The Toughest Karate Instructor Of All Time!


by Al Case - Date: 2010-06-08 - Word Count: 447 Share This!

While there have been many fantastic karate instructors, only Mas Oyama can honestly lay claim to being the toughest karate master. This is most interesting, because Karate came from China, came into existence on Okinawa, and migrated to Japan, which became the 'Land of Karate.' Mas Oyama, (b-Choi Yeong-eui), however, was not from any of those countries, but rather from Korea.

Sensei Oyama was born into Japanese occupied Korea in the year 1923. He took his first martial arts instruction from a Chinese worker named Lee when he was 9 years old, he was told to plant a seed, and to practice jumping over it as it sprouted. It is said he could leap incredible distances because of this practice.

After World War II Mas lived in Japan, where he was ostracized for being Korean. In 1946 he enrolled in Waseda University and took instruction from the second son of Gichin Funakoshi in Karate. Because of his Korean status he trained in solitude, and many would claim this solitary lifestyle would keep him dedicated and free of distractions, and enable him to achieve a very pure and high level of Karate.

From Waseda University he went to Takushoku University, and from the son he went to the father, for at Takushoku he took lessons with the father of modern day karate, Gichin Funakoshi. After shotokan he moved to the style of Goju Ryu, studying with Chojun Miyagi. He was eventually promoted to 8th dan in that martial art by head instructor Gogen Yamaguchi.

During this time Mas Oyama was known as a fierce fighter, and he specialized in fighting the US military police. He was in so many fights that his picture hung from the walls of every police station. Eventually, and probably because of his fighting, he was advised by a friend, Mr. Neichu So, to retreat to the mountains and live a life of seclusion and dedicate himself to a regimen of hard training.

Mas Oyama spent 14 months in hard training on Mt. Minobu, then, later, another 18 months. He returned to Tokyo a polished and fierce fighter, and became quite famous for being unbeatable. During this time he took to fighting bulls, knocking the horns off them, or killing them outright, with nothing but his bare hands.

Eventually, Mas established the Kyokushinkai karate system, which school became famous throughout the world for its brutal and tough training methods. One of the hallmarks of this type of training is the 100 man freestyle, in which a fighter faces 100 fighters in the toughest type of full contact freestyle one can imagine. The schools of this toughest Karate sensei are now spread throughout the world and have inspired martial artists everywhere.

Related Tags: kang duk won, mas oyama, chung do kwan, ji do kwan, moo duk kwan, chang moo kwan, song moo kwan, oh do kwan, han moo kwan, jung do kwan

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