Mas Oyama
The founder of our Kyokushin Karate, Sosai Masutatsu Oyama was born,1923. When he was still a child he moved to Manchuria and there he first met with Budo, and started to practice Karate. Oayam had the opportunity to learn karate from several of the great karate masters who originally brought Karate to Japan, but when the 2nd World War came, Oyama volunteered for the Japanese Air Force in order to protect his country. However, the war ended before Oyama entered the military. Oyama was strongly influenced by the great Japanese Budo Master Musashi Miyamoto and he spent some time practicing alone far up in the mountain. In 1947¡¡Oyama participated in the first All Japan Karate Tournament held after the end of the war. Oyama won this tournament. Oyama was still not satisfied with his Karate, but continued to pursue the Way in order to build up the world's strongest Karate, and again he spent 18 months up in the mountain doing extremely hard and severe training all alone, surrounded only by the nature. When Oyama came down from the mountain, he had his first battle with a bull in Tateyama-City, Chiba Prefecture. Oyama cut the horn off the bull with a Shuto-strike(Knife-hand-strike) and after this first encounter with a bull, he fought with 47 bulls altogether, and managed to kill 4 of them. This event created his nick-name "Oyama the bull-killer". The rumor about the great Oyama spread and he was invited by the American Military to teach Karate at one of the Amercian Military Bases in Japan. At the same time, Oyama started to practice Judo, and he managed to reach the grade of 4th Dan in Judo.
The following year, Oyama traveled to America, and for eleven months he made several Demonstrations and taught Karate there. In demonstrations he did a lot of breaking of which the Beer Bottle breaking and Tile breaking was the most appreciated techniques by Americans. When he performed these breakings, the audience exclaimed"Hand of God!". and after this Oyama was given a second nick-name "God Hand". During his stay in America, he had several matches against boxers and pro-wrestlers and he won all those fights.
After returning from the States, in June 1956 Oyama opened his first Karate Dojo; Oyama DOJO . It was located just behind the Rikkyo University in Tokyo, and this was the very start of the Kyokushin Kai Karate. In 1958, Oyama launched his first book ; What is Karate? This became a best seller overseas, and again Oyama traveled abroad in order to spread Karate. His work led to the establishment of altogether 72 branches in 16 countries. In June 1965 the construction of Kyokushin Kaikan So-Honbu (headquarters) started, and the organization ; International Karate Organization,Kyokushinkaikan? ,was officially established. 4 years later, the first All Japan Open Karate Tournament was held in Tokyo Gymnasium, with an audience of 7000 people. After this tournament, the comic;Karate Baka Ichidai? was published, and this led to a Karate boom in Japan. In 1975 the first so-called Karate Olympic,The 1st World Karate Open Tournament, was held in Tokyo. After this the World Tournament has been held once every four year, and today it is one of the biggest international Karate tournaments. The following year, the documentary movie based on the World Tournament ; Chijou Saikyou Karate (The World??s Strongest Karate) was made, and also this was a hit, and remained one of the most popular documentary films. In 1991 at the 5th World Tournament, Sosai Oyama himself performed his last demonstration, the Tensho Kata. Sosai Oyama passed away on April 26th, 1994 at the age of 70, at a hospital in Tokyo due to lung-cancer.
