchaku
- The Sai
- The Chain
Tora
Tora was created by Shihan Vincent Merenda, who led this dojo for fifty years and died in 2025.
It hangs at the end of the wall, on its own, and it is the one form on that board that began here rather than being handed down to us.
Grandmaster Peter Urban's classical repertoire
Grandmaster Peter Urban set out the classical repertoire of U.S.A. Goju in ten forms. A copy of that sheet hangs in the dojo.
- Tenshoa
- Teikyoku Synthesis
- Gekisai
- Empi-Ha
- Senchin
- Bo
- Suparempi
- Kooroorunfa
- Saysan
- Han
We are our katas.
Grandmaster Peter Urban.
Learn the first one
Everyone on that wall started at the top of it. The first class is free.