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Mas Oyama's Brief History | July 27th, 1923 |
Born in Southern Korea. Learns Chinese Fist of Chakuriki in the land of Manchuria. He was 9 years old. |
| 1938 | Becomes student under Master Gichin Funakoshi of Shotokan Karate. |
| 1946 | Enters the mountain for training. |
| 1947 | Becomes the champion of All Japan Karate-do Tournament. He studies Goju-ryu Karate extensively under Master Gogen Yamaguchi, and becomes Vice Chairman in the organization, holding 9th Dan degree. |
| 1948 | Enters the mountain alone for 18 months of training. |
| 1950 | Starts training against the live bulls, living beside the cattle butchery. Out of 47 bulls, 4 killed in instant. |
| 1952 | Visits America for Karate instructions and demonstrations in 32 locations. Has 7 times of real matches. |
| 1953 | Visits America, he fights against a bull in Chicago, where he breaks its horn by Shuto strike (knife hand). |
| 1955 | Goes all around South America and Europe with Bepford Davy, President of Chrysler Corp. He fights numerous mix matches. |
| 1956 | Starts small Oyama Dojo at an old ballet studio. |
| 1957 | Ffights against a bull in Mexico City. |
| January, 1958 |
Publishes "What is Karate" which becomes a best seller of 500,000 copies. September, invited by FBI in Washington D.C. for Karate instructions and demonstrations. October, invited by West Point Military Academy for Karate instructions and demonstrations. |
| 1964 | Thai Boxing challenges Karate-do, where Oyama Dojo alone accepts. 3 matches 2 wins. |
| 1971 | Through a popular comic book series "Karate Baka Ichidai," and the movie "World's Strongest Karate" in 1975, his name and of Kyokushin become known all over Japan. |
| 1975 | Holds Kyokushin Kai's First World Karate-do Open Tournament. |
| April 26, 1994 |
Dies of lung cancer at the age of 70.
In addition to described above, he visits elsewhere researching and fighting real matches against other Martial Arts of the world. Kyokushin as the largest Karate organization, he has students numbered 12,000,000 in 140 nations worldwide. He is also noted for starting the Full-Contact, Bare-Knuckle tournament system. |