Mas Oyama

Mas Oyama was a South Korean karate master who founded Kyokushin Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate. He was born as Choi Yeong-eui in Korea, but moved to Japan at the age of 15 and later acquired Japanese citizenship. He studied various martial arts, including Shotokan, Goju-ryu, and Judo, and developed his own style of karate that emphasized realistic combat, physical toughness, and self-discipline. He became famous for his feats of strength and endurance, such as fighting bulls and breaking boards and bricks with his bare hands. He also challenged and defeated many practitioners of other martial arts, such as boxing, kung fu, and Muay Thai. He established the Kyokushin Karate Organization in 1953, and trained thousands of students, many of whom became prominent karate masters themselves. He wrote several books on karate and philosophy, and was the subject of several movies and manga. He died of lung cancer in 1994, at the age of 70. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential martial artists of all time.