Japanese karate expert to visit Christchurch

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32736, 13 October 1971, Page 14

Japanese karate expert to visit Christchurch

One of the world’s foremost karate exponents, Masutatsu Oyama, a living legend in Japan and wellknown for his triumphant tours of the United States and South-East Asia, will visit Christchurch in late November.

Oyama is coming to New Zealand to promote his own Kyokushinkai - style karate and will hold seminars at the Josaikan club in Christchurch. Among those he will lecture to will be A. Barber, R. Hanham, R. Tulloch and W. Wendelken, who all trained under him in Japan and are now instructors at the club. An All - Japan karate champion as long ago as 1947, Oyama gained international recognition when he toured the United States in 1952, giving exhibitions of his art and winning every one of many bouts against leading professional boxers and wrestlers by a knockout When he returned to Japan he had his first widely-publicised unarmed encounter with a bull, the beginning of a series of 52 thrilling encounters which have ended in sudden death for at least three of the animals. No other man is thought to have surpassed his record of smashing a stack of 30 roofing tiles with a single blow. Now 48 and a dedicated teacher of one of the most advanced forms of a Japanese martial art, Oyama has not always been the heralded hero. Actually Korean-born, he was sent to a military academy in Japan by his father at the age of 15 because he was getting into too much trouble and later actually killed a man who attacked him with a knife during a street brawl. . Oyama began to study | judo when in the academy I but soon changed to Shotokan-style karate, at

which he made amazing progress, winning his second dan (degree) black belt at 17 and the fourth dan at 22. Drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army at 18, Oyama continued to study, one of his teachers being the Korean Go ju-kai specialist, Cho Hyung Ju. He received orders to oroceed to the Pacific theatre in 1945 but the war ended the day before he was due to leave. It was about this time that Oyama struck the lowpoint in his life. However, a period of living in a Buddhist temple and another 18 months of daily training in the solitude of a mountain camp enabled him to overcome his problems. He won the All-Japan karate championship in 1947 and accepted an invitation by the United States Professional Wrestling Association to tour that country in 1952. The following year he toured SouthEast Asia and was undefeated in demonstration bouts against the famous kick-boxers of Thailand.

Between 1954 and 1961, Oyama travelled about Japan, establishing dojos (clubs) in many areas and teaching karate. He contributed to the enormous spread of Go ju-style karate in the country and eventually established his. own Kyokushinkai-style, which incorporates both the traditional with the modem fighting techniques. In 1960 he again toured the United States, introducing his style and establishing dojos in a number of cities. Oyama feels that some styles of karate have taken on too many tendencies of a sport or game, thus becoming unreal and ineffective in combat and finally degenerating into an aesthetic practice in which form, beauty and grace of movement are the only objectives. His Kyokushin-kai-style is wide-ranging, powerful, and most important of all —efficient The picture shows Oyama using power and speed to snuff a two-inch candle, without touching the flame, with his fist