Gogen yamaguchi and mas oyama movie

 An early start

       Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama was born Yong I-Choi on the 27th of July, 1923, in a village not far from Gunsan in Southern Korea. At a relatively young age he was sent to Manchuria, in Southern China, to live on his sister's farm. At the age of nine, he started studying the Southern Chinese form of Kempo called Eighteen hands from a Mr. Yi who was at the time working on the farm. When Oyama returned to Korea at the the age of 12, he continued his training in Korean Kempo.

       In 1938, at the age of 15, he travelled to Japan to train as an aviator, to be like his hero of the time, Korea's first fighter pilot. Survival on his own at that age proved to be more difficult than he thought, especially as a Korean in Japan, and the aviator training fell by the wayside.

Gichin Funakoshi

       He did however continue martial arts training, by participating in judo and boxing, and one day he noticed some students training in Okinawan Karate. This interested him very much and he went to train at the dojo of Gichin Funakoshi at Takushoku University, where he learned what is today known as CyberDojo home pages.

       His training progress was such that by the age of seventeen he was already a 2nd dan, and by the time he entered the Japanese Imperial Army at 20, he was a fourth dan. At this point he also took a serious interest in judo, and his progress there was no less amazing. By the time he had quit training in Judo.

So Nei Chu

       The defeat of Japan and the subsequent indignity of Occupation almost proved to be too much for Mas Oyama, who nearly despaired. Fortunately for all of us, So Nei Chu came into his life at that time. Master So, another Korean (from Oyama's own province) living in Japan, was one of the highest authorities on Goju Ryu in Japan at the time. He was renowned for both his phys

Japanese karateka

Jitsumi Gōgen Yamaguchi (山口剛玄; January 20, 1909 – May 20, 1989), also known as Gōgen Yamaguchi, was a Japanese martial artist and student of Gōjū-ryū Karate under Chōjun Miyagi. He was one of the most well-known karate-dō masters from Japan and he founded the International Karate-dō Gōjū Kai Association.

Prior to his death, Yamaguchi was decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1968 with the Ranjū-Hōshō, らんじゅほうしょう(藍綬褒章), the Blue Ribbon Medal of the fifth order of merit, for his enormous contribution to the spread worldwide of the Japanese martial arts. For many years he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records regarding his rank and achievements. According to an obituary:

His name was a household word in Karate circles, and he appeared in all the major Martial Arts magazines and publications, both in Japan and the western world.

— Paul Starling, The End of an Era, Obituary Gogen Yamaguchi in Australasian Fighting Arts, Aug/Sept Issue 1989 pp.68-70

Early years

According to his autobiographical work: Karate Gojū-ryū by the Cat Tokyo, Japan (1963), Gōgen Yamaguchi was born on January 20, 1909, in Miyakonojō Shonai, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, near Kagoshima City on the island of Kyūshū. In his 5th year of primary school Yamaguchi commenced his karate-dō training under the guidance of Takeo Maruta, a carpenter joiner from Okinawa. Maruta was a Gōjū-ryū practitioner.

Gōgen Yamaguchi was named Jitsumi Yamaguchi by his father Tokutarō who was a merchant

Shortly before he died in July 1989, the legendary Gogen “The Cat” Yamaguchi, founder and world leader of goju-ryu karate-do, granted what became his final interview. It was conducted through an interpreter at his world goju-ryu headquarters in Tokyo by John Will, editor of Blitz, one of Australia’s foremost martial arts magazines. Blitz graciously permitted Fighter International to reprint select excerpts of that interview so as to share with the rest of the world the wisdom of this late, great master who spent 60 years in the pursuit of karate-do perfection. Born in 1909, Yamaguchi began his study of karate in 1929 under renowned Okinawan karate master Chojun Miyagi. Later Yamaguchi blended Miyagi’ s Okinawan goju-ryu with elements of soft Chinese techniques, yoga, and the Shinto religion to create a new form of goju-ryu. His innovations created a typically Japanese
style. In 1934, he organized the All-Japan Goju-Kai Karate-do Association and over the years built a strong, worldwide organization. There are conflicting opinions, but some historians maintain that as early as 1935 or ’36 Yamaguchi devised the form of freestyle karate fighting called jiyu-kumite (free-sparring). This method formed the basis for competition fighting in what we know today as sport karate. But World War II interrupted his progress. In 1939, Yamaguchi was sent to Manchuria as an intelligence officer and was captured by the Russians and held prisoner until 1947. It was during his imprisonment that tales of his astonishing skill emerged. As one story has it, in an escape attempt he demolished a concrete block within a sheer wall with one blow of his elbow. Yamaguchi was later nicknamed “The Cat” for his catlike movements. He gained his almost mythical status by performing such feats as meditating under icy waterfalls in the height of winter. Today Goju-ryu, Shotokan, Shito-ryu and Wado-ryu are the four most popular styles of Japanese karate in

Zainichi Korean karateka (1923–1994)

Masutatsu Ōyama (大山 倍達, Ōyama Masutatsu, 4 June 1923 – 26 April 1994), more commonly known as Mas Oyama, was a Zainichi Koreankarate master who founded Kyokushin Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate.

Early life

Mas Oyama was born as Choi Yeong-eui (Korean: 최영의; Hanja: 崔永宜) in Kintei, Korea, Empire of Japan. At a young age, he was sent to Manchukuo to live on his sister's farm. Oyama began studying Chinese martial arts at age 9 from a Chinese farmer who was working on the farm. His family name was Lee and Oyama said he was his very first teacher. The story of the young Oyama's life is written in his earlier books. His family was of the landed-gentry class, and his father, Choi Seung-hyun, writing under the pen name of "Hakheon," was a noted composer of classical Chinese poetry.

In March 1938, Oyama left for Japan following his brother who enrolled in the Imperial Japanese Army’s Yamanashi Aviation School. Sometime during his time in Japan, Choi Yeong-eui chose his Japanese name, Masutatsu Oyama (大山 倍達), which is a transliteration of Baedal (倍達). Baedal was an ancient Korean kingdom known in Japan during Oyama's time as "Ancient Joseon".

One story of Oyama's youth involves Lee giving young Oyama a seed which he was to plant; when it sprouted, he was to jump over it one hundred times every day. As the seed grew and became a plant, Oyama later said, "I was able to jump between walls back and forth easily." The writer, Ikki Kajiwara, and the publisher of the comics based the story on the life experience Oyama spoke to them about – thus the title became "Karate Baka Ichidai" (Karate Fanatic).

In 1958, Oyama wrote What is Karate, which became a best-seller. It was translated into Hunga