Mas Oyama

the symbol of the Kyokushinkai karate called Kanku

Mas Oyama is a martial arts expert and the founder of the International Kyokushinkaï Karate Organisation, a new kind of karate, harder and more efficient than traditional karate. He was born in Korea and his name was Hyung Yee. When he was a child, he was attracted by martial arts. So he did local Korean martial arts: Tae-Kyon and Tae-Kwon-Pup. Then he practised a Chinese martial art: the Kempo.

When he finished school, Oyama left Korea and he went to Japan. He rented a room from a Korean family called Oyama. He chose this name and became Masutatsu Oyama. He trained to do Judo in a japanese university and obtained 4 grades after the black belt. After that, he practised Shotokan karate (a kind of traditional karate) and when he was seventeen, he was black belt. After that he decided to dedicate his life to practising and developing karate. So he tried another kind of martial art: the Gojo Riu. He learned the Zen and another kind of combat, more real. He trained a lot and in 1947 he won the first Japanese karate tournament in Kyoto. One day, Mas Oyama was attacked by a man with a knife and he killed the man. He was in self defence so he didn't go to prison. But he was really affected by this tragedy and he worked in a farm to give some money to the dead man's family.

He decided to train in the mountains to develop his mental and physical capacities. For eighteen months, he lived in the mountains and he trained every day: he did running, meditation, wood and rock breaking... At night, he read biographies of martial arts masters. And one day, he had to return to civilisation.

In 1956 he created his karate school characterized by a hard training with fights and rock and wood breaking. The « pupils » had to do a thousand days of training at the very least. This school was independent of the traditional karate organisations and became really famous all around the world: his organisation was called the IKO (International Kyokushinkaï Organisation). Then, Oyama decided to talk about his experience and he wrote three books: « What is karate » in 1958, « This is karate » in 1965, « Advanced karate » in 1970 and finally « Karate, the word of the ultimate » in 1984. He died on April 26th 1994.

To me, Masutatsu Oyama is a hero: he was a poor Korean, he overcame many difficulties but he became a really respected man and he created the best karate organisation. The film « Fighter In The Wind » is a really good adaptation of his life. Today, the Kyokushinkai Karate is practised by 15 million men in more than a hundred countries.