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SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA 27/07/1923 – 26/04/1994
Sosai Mas Oyama was born on 27th July 1923 in South Korea. There are hundreds of web pages dedicated to this modern “warrior” and he became and remained a legend in his lifetime. Sosai was obviously a natural athlete. At 17 he was a second dan and by the age of 20 he was a fourth dan karate, studying under the Master Ginchin Funakoshi as well as Master So Nei Chu. Taking up judo he gained a fourth dan within four years. After spending 14 months in meditation and isolation in the mountains of Minobu, Chiba Prefecture he returned to civilisation and won the First Japanese National Martial Arts Champioships after World War Two. He returned to the mountains and after a further 18 months of fanatically training, meditating and studying the martial arts, returned to civilisation to spread his style of karate; Kyokinshin Karate, The Ultimate Truth Karate.
His famous battles with bulls are legendary. Sosai Mas Oyama travelled the world demonstrating his incredible power; in the USA he fought 270 challengers, defeating every one, mainly with a single punch! His maxim became; Ichi geki, Hissatsu! One strike certain death and became known as the “Godhand”.
In 1953 he opened his first “Dojo” and in 1956 Kyokushin Karate was officially born in the Oyama dojo near the Rikkyo University Tokyo. From the early 1960’s Kyokushin Karate spread like wildfire to 123 countries with a membership of over 10 million members. South Africa was at forefront of this expansion with Shihan Len Barnes opening his Kyokushin dojo in 1961.In 1975 Sosai Mas Oyama staged the first ever First World Open Karate Tournament, the success of this tournament would result that by the late 1970’s an estimated 20 million people were practising Kyokushin karate world wide.
Sadly Sosai Masutatsu Oyama died of cancer in 1994, leaving the International Karate Organization in the hands of Akiyoshi Matsui. The resulting ramifications of this appointment was that Kyokushin Karate, once the biggest and strongest karate organisation world wide, became fragmented and splintered into various Kyokushin factions. It is however gratifying that most of these groups adhere to the standards set by Sosai Masutatsu Oyama.
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