Kyokushin Karate
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| Focus | Striking |
|---|---|
| Hardness | Full contact |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Creator | Masutatsu Oyama |
| Famous practitioners | Tadashi Nakamura, Steve Arneil, Sonny Chiba, Glaube Feitosa, Francisco Filho, Andy Hug, Hajime Kazumi, Katsunori Kikuno, Bobby Lowe, Dolph Lundgren, Akira Masuda, Shokei Matsui, Kenji Midori, Glen Murphy, Andrews Nakahara, Nicholas Pettas, Jerome Le Banner, Bas Rutten, Semmy Schilt, Peter Graham, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tiger Schulmann, Georges St-Pierre, Ewerton Teixeira, Marius Zaromskis, Mariusz Pudzianowski, Michael Jai White, Terutomo Yamazaki, Uriah Hall |
| Ancestor arts | Gōjū-ryū, Shotokan |
| Descendant arts | Ashihara, Enshin, Seidokaikan, Shidokan |
Kyokushin (極真?) is a style of stand-up, full contact karate, founded in 1964 by Korean-Japanese Masutatsu Oyama (大山倍達 Ōyama Masutatsu?). "Kyokushin" is Japanese for "the ultimate truth." It is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline and hard training. Its full contact style had international appeal (practitioners have over the last 40+ years numbered more than 12 million).
After formally establishing the Kyokushinkaikan in 1964, Oyama directed the organization through a period of expansion. 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. Oyama also sent instructors to other countries such as the Netherlands (Kenji Kurosaki), Australia (Shigeo Kato) and (Mamoru Kaneko), the United States of America (Tadashi Nakamura, Shigeru Oyama and Yasuhiko Oyama, Miyuki Miura), Great Britain (Steve Arneil), Canada (Tatsuji Nakamura) and Brazil (Seiji Isobe) to spread Kyokushin in the same way. Many students, including Jon Bluming, Steve Arneil, and Howard Collins, traveled to Japan to train with Oyama directly. 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. World Championships have been held at four-yearly intervals since.
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