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Mas Oyama's Essential Karate
Describes the essentials of the master's nonviolent karate techniques, with photographs and instructions on hand, foot, and head movements augmented by sections on exercise, diet, and self-defense
- GenresMartial ArtsReference
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1979
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About the author
Masutatsu Oyama
56 books47 followersMasutatsu Oyama (大山 倍達 Ōyama Masutatsu, July 27th, 1923 – April 26, 1994), more commonly known as Mas Oyama, was a karate master who founded Kyokushinkai Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate. He was born Choi Yeong-eui (Korean: 최영의 in Korea, Hanja: 崔永宜). A Zainichi Korean, he spent most of his life living in Japan and acquired Japanese citizenship in 1964. He is an alumnus of Waseda University in Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 20, 2023
Es uno de los libros más completos que he leído sobre karate y sobre artes marciales en general. Desde las bases y posturas principales hasta lo que es kata y kumite.
También vienen varios ejercicios y rutinas fáciles para ejercitar que si bien evidentemente son ya bajo una visión diferente de hace varios años atrás se les puede sacar mucho provecho.
Algo que me pareció curioso y diferente es que venían varias técnicas o ejemplos de situaciones que se dan en la vida diaria y el como aplicar técnicas de defensa personal durante las mismas, esa sección me pareció hasta bastante útil para saber material no sólo que se aplique en la vida real sino hasta para exhibición del arte marcial.
También vienen varios ejercicios y rutinas fáciles para ejercitar que si bien evidentemente son ya bajo una visión diferente de hace varios años atrás se les puede sacar mucho provecho.
Algo que me pareció curioso y diferente es que venían varias técnicas o ejemplos de situaciones que se dan en la vida diaria y el como aplicar técnicas de defensa personal durante las mismas, esa sección me pareció hasta bastante útil para saber material no sólo que se aplique en la vida real sino hasta para exhibición del arte marcial.
August 8, 2017
كتاب ممتاز
March 13, 2021
Having trained in Karate and being in the military service
This is a good reference.
This is a good reference.
September 30, 2020
This book guided me through the first years of martial arts training. The book has exceptional sections of nutrition, stretching and warm-up exercises.
September 29, 2018
Available on archive.org.
Of note, the author is the founder of Kyokushin Karate, considered one of the most influential styles, particularly on the full contact side of things.
Much of this book is quick and easy reading.
Start with some very fundamental basics. Here is the part of the body you’re going to strike with. Here are the different ways you can strike with it. Here are the various targets on an opponent that it will be effective to strike in that way. And move on. And on. There’s a lot of detailed, fundamental stuff here, complete with demonstrative photos.
Still with a lot of photos and straight forward explanation, supplementary exercises follow, then the idea of kata (with some specific examples broken down finely), kumite (sparring), breaking, and then a variety of special applications, exercises, and training equipment.
There are some strange things mixed in, including the idea of “tobacco geri”, i.e. kicking a cigarette out of someone’s mouth, breaking wood by hitting people with it, and several pages of bizarre “tumbling” images that make you think the author wants you to believe he’s jumping several metres into the air to do a backflip and land in a ready stance.
And then there’s the chapter on modernizing competition karate where the author drops the bomb that there should only be one school of karate because they all are basically the same and that the problem is that there isn’t a set of rules to judge competitions among different schools.
Postulate: sport karate is a watered down non-contact travesty of actual karate.
Solution: wear heavy protective gear and actually hit each other in matches.
Overall rating: 3.5. While primarily designed to be a practical, there is some strange stuff mixed in here, though some of that may just be my admittedly western point of view. But what’s really dropping the rating from the excellent parts of the book (for me, anyway) is that the whole idea of making karate a competition is at odds with the spirit of Budo offered by the author in the book’s Forward. Well, that and the premise he takes in competition that breaking and kumite are together a fair judge of someone’s karate.
Of note, the author is the founder of Kyokushin Karate, considered one of the most influential styles, particularly on the full contact side of things.
Much of this book is quick and easy reading.
Start with some very fundamental basics. Here is the part of the body you’re going to strike with. Here are the different ways you can strike with it. Here are the various targets on an opponent that it will be effective to strike in that way. And move on. And on. There’s a lot of detailed, fundamental stuff here, complete with demonstrative photos.
Still with a lot of photos and straight forward explanation, supplementary exercises follow, then the idea of kata (with some specific examples broken down finely), kumite (sparring), breaking, and then a variety of special applications, exercises, and training equipment.
There are some strange things mixed in, including the idea of “tobacco geri”, i.e. kicking a cigarette out of someone’s mouth, breaking wood by hitting people with it, and several pages of bizarre “tumbling” images that make you think the author wants you to believe he’s jumping several metres into the air to do a backflip and land in a ready stance.
And then there’s the chapter on modernizing competition karate where the author drops the bomb that there should only be one school of karate because they all are basically the same and that the problem is that there isn’t a set of rules to judge competitions among different schools.
Postulate: sport karate is a watered down non-contact travesty of actual karate.
Solution: wear heavy protective gear and actually hit each other in matches.
Overall rating: 3.5. While primarily designed to be a practical, there is some strange stuff mixed in here, though some of that may just be my admittedly western point of view. But what’s really dropping the rating from the excellent parts of the book (for me, anyway) is that the whole idea of making karate a competition is at odds with the spirit of Budo offered by the author in the book’s Forward. Well, that and the premise he takes in competition that breaking and kumite are together a fair judge of someone’s karate.
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June 13, 2015Powerful and informative
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews