Kyokushin Karate was founded by the late Masutatsu Oyama. Matsutatsu Oyama was born by the name of Yong-I Choi in South Korea on July 27, 1923. At a young age, Yong-I Choi moved to live with his sister on a farm in Southern China.

Yong-I Choi  had his first encounter with martial arts and the martial way when he was about 9 years old, learning Southern Chinese Kenpo from Mr. Yi who worked on his sister's farm. Yong-I Choi trained with Mr. Yi for about 2 years and reached the level of Shodan (1st dan).

At the age of 12, Yong-I Choi returned to Korea and started training in the Korean martial arts of Taiken or Chabi, which was a mixtures of different arts including Kempo, Kung Fu and Ju Jitsu.

In 1938, Yong-I Choi went to Japan to receive instruction and training as a pilot. He went to the Yamanashi Youth Aviation Institute but had to stop his pilot training because survival in Japan for a 15 year old Korean proved to more difficult than he could have imagined. Although life was hard, Yong-I Choi continued his training in the martial arts with Judo and boxing.

While living in Japan, Yong-I Choi took on the Japanese name Matsutatsu Oyama, Oyama meaning Great Mountain.

One day, Mas Oyama noticed a student training Okinawan karate. He was interested to the point that he went to the dojo of Ginchin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan Karate, to become a member. Mas Oyama was very impressed by the karate pioneer and became a very devoted disciple of Funakoshi at the Takushoku University. His remarkable skill and progress were soon noticed and rewarded with a promotion at only 17 years old to Nidan (2nd dan). When Mas Oyama signed up with the Japanese army at the age of 20, he was already Yondan (4th Dan) in Shotokan karate.

After World War II, Mas Oyama began his training in Goju Ryu karate with Master So Nei Chu. Like Mas Oyama, So Nei Chu was a Korean living in Japan. So Nei Chu was an authority on Goju Ryu and reknowned for his mental and physical strength. Mas Oyama finally attained 8th Dan.

Another influential master he met while training at the Goju school was Masahiko Kimura, the renowned champion of judo who defeated Hélio Gracie. Kimura encouraged Oyama to take up judo so that he would have an understanding of the art's powerful ground skills. Kimura introduced Oyama to the Sone Dojo in Nakano, Tokyo, where he trained regularly for four years, eventually gaining his 4th Dan. 

Mas Oyama later met Eji Yoshikawa, writer of the book about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's most famous samurai warrior. Thanks to this book and the writer, Oyama starts to understand the profound meanings of the Samurai Bushido Code.

Influenced by So Nei Chu, Mas Oyama decided to withdraw from social life and live in solitude for a period of 3 years and dedicate his time completely to the intense training of body and mind. He leaves for the mountain Minobu, the same place where Musashi made up the Nito Ryu swordmanship. Mas Oyama was only 23 years old at the time. In his opinion this would be the perfect place to start his severe training of body and mind that he had planned for himself. Accompanied by one of his students, called Yashiro, and assisted by a friend who provided them with the monthly food supplies, they went to the wilderness to train.

After 6 months, Yashiro leaves Oyama and decided to return to civilization. After 14 months of training, his sponsor sends a message stating that he can no longer help him with his monthly food supplies. So Oyama has to stop his training and return to civilization.

A few months later, in 1947, Mas Oyama participates in the Karate division of the "1st Japanese National Martial Arts Championships" after the second world war and wins. Despite his victory, Oyama feels empty inside for not completing his solitary training and again returns to the wilderness for training.

This time he goes to the Kiyozumi mountain, also in the prefecture of Chiba. This selection was inspired for the spiritual nature of the place. His training was very intense and rigorous. He trained for about 12 hours a day. He trained standing below ice cold waterfalls, breaking riverstones, using trees as his makiwara, jumping hundreds of times over fast growing branches.

He also spent hours studying the many ancient martial arts philosophy. He meditated long hours in the icy waterfalls. His goal was to create a martial art going back to the origins of the true samurai way of fighting. During these 18 months of rough and intense training, Mas Oyama combined the most effective techniques of different systems and made up his own unique style. After this time, he returned to society as a completely different man. Mentally, physically and spiritual much stronger.

During the 50s, Mas Oyama started to demonstrate his ability and strength by fighting bulls. He fought 52 bulls in total, of which he killed 3 on the spots and chopped of the horns of 49 with one only shuto (chop with the side of the hand). Oyama didn't hide the fact that his first attempt only resulted in a mad bull . In 1957, when he was 34 years old, a bull caught him in his back and almost killed him. It took Mas Oyama 6 months to recover from this almost lethal wound.

In April 1952, Mas Oyama travelled to the United States where he stayed for one year demonstrating his karate live on national television. He fought against professional boxers, wrestlers and everybody who wanted to challenge him. In total, he fought against 270 opponents and beat them all, most of them with a single attack. No fight lasted longer than 3 minutes and most were finished after a few seconds. Oyama based his fights on the samurai fighting principle of one blow, certain dead (Ichi geki, hissatsu). If he came close to you, than the fight was over, if he hit you, something broke, if you tried to block his attach, the result would be a broken or dislocated arm and if you didn't block your ribs would be broken. Due to his power and skill, he became known as God's Hand. For him, this was the true goal and purpose of karate. The complex techniques came second but nonetheless he was also known for his powerful head kicks.

During this time, the 100-men kumite started. To test his own capabilities and skills, Mas Oyama decided to have a 300-men kumite in 3 days. He choose the strongest students from his dojo to fight him one after another. After everyone had his turn, then they started all over again, until the 300 fights were completed. Every student had to fight the master about 4 times during those 3 days. Some of them didn't even stand through the first day because of the powerful blows of Oyama. The legend goes that Oyama wanted to fight a 4th day but none of his students wanted to participate another day.

In 1954, Mas Oyama started his first dojo on a small piece of grassland in Tokyo. In June 1956, Mas Oyama officially opened the Oyama dojo behind the Rikkyo University. In 1957, there were about 700 members training at his dojo, despite of the great dropout rate due to the hard training.

Practitioners of other martial arts also came to train at his dojo, especially for the jis-sen kumite (full contact fighting). Mas Oyama observed these styles and adopted their best and most usefull techniques into his karate. Doing so, his Karate evolved soon into one of the most impressive styles in the world of martial arts. Soon his style was known as "The Strongest Karate", not only for the skill and endurance of Oyama but also because of the strong and strict discipline and the requirements for training and tournaments.

Oyama Dojo members took their kumite very serious, very much aware that they were practicing a fighting sport, so they had to expect to be hit and to be able to hit. They fought with few rules and restrictions. Attacks to the head with the handpalm or fists wrapped in towels, throws, grappling, and kicks (even to the groin) were normal practice. The kumite continued until one of the competitors surrendered and gave up shouting. People got hurt every day and the give-up percentage was incredibly high (over 90%). They had no official dogi and wore whatever they had.

In June 1964, Mas Oyama officially opened the International Karate Organization (IKO) Honbu (world headquarters) and adopted the name of "Kyokushin", or "ultimate thruth" as the name for his karate. From that moment, Kyokushin Karate started to spread out all over the world attaining over 15 million practitioners in over 120 countries, making it one of the biggest martial arts organizations in the world. In 1974, Mas Oyama got honored for his work by receiving the 9th dan and shortly after that he received the 10th dan, the highest possible rank in the world by the international committee of country representatives.

In April 1994, Mas Oyama died of lung cancer at the age of 70. Before his death, he appointed in his testament that Yukio Nishida would be his successor to lead IKO. But on his death bed, he changed his mind and appointed Akiyoshi (Shokei) Matsui, Yondan (4th Dan). Several of the higher ranked Yudansha were offended by Mas Oyama's decision and broke away from the organization to form IKO 2, IKO 3, and IKO 4. Other Kyokushin splinter organization inlcude Kyokushinkan, International Federation of Karate (IFK), International Budokai Kan (IBK), and Kyokushin Union. Karate styles originating in Kyokushin include Ashihara Karate, Enshin Karate, Daido Juku Karate, Seidō Karate, Shidōkan, and Seido Kaikan.

Mas Oyama did not only create an extremely effective martial art but he also gave us the Kyokushin way of life philosophy. Mas Oyama was indeed one of the best karate master of all times and he made many great instructors who helped to spread his organization all over the world. He left us a legacy to be proud of.

This is his Kyokushin ideal :

Keep your head low (modesty), eyes high (ambition), mouth shut (serenity), base yourself on filial piety and benefit others.

With respect for our founder and leader, Osu!