Sosai Masutatsu Oyama was born in a small village in Southern Korea on July 27th 1923 . He first learned Martial Arts when he was 9 years old while staying at the farm of his sister in Manchuria. He begun with the southern Chinese Kemp form known as ‘Eighteen Hands’. In 1938 he followed his dream to enter an aviation school to become a fighter pilot and traveled to Japan but that was not to happen and Masutatsu Oyama had to find work in order to live.
Despite this disappointment, he continued with his judo and boxing practice and this led him to the dojo of Gishin Funakoshi where Okinawa Karate was practiced. Masutatsu Oyama was a dedicated student, progressing quickly, and had obtained his 4th Dan by the time he was 20 years old. At this time he enrolled to the Japanese Imperial Army and there studied judo to master the grappling and holding techniques.
After four years of study he gained a fifth dan. Difficult times followed for him after Japan was defeated in World War 2 but he found a way to overcome his personal despair by training with So Nei Chu who was a Korean Master of Goju-Ryu Karate. Goju-Ryu was a renowned teacher, known for his powerful body as well as his deep spirituality and he was able to greatly influence the young student, Masutatsu. Master So taught him about the indivisability of budo and the spiritual basics of Buddhism.
Masutatsu Oyama trained with Master Su for several years and was then advised to train his mind and body by living in a mountain retreat – and to dedicate his life to Martial Way. After a few years of training, Master So advised Mas Oyama to make a firm commitment to dedicate his life to the Martial Way and advised him to retreat to a mountain hideout to train his mind and body.
So in 1946, Masutatsu Oyama went to a remote place on the Mount Kiyosumi in Chiba Prefecture, accompanied by his student, Yashiro. They were bought food once a month by a friend, Mr. Kayama and Masutatsu underwent his rigorous mind/body training. Yashiro was not able to endure the solitude for more than 6 months, and he left. Masutatsu remained strong but his plan for staying in this hideout for three years was thwarted by his friend, Mr. Kayama, being unable to finance him any longer due to a change in circumstances.
By 1950, Masutatsu had started his famous fights with bulls. This was mainly to catch the attention of the world to his powerful Karate skills, and also to test his own strength. Although the details are gory, Masutatsu accomplished incredible feats of strength and personal power by fighting a total of 52 bulls, killing three of them instantly and taking the horns of 49 of them with knife-hand blows. He opened his first Dojo in 1953 in Mejiro, Tokyo.
The training was severe to match Masutatsu’s peak strength at that time of his life. He would compare styles and techniques of other students, who also studied different styles of karate. This way, he continued to build upon what he felt was an optimum method of karate, and this formed the basis of what is known as Kyokushin Karate today. Kyokushin Karate was first practiced in Great Britain in 1965, brought here to Uk by Sensei Bob Boulton. Sensei Boulton had studied in Japan at the Honbu (HQ) dojo of the legendary Masutatsu Oyama.
When he returned to Uk, he founded the first Kyokushin Dojo, the London Karate Kai in Kennington, South London. The fame of this Sensei together with the Kyokushin style of Karate soon became known and he was later joined by Sensei Steve Arneil. It did not take long for members of this dojo to start competing and winning tournaments.
Quite soon, the British Kyokushinkai Karate was formed. Its first chairman was Bruce Donn. The British Kyokushinkai Karate continued to steadily grow in size and within a few years over thirty Dojos had sprung into existance, practising Kyokushin Karate.