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Mas Oyama's Karate
Written with full cooperation of Karate Master Masutatsu Oyama, 8th dan, the founder and Chairman of the Japan karate-do Kyokushinkai, this fully illustrated volume completely explains and demonstrates the various forms of Karate, as perfected by Master Oyama, winner of the All-Japan Karate Championships, 1947. Mas Oyama, who was responsible for introducing Karate to the United States for the first time in 1952, considers the author his best Karate instructor outside Japan. Step-by-step instructions - each step illustrated by photographs especially taken for this book - lead the student through a complete course of Karate. Chapters cover: Warm-up Exercises; Stances; Nerve Centers; Karate Punching and Striking Techniques; Defensive Blocking; Kicking Techniques; Breathing Coordination Exercises; "Katas"; Training in Pairs; One-Blow Sparring ("Ippon Kumite"); Defense Against Grabbing; Knife and Club Defense; Freestyle Sparring ("Jiyu Kumit"); Board, Brick and Stone Breaking ("Tameshiwari"); Defense Against Multiple Attackers.
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 28, 2019
You aren't going to learn karate from any book, but you especially aren't going to learn karate from this book. That said, if you are really interested in kyokushin or in the history of karate's American reception, this is a fun little book - it gives an idea of what training kyokushin must have been like in an earlier era.
Oddly, a lot of the techniques are not named and not even the single kata presented here (Pinan 1) is referred to by name. If you are less interested in historical oddities like this and more interested in gaining substantive knowledge of kyokushin, I would recommend Mas Oyama's "Essential Karate" - although that book is also incomplete, it is a decent enough reference for anyone who is already training.
As a final note of caution, find a dojo if you actually want to learn karate.
Oddly, a lot of the techniques are not named and not even the single kata presented here (Pinan 1) is referred to by name. If you are less interested in historical oddities like this and more interested in gaining substantive knowledge of kyokushin, I would recommend Mas Oyama's "Essential Karate" - although that book is also incomplete, it is a decent enough reference for anyone who is already training.
As a final note of caution, find a dojo if you actually want to learn karate.
November 10, 2013
Not bad, could have used it to learn the terminology.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews