Kyokushin

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Kyokushinkaikan (極眞會館)

Focus	Striking
Hardness	Full-contact
Country of origin	Japan
Creator	Masutatsu Oyama
Famous practitioners	(see notable practitioners)
Ancestor arts	Gōjū-ryū,[1] Shotokan,[2] Bōgutsuki Karate (Kanbukan),[3][4]
Descendant arts	Kudo, Ashihara, Enshin, Seidokaikan, Shidokan, Satojuku, Seiwakai, Shindenkai, Seidō juku

Kyokushin (極真)^[a] is a full-contact martial art, school of Karate originating from Japan. It is a style of stand-up fighting and is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline and hard training.^[5][6][7]

Kyokushin Kaikan is the martial arts organization founded in 1964 by Korean-Japanese Masutatsu Oyama (大山倍達, Ōyama Masutatsu), officially the International Karate Organization. Previously this institution was known as the Oyama Dojo.

History[]

Founding[]

In April 1964, Mas Oyama established the Kyokushin Kaikan of the International Karatedo Federation under the umbrella of the Kyokushin Scholarship Foundation. Upon formation, Eisaku Sato acted as chairman and Matsuhei Mori as the vice chairman, with Oyama as the director (later president). Oyama directed the organization through a period of expansion.^[8] In June of the same year, the headquarters dojo (later the general headquarters) was completed in Nishiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo. In addition to the people who provided financial support for the construction, Tadashi Nakamura testified that "Kenji Kurosaki's teacher has contributed very much."^[9]

Oyama hand-picked instructors who displayed ability in marketing the style and gaining new members. Oyama would choose an instructor to open a new dojo. The instructor would move to that town and demonstrate his karate skills in public places. After that, word of mouth would spread through the local area until the dojo had a dedicated core of students. Kyokushin sought to expand it's presence with contact with other martial arts disciples, interaction with other groups, matches, assimiliation of martial arts technique.

Oyama also sent instructors to other countries such as the Netherlands (Kenji Kurosaki), Australia (Mamoru Kaneko and Shigeo Kato), the United States (Miyuki Miura, Tadashi Nakamura, Shigeru Oyama and Yasuhiko Oyama), Great Britain (Steve Arneil), Canada (Tatsuji Nakamura) and Brazil (Seiji Isobe) to spread Kyokushin in the same way. Many students, including Steve Arneil, Jon Bluming, and Howard Collins, traveled to Japan to train with Oyama directly. Kyokushin also sought to develop a close connection with VIPs and celebrities, focusing on a mass media strategy to increase fans and gain students.

In 1969, Oyama staged The First All-Japan Full Contact Karate Open Championships and Terutomo Yamazaki became the first champion. All-Japan Championships have been held at every year. In 1975, The First World Full Contact Karate Open Championships were held in Tokyo.^{[citation needed]} World Championships have been held at four-yearly intervals since.^{[citation needed]}

At its peak, Oyama was alive in the 1990s, with branches set up in each prefecture, with more than 1,000 official branch dojos in 123 countries around the world, and a scale of 12 million members.^{[10][additional citation(s) needed]}

Oyama's death[]

After Mas Oyama's death, the International Karate Organization (IKO) split into two groups, primarily due to personal conflicts over who should succeed Oyama as chairman. One group led by Shokei Matsui became known as IKO-1, and a second group led by ^[11] and Sanpei became was known as IKO-2. The will was proven to be invalid in the family Court of Tokyo in 1995.

There were claims that near the end of his life, Oyama named Matsui (then ranked 5th dan, and clearly junior in rank to several senior instructors) to succeed him in leading the IKO. However this claim has been disputed with Oyama's family and Matsui himself.^[12][13]

In 1995 any new Kyokushin organization that claimed the name IKO, Kyokushinkaikan, were referred to by Kyokushin practitioners by numbers, such as IKO-1 (Matsui group), IKO-2 etc.^{[citation needed]} Due to this break up, many attempted to establish their own leadership.^{[citation needed]} For example, IKO-2 was not organized by Oyama's family, although Chiyako Oyama was asked to succeed after her husband as Kaicho.^{[citation needed]} Chiyako Oyama stepped away from the political fight and founded the Mas Oyama Memorial Foundation with her daughters, still retaining the rights to the companies that managed IKO Kyokushinkaikan during Mas Oyama's leadership.^{[citation needed]}

Present[]

Oyama's widow died in June 2006 after a long illness.^{[citation needed]} Mas Oyama's youngest daughter, Kikuko (also known as Kuristina) now oversees the management of the original IKO Kyokushin kaikan Honbu.^{[citation needed]} She also published a book in 2010, a collective memoir of Mas Oyama and his teachings.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2012, the Japanese Patent Office granted the Kyokushin related trademarks to Kikuko Kuristina Oyama, after years of long court battle.^{[citation needed]} She has internationally trademarked and copyrighted her father's work and devotes the proceeds to various charities.^{[citation needed]}

Techniques and training[]

Kyokushin Karate training consists of three main elements: technique, forms, and sparring. These are sometimes referred to as the three "K's" after the Japanese words for them: kihon (basics), kata (formalized sequences of combat techniques), and kumite (sparring).

Kata[]

Kata is a form of ritualized self-training in which patterned or memorized movements are done in order to practice a form of combat maneuverings. According to a highly regarded Kyokushin text, "The Budo Karate of Mas Oyama"^[14] by Cameron Quinn, long time interpreter to Oyama, the kata of Kyokushin are classified into Northern and Southern Kata.

The northern kata stems from the Shuri-te tradition of karate, and are drawn from Shotokan karate which Oyama learned while training under Gichin Funakoshi.^[2] The southern kata stems from the Naha-te tradition of karate, and are mostly drawn from Goju-ryu karate, which Oyama learned while training under So Nei Chu and Gogen Yamaguchi.^[1] One exception may be the kata "Yantsu" which possibly originates with Motobu-ha Shito-ryu. There is also Ura Kata - Several kata are also done in "ura", which essentially means all moves are done in mirrored form. The ura, or 'reverse' kata, were developed by Oyama as an aid to developing balance and skill in circular techniques against multiple opponents.

Sparring (kumite)[]

Sparring, also called kumite, is used to train the application of the various techniques within a fighting situation. Sparring is usually an important part of training in most Kyokushin organizations, especially at the upper levels with experienced students.

In most Kyokushin organizations, hand and elbow strikes to the head or neck are prohibited. However, kicks to the head, knee strikes, punches to the upper body, and kicks to the inner and outer leg are permitted. In some Kyokushin organizations, especially outside of a tournament environment, gloves and shin protectors are worn. Children often wear headgear to lessen the impact of any kicks to the head. Speed and control are instrumental in sparring and in a training environment it is not the intention of either practitioner to injure his opponent as much as it is to successfully execute the proper strike. Tournament fighting under knockdown karate rules is significantly different as the objective is to down an opponent. Full-contact sparring in Kyokushin is considered the ultimate test of strength, endurance, techniques and spirit. ^[16]
Numerous tournaments are arranged by several Kyokushin organizations. Some of the most prestigious tournaments are:

• Kyokushin World Tournament Open
• Kyokushin World Cup in Weight Categories

Self-defense[]

Also known as Goshin Jitsu, the specific self-defense techniques of the style draw much of their techniques and tactics from Mas Oyama's study of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu under Yoshida Kotaro. These techniques were never built into the formal grading system, and as karate itself grew increasingly sport-oriented, the self-defense training started to fall into obscurity. Today it is only practiced in a limited number of dojos. However, the proper Kyokushin Karate techniques are extremely effective when it comes to self-defense in any type of fight due to its full body contact fighting style^{[by whom?]}.

Grading[]

Colored belts have their origin in Judo, as does the training 'gi', or more correctly in Japanese, 'dōgi' or 'Keikogi'. The example below uses the rank structure used by Kyokushin Karate's West Los Angeles Branch although the order of belt colors does vary between Kyokushin groups.

Kyu ranks^[17]

Dan Ranks

Popularity and Influence[]

Kyokushin has had an influence on many other styles.^{[citation needed]} The knockdown karate competition format is now used by other styles.^{[citation needed]} Karate styles that originated in Kyokushin, such as Ashihara Karate, Budokaido, Godokai, Enshin Karate, Seidō juku, Musokai, Shidōkan, World Oyama and Seidokaikan, are also knockdown styles and use slight variations of the competition rules.^{[citation needed]}

A few styles (Kansuiryu Karate and Byakuren) originated independently of Kyokushin and have adopted the competition format.^{[citation needed]} Kokondo is derived from Kyokushin, albeit without a strong focus on competition with the emphasis rather on realistic goshin-jutsu (self-defense).^{[citation needed]} Some styles originating in Kyokushin (Jushindo, Kūdō, ) have changed to mixed martial arts rules.^{[citation needed]}

Kickboxing has been seen as a natural progression for kyokushin competitors^{[citation needed]} and many of Japan's top kickboxers^[who?] have started in knockdown karate. The influence of Kyokushin can be seen in the K-1 kickboxing tournament that originated out of the Seidokaikan karate organization, which is an offshoot from Kyokushin.^{[citation needed]}

Kyokushin is the basis of glove karate, a knockdown karate format wearing boxing gloves and allowing punches to the head. Glove karate rules are used in Kyokushin Karate Iran.^[18][19]

The style has international appeal with practitioners have over the last 40 years numbered more than 12 million).^[20]

In popular culture[]

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Video games[]

Kyokushin Karate has featured in following videogames:

• The move sets of Ryu and Ken from Capcom's Street Fighter franchise are based on Kyokushin.^{[citation needed]} Ryu is said to be based on Yoshiji Soeno, a student of Mas Oyama.^{[citation needed]}
• In Namco's Tekken series, Jin Kazama uses Kyokushin Karate as his fighting style, starting from Tekken 4 and subsequent titles.^[c][21][22]
• Shotaro Kadonashi and his disciples from Namco's Urban Reign use the art of Kyokushinkai.^{[citation needed]}
• Hitomi from the Dead or Alive (franchise) series uses karate where many moves have roots originating from Kyokushin.^{[citation needed]}
• Matsuo Shozan's Hokushinkan Karate School and his disciples' fighting style in PS2 games Garouden Breakblow (2005) and Garouden Breakblow Fist or Twist (2007) are heavily based on Kyokushinkaikan and its founder Oyama Masutatsu 'Sosai'.
• Jean Kujo, from the Virtua Fighter series, practices varied forms of full-contact karate, including Kyokushin Karate.^{[citation needed]}
• Solara from Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is said to practice Kyokushin.^{[citation needed]}
• Kyokushin Karate has served as the basis for the Kyokugenryu Karate, a fictional martial art from SNK Playmore's Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and King of Fighters series. Kyokugenryu (lit. "the extreme style") and Kyokushin are similar sounding names, and the family patriarch Takuma Sakazaki is modelled after Kyokusin founder Mas Oyama.^[23][24][25] Besides Takuma, characters Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki and Marco Rodriguez/Khushnood Butt use this style.^{[citation needed]}
• Torao Onigawara in the arcade game The Fallen Angels (video game) is a master of Kyokushin Karate.^{[citation needed]}
• Ichigeki: Hagane no Hito is a 3D fighting game for the PlayStation that focuses on the International Karate Organization (also known as IKO 1). The game even features real life Kyokushin athletes of the 90's including Francisco Filho, Kazumi Hajime, Nicholas Pettas and even live video segments of IKO head Shokei Matsui.^{[citation needed]}
• Karate Master Knock Down Blow a recent game from Crian Soft that is heavily based on Kyokushin Karate.^{[citation needed]}

Movies[]

A trilogy of films starring Sonny Chiba and directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi were produced in Japan between 1975 and 1977: Champion of Death, Karate Bearfighter and Karate for Life. Chiba plays Master Oyama, who also appears in two of the films.^[26]

Actor Dolph Lundgren is a practitioner of Kyokushin^[27] and holds a rank of 4th Dan blackbelt.^{[citation needed]}

The James Bond movie You Only Live Twice, starring Sean Connery, was filmed largely in Japan and featured a karate demonstration by a number of well-known Kyokushin students, including Shigeo Kato (who introduced Kyokushin to Australia and was the original teacher of Shokei Matsui) and Akio Fujihira, who was one of the three fighters who took up the Muay Thai challenge in 1964 and who fought in the ring for many years under the name of Noboru Osawa.^{[citation needed]}

TV[]

Kyokushin was featured on Fight Quest on Discovery Channel as the Japanese Martial Arts Style.^[28]

Kyokushin was the style of karate featured in an episode of Human Weapon.^{[citation needed]}

Kyokushin was studied by a character named Sutton in an episode of Elementary.^{[citation needed]}

Notable practitioners[]

Founder and early students[]

Combat Sports[]

Celebrity[]

Notes[]

References[]

See also[]

• Comparison of karate styles