Masutatsu Oyama
The founder of Kyokushin Karate was born in Southern Korea in a village on July 27, 1923. He started his training in Chinese Kempo when he was nine years old while living with his sister on her farm in Manchuria. In 1938, he moved to Japan and started working after abandoning his dream of becoming a fighter pilot. At that time he was studying judo and boxing and after some time he started training in the dojo of Gishin Funakoshi and started practicing Okinawan Karate. By the age of twenty years old, Oyama had already gained the rank of fourth dan.
Mas Oyama, following the suggestion of his Goju-Ryu Karate teacher, Master So Nei Chu, who taught Oyama that the Budo and the spiritual foundations of Buddhism were deeply interconnected, retreated from society in order to dedicate himself to his mental and physical training in the year 1946. His original plan was to train in seclusion for three years, but it was cut short and he was forced to return to society. Following his return he started his famous "bullfights" in 1950. These fights drew attention to not only his strength but also to his karate. In Mejiro, Tokyo, Oyama started his first "dojo." His students consisted of many students from many different styles of martial arts and as a result, he drew different techniques that he thought were the most effective and distilled them down into one style.
In 1963, the construction of Oyama's headquarters was started and only a year later, it was open. Oyama then actually started using the name "Kyokushin" which translates roughly to "The Ultimate Truth."
Masutatsu Oyama died in a hospital in Tokyo in April, 1994.
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