“Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defense.
Karate is half physical exercise and half spiritual. The karateka who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. He is unafraid. He can even be calm in a burning building.”
Karatekas from all over the world celebrate the birthday of the creator f the hardest karate style karate – Masutatsu Oyama
He was born in Korea and at birth was named Choi Yeong-eui, but in the history of Martial Arts came under the worlds famous name – Mas Oyama (大山 倍達 Ōyama Masutatsu)
According to the official version his date of birth is 27 July 1923. Continue reading “Kyokushin World celebrated Mas Oyama birthday”
I was exhausted after a long intense day at work, and honestly didn’t think I had the energy to train. However, once the class begun, the energy of the dojo and the energy coming from Sensei Steve Fogarasi and the Sempai invigorated me, and everyone else around me.
It was Monday and a lot of Kihon drilled over and over until your shoulders ached from tsuki and legs felt like lead weights from kicks. With kiais from the full class and Sensei inspiring us on, the energy intensified. Continue reading “In Kyokushin Karate, True Victory is Victory Over The Self”
was visiting recently from Japan. It had been a year since he visited before and trained at Contact Kicks Dojo for a few months and competed. This visit however was very brief.
While he was here he only had the opportunity to train one day. Afterwards we spent a lot of time catching and chatting. As part of that he was commenting on the way people pronounce Osu outside of Japan. He was saying that many people don’t pronounce it correctly, not enough emphasis on the “O”, and was impressed with how Fogarasi Sensei pronounced it. This then led into a discussion about other words used in the dojo. I touched on some of this in a previous blog post on Reishiki – Japanese Etiquette in Kyokushin Karate. Continue reading “12 Japanese Words You Need To Know For Karate”
Budō (武道) is a Japanese term describing modern Japanese martial arts. Literally translated it means the “Martial Way“. Budō is a compound of the root bu (武), meaning “war” or “martial”; and dō (道) – Dao in Chinese – sometimes spelled tao), meaning “path” or “way”.
Japanese martial arts are divided into two separate and very distinct categories; Bujutsu and Budō.
Similarly to budō, bujutsu is a compound of the roots bu (武), and jutsu (術), meaning technique. Thus, bujutsu is translated as “science of war” or “martial craft.” Continue reading “Budō and Kyokushin”
