World Oyama Karate

[95 Mystic TA]

Hi to all, newbie's first thread.

I am currently enrolled in a World Oyama Karate program located in Birmingham, Alabama under Saiko Shihan Yasuhiko Oyama. I am pretty new to the martial arts world. I have been training for a bit over 6 months and I am curious as to how well known this style is.
Of the various people I have spoken to about different martial arts, several of them were familiar with it and highly recommended it noting how tough they (we) train as compared to some of the other forms of karate. Any validity to this?


World Oyama Karate

[Thai Bri]

I'd never heard of the style, and a glance at the style makes me think "Kyukushinkai".

I think it a bit cheeky to use the Oyama name (founder of Kyukushinkai), even if it is the real name of the chief.

But I'm not that arsed.

[Toudiyama[NL]]

It is the real name

Whereas it wasn't from the founder of Kyokushin
I'm not shure but I think the kyokushin founder was adopted by Oyama, who in turn studied with Matsutatsu

So world oyama karate is a Kyokushin offshoot that looks the same and is just as tough

Not shure if he left before or after Mas died

[Colin Chua]

World Oyama Karate

The World Oyama Karate is an off-shoot of Kyokushinkai Karate founded by Mas Oyama (a Korean who migrated to Japan in his teens and adopted the name Oyama). The founder of W.O.K is Shigeru Oyama who was a student of Mas Oyama. Mas O. lived with Shigeru's Oyama's family for many years and in honour of the kindness and hospitality shown to him, he thus adopted the family name Oyama.

In 1994, Mas Oyama died leaving behind a very confused organisation. While on his deathbed, he apparently spontaneously appointed Akiyoshi (Shokei) Matsui, then 5th dan, as his successor. Qualified though Matsui was, both in Kyokushin and in management, many of the higher ranked members and Branch Chiefs of the organisation took exception to this. As a consequence, there has been a number of rifts in the Japanese organisation, which have propagated through to the rest of the Kyokushin world. As a result there are now 4 separate IKOs (international Karate Organisation) with different heads. Kancho Matsui heads IKO1, which I am affiliated to.

Moreover, even before Oyama's death, off-shoots such as those below...

Enshin Karate
Seidokaikan
Ashihara
Daido Juku
etc.

arose. Some of these maintained the principles of Kyokushin and still call it Kyokushin, while others modified it and/or improved it e.g. Ashihara or Daido Juku.