While there have been many fantastic karate masters, only Mas Oyama can honestly lay claim to being the toughest karate master of all time. This is most interesting, because Karate came from China, was born on Okinawa, and migrated to Japan, which became the ‘Land of Karate.’ Mas Oyama, (birth name–Choi Yeong-eui), however, was not from any of those countries, but was born Korean.

Sensei Oyama was born into Japanese occupied Korea in the year 1923. He took his first martial arts instruction from a Chinese worker named Lee when he was 9 years old, he was told to plant a seed, and to practice jumping over it as it sprouted. It is said he could leap incredible distances because of this practice.

After World War II Mas made his home in Japan, where he was looked down upon for being Korean. In 1946 he enrolled in Waseda University and began lessons from the second son of Gichin Funakoshi. Because of his Korean status his training was very lonely, and many would claim his solitary lifestyle would keep him dedicated and free of distractions, and enable him to achieve a very pure and elevated level of Karate.

From Waseda University he went to Takushoku University, and from the son he went to the father, for at Takushoku he studied with the father of modern day karate, Gichin Funakoshi. After shotokan he moved to Goju Ryu, studying with Chojun Miyagi. He was eventually promoted to 8th dan in that system by Gogen Yamaguchi.

During this time Mas Oyama was known as a fierce fighter, and he specialized in fighting the US military police. He was in so many fights that his picture hung from the walls of every police station. Eventually, and probably because of his fighting, he was advised by a friend, Mr. Neichu So, to retreat to the mountains and live a life of seclusion and dedicate himself to a regimen of hard training.

Mas Oyama spent 14 months in this type of lifestyle on the top of Mt. Minobu, then, later, another 18 months. He returned to Tokyo as a fierce fighter who could not be beaten. During this time he began giving demonstrations, which included fighting bulls, shearing the horns off them with a chop, or killing them outright, with nothing but brutal kicks and iron fists.

Eventually, Mas established the Kyokushinkai, which school became famous for its brutal and tough training methods. One of the hallmarks of this type of training is the 100 man freestyle, in which a fighter faces 100 opponents in the toughest type of full contact freestyle imaginable. The schools of this toughest Karate sensei are now spread throughout the world and inspired martial artists everywhere.

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Tags: Self Defence