Back in the 1980’s I did a brief stint in Taekwondo in Columbus, Ohio. When I signed up, the Sensei gave me my very first copy of Black Belt magazine in which he was featured.
*Note: That is Bruce Lee and his son on the cover, not my old Sensei. 🙂
Well, I recently discovered the “Libby” library app which offers free online subscriptions to various magazines. It crossed my mind to check out the Black Belt magazine, especially since the edition above is the one and only I’ve ever read – and that was 39 years ago!
Unfortunately, the latest edition in the app was from 2023. Searching the web I’ve learned that the magazine has changed owners quite a bit, had a small hiatus but “returned to print in November 2024,” although apparently not updated yet in the Libby app.
So what does all this have to do with World Oyama? Well, reading that issue from 2023, I saw the editor had listed the “Most Dangerous In My Eyes” martial arts with Kyokushin Karate coming in at number 10. The editor says:
Kyokushin Karate: Practitioners of this art are used to full contact, often with bare knuckles and hardened shins.
Yes, that sounds exactly like the karate we practice. World Oyama Karate is a “branch” of Kyokushin with our founders, brothers Soshu and Saiko Shihan studying directly under Mas Oyama in Japan with Soshu being one of the very first students. Therefore, our style is most certainly ‘Kyokushin’ but after our founders separated from the ‘Kyokushin’ school some time after relocating to the USA we no longer use the name.
However, the style was born from ‘Kyokushin’ and retains much of the same aspects with some slight modifications. This includes full contact where we become accustomed to not only offense but harden our bodies with direct contact from opponents. Saiko Shihan goes explains further about the history as well as our style here:
Saiko Shihan says:
In most modern Karate styles, the student just punches the air, kicks the air and blocks the air. There is no contact. Without contact, the student cannot really understand the connection between basic training, KATA training and KUMITE training. Too much emphasis is placed on the mental and spiritual aspects of Karate. Many modern Karate instructors fear that students will be hurt if they train with contact. But this results in too much emphasis on blocking and self defense. The result is that the fundamental purpose of Karate training is lost.
It was nice to see Kyokushin listed in Black Belt. If you are thinking about joining a karate class please don’t let the “dangerous” designation put you off. Our practices are quite safe and over time you’ll not only learn a very effective offense but gain that hardened body as well!
