Gou-ryu Karate, while not as widely popular as Kyokushin-ryu Karate which gained fame because of Masatatsu Oyama, is still a well-known and practical style of karate. And it does indeed originate from Southern martial arts tradition.
Gou-ryu's founder, Chōjun Miyagi, studied under the renowned Tang Shou master, Kanryō Higashina, who in turn studied under the famous Fujian master, Xie Zongxiang, known as "Hōru-sai." Miyagi himself also traveled to China to study martial arts. Both men's techniques originated from the Hakuhaku school of Nanlin. Even the name Go-ryu comes from the phrase "Fa Gang Tun Tu" in a famous Ming Dynasty military treatise.
As for the modern phenomenon of people flocking to learn Go-ryu while dismissing traditional martial arts as mere showmanship, this situation is
