Oyama Dojo / International Karate Organisation

The Oyama Dojo is the original dojo founded in Tokyo by Mas Oyama, originally to teach Goju-Ryu Karate, and later on, Kyokushin.

## Opening of the dojo

In 1953, Mas Oyama opened his first “Dojo”, a grass lot in Mejiro in Tokyo. In 1956, the first real Dojo was opened in a former ballet studio behind Rikkyo University, 500 meters from the location of the current Japanese honbu dojo (headquarters). By 1957 there were 700 members, despite the high drop-out rate due to the harshness of training.

Practitioners of other styles came to train here too, for the jis-sen kumite 実戦組手 (full contact fighting). Mas Oyama would observe those from other styles and adopt any techniques that would be useful in a fight. This was how Mas Oyama’s karate evolved. He took techniques from all martial arts, and did not restrict himself to karate alone. By doing so, Kyokushin Karate evolved into one of the most formidable style of martial arts in the world. It soon became known as “The Strongest Karate”, not only because of the incredible feats of strength and endurance that Mas Oyama performed, but also because of the rigorous requirements of the training and tournaments.

## Demonstrations in the dojo

In order to test his own abilities, Mas Oyama decided to perform a 300 Man Kumite 三百人組手 (San-Byakunin Kumite) over the period of three days. He chose the strongest fighters in his dojo to fight him one after another. After each had a turn, they started from the beginning again until all three hundred fights were completed. Each student had to face Mas Oyama about four times over the three days, though some never made it past the first day due to Oyama’s powerful blows. He defeated all of his opponents, never wavering in his resolve, despite the fact that he was injured in the process. Legend has it that Mas Oyama was willing to go for a fourth day, but no opponents were willing or able to do so.

## Opening of the Honbu dojo

In June 1964 the actual Honbu (world headquarters) was officially opened and IKO (international Karate Organization) adopted the name of “Kyokushin”, or “ultimate truth” as the name for Oyama’s karate. From that moment Kyokushin Karate started to spread out all over the world attaining over 15 million practitioners in over 120 country’s, making it in one of the biggest martial arts organizations in the world. In 1974 Mas Oyama got honored for his work by receiving the 9th dan and shortly after that he received the 10th dan, the highest possible grad in the world by the international committee of counry representatives.

## Splintering of the dojo

Even before Mas Oyama's death in 1994, there have been several organizations that broke off from Oyama's IKO. In 1980, the Dutch Kyokushin instructor Jon Bluming would exit the IKO organization to establish the BKK (Budo Kai Kan) in 1980. In 1991, Steve Arneil lead exodus of British Karate Kyokushinkai from IKO, to establish IFK - the International Federation of Karate.

In April 1994, Oyama died of lung cancer at the age of 70 without naming a successor, leaving Akiyoshi Matsui (Shokei Matsui) in charge of the IKO. This has brought much political and economic turmoil to the Kyokushin worldwide, leading to fragmentation of the organization at the national and international level.

After Mas Oyama's death, the International Karate Organization (IKO) split into two groups, primarily due to personal conflicts over who should succeed Oyama as chairman. One group led by Shokei Matsui became known as IKO-1, and a second group led by Yukio Nishida and Sanpei became was known as IKO-2. The will was proven to be invalid in the family Court of Tokyo in 1995.

There were claims that near the end of his life, Oyama named Matsui (then ranked 5th *dan*, and clearly junior in rank to several senior instructors) to succeed him in leading the IKO. However this claim has been disputed with Oyama's family and Matsui himself.

At present there are now several IKO organizations, such as IKO1 (Shokei Matsui), IKO2 Shinkyokushinkai (Kenji Midori), IKO3 (Y. Matsushima), IKO4 (T. Tezuka).