This series includes all the requirements for a 4th-degree black belt. Morio Higaonna began his karate training at the age of fourteen. He studied Shorin-Ryu with his father. He was also training with a friend, Tsunetaka Shimabukuro, another Shorin-Ryu stylist. At the age of sixteen, he began training in the Goju-Ryu style on the recommendation of Shimabukuro Sensei. The year was 1955, and young Higaonna was training in the garden dojo of the late Chojun Miyagi Shihan; his instructor was Anichi Miyagi Sensei.

At that time, the training regimen was very difficult, and Higaonna Sensei tells us of the countless times he practiced kata or kakie training with many different opponents until he could no longer move his arms. Anyone who has trained in Okinawa knows that, due to the climate, this requires tremendous effort.

In 1957, the garden dojo moved to a permanent building called Jundokan. Higaonna Sensei continued his training there, five hours a day. After his instructor, Anichi Miyagi Sensei, moved to work on an American oil tanker, Higaonna Sensei gained a place at Takushoku University in Tokyo; it was around this time that the first official Dan ranking was organized.

Higaonna Sensei was awarded the 3rd Dan. The year was 1960. It was in Tokyo that Higaonna Sensei taught at the famous Yoyogi Dojo. Many thousands of students passed through this dojo, and the legends of Higaonna Sensei's skills began to grow. Don Dreager was a Western martial artist who traveled throughout Japan documenting Masters of all martial arts styles. He made comments such as, ‘There is no one here like Higaonna Sensei,’ and, most famously, ‘Higaonna Sensei is the most dangerous man in Japan in a real fight.’

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Higaonna Sensei began traveling to various countries that practiced Okinawa Goju-Ryu. He was invited to give a demonstration at the World Karate Championships in Paris in 1972, and his reputation as one of the strongest Goju-Ryu practitioners in the world grew even further.

In 1979 in Poole, England, with the help of his senior international instructors, the IOGKF was formed. The IOGKF's main objective remains the preservation of traditional Goju-Ryu Karate as taught by its founders, and it is now a proud member of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai (Japan Traditional Martial Arts Association).

Higaonna Sensei lived in the United States of America, where he established his headquarters in San Marcos for some time, before returning to Okinawa, Japan, where he currently resides. Since then, Higaonna Sensei has maintained his own rigorous training regimen and continues to research the original katas and training methods of Goju-Ryu.

Higaonna Sensei received his 10th Dan certificate, awarded by An'ichi Miyagi Sensei on September 5, 2007. Higaonna Sensei also received a special certificate signed by Aragaki Shuichi Sensei and Miyagi An'ichi Sensei (both direct students of the founder of Goju-Ryu, Chojun Miyagi Sensei) recognizing him as a student in the direct descendant line of Miyagi Chojun Sensei. Miyagi An'ichi Sensei and Aragaki Shuichi Sensei felt that recognizing Morio Higaonna Sensei as part of the Goju-Ryu lineage is important for the future of Goju-Ryu being passed on to future generations.