Call Us On: 01502 501198 or 07854626102
Adults ONLY class
Thursday 7pm to 8:30pm
Saturday 12 to 1.30pm
£4.50 a session
License and Membership will apply
Please contact the above for more details.
Kyokushinkaikan Origin
The following is a brief overview of the early life of Masutatsu "Mas" Oyama.
The founder of International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan, Masutatsu Oyama, was born Choi Yong-i on July the 27th, during the Japanese Occupation.
As a young child, Oyama enjoyed fighting and watching others fight. His childhood was spent in Manchuria, China where he learned Shaolin techniques from a Chinese seasonal worker named Lee. Oyama refers to Lee as his first teacher.
In 1938, he immigrated to Japan and studied Okinawan Karate under Gichin Funakoshi, eventually gaining 2nd Dan. Later, Oyama also trained under Yoshida Kotaro, a famous Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu/Yanagi-ryu Aiki-jujutsu master, from whom he received his menkyo kaiden – an older form of grade, a scroll signifying mastery. This scroll is still on display at the honbu (headquarters) dojo in Tokyo.
Also, upon the advice of his mentor and a member of the National Diet, Matsuhei Mori, around this time the young master took his Japanese name, Masutatsu Oyama, the name he would use for the rest of his life. After World War II, Oyama began his training in Goju Ryu karate under a Korean master in Japan, So Nei Chu, who ran a dojo in Tokyo with the famous goju teacher Gogen Yamaguchi. He would finally attain 8th Dan in Goju Ryu Karate.
Another influence from the Goju School was Masahiko Kimura. Although fulfilling the role of assistant karate instructor at the dojo Oyama trained at, Kimura was primarily a famous champion of judo, who defeated Hélio Gracie of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu aka. Ju-jitsu Kimura encouraged Oyama to take up judo so that he would have an understanding of the art's ground techniques. Kimura then introduced Oyama to the Sone Dojo in Nakano, Tokyo, where he trained regularly for four years, eventually gaining his 4th Dan in this discipline.
It was after this time that Oyama first retreated into the mountains for one of his well-known solitary training periods, the so-called Yamagomori. He undertook two such retreats lasting a total of almost three years, in accordance with the ascetic traditions of many of the great warriors of Japan through the centuries. During these periods of isolated retreats spent in training, Oyama engaged in intense Shugyo, or spiritual discipline.
In the early 1950s, Oyama traveled to the USA visiting 32 states.
In 1953, Oyama resigned from Goju ryu and opened his own independent karate dojo, named "Oyama Dojo" in Tokyo, but continued to travel around Japan and the world, giving martial arts demonstrations (including bare-hand challenges). His first 'Oyama dojo' was a vacant lot in Mejiro, Tokyo. In 1956, he moved the dojo into the ballet studio attached to Rikkyo University. Oyama's own curriculum soon developed a reputation as a tough, intense, hard-hitting, and practical style which he named "Kyokushin" in a ceremony in 1957. As the reputation of the dojo grew, students were increasingly attracted by the opportunity to train there, arriving from across Japan and beyond, and their numbers continued to grow.
In 1964, Oyama moved the dojo into a building he refurbished, not far from the ballet studio at Rikkyo. Oyama also formally founded the "International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan" (commonly abbreviated to IKO or IKOK), in order to organize the many schools that were by then teaching Kyokushin Karate.
