Library's review
from dust jacket
Karate, the fountainhead of the Japanese warrior code and today a subject of worldwide interest, is one of Mankind's most priceless pieces of wisdom. Everyone prizes the sort of incredible strength the karate master uses to smash wood and stone with his bare hands, because it is a
As a means of defense, karate has a vigour and power that other martial arts lack. Conceived from the wisdom and strength that made life possible for Man's ancestors, karate has fused with modern rationality to become a truly miraculous art of self-defense.
Karate has been the last stronghold of defense for tens of thousands of people; it can be yours too!.
In this book, Masutatsu Oyama, a karate master standing at the very pinnacle of today's karate world, makes available to everyone the essence of his thirty years of karate study and training. Mr. Oyama poured his whole being into writing this book and has included a large number of special techniques. There are two thousand photographs in this massive work, which took four years to complete from planning to final production.
Oyama karate begins and ends with points and circles, in which lie the miraculous strength and the life of the system. Through these points and circles, a sense of flowing motion calls forth dynamic waves and creates great billows of strength. Mr. Oyama, whose psychology is based on zen Buddhism and Shinto, has developed a karate that is serene in movement, and refined and stable in form. In this book, the reader will find revealed many of the mysteries of the martial arts, the true aim of which is peace and freedom.
For the first time, in this book, you will have before your eyes the entire content of the karate that has aroused interest and excitement throughout the world. We can safely say that no other karate book will ever present so much of the real meaning and value of this outstanding art.
Karate is strict, but with a little speed , its magic can tranform your entire body into a weapon. The inner meaning of karate lies in an instantaneous explosion of life force.
This book will not only delight those who have an interest in karate, but it will also be a novel and colorful soruce of endless interest to thousands of readers who will see how consummate human skill, combined wiht life force and explosive power, can make the impossible possible.
368 pages with more than 2000 gravure illsustations, many diagrams, and sketches. Photographs were taken mainly by a multi-stroboscopic techniques intiated for this purpose. In addition, 29 chapters of text explain karate completely for primary students as well as for the more advanced, and also for the general reader. Cloth-over-boards binding with laminated jacket and slipcase.
Masutatsu Oyama was born in Wa-Ryong-Ri Yong-chi-Myo'n Chul Na Do Korea in 1923, and completed middle school in Seoul. In 1938, when he was 12 years old, he came to Japan to live,where in 1941, he entered the Tokyo Takushoku University. Oyama had mastered the eigthteen techniques of Chinese kempo while he was still in his homeland. When he came to Japan, he became a pupil of Gichin Funakoshi, the man who introduced karate into Japan, and soon achieved the status of a second-greade (dan) karate master. He interrupted his college education when he was drafted into the military in 1943, but he continued his karate studies with Sodeiju, then karate instructor at the Gojuk school. By the time the war was over, he had become a fourth-grade karate master.
Though, when World War II was over, he temporarily volunteered to assist his native land in its recovery, because of the conflict that soon followed between North and South Korea he gave up these efforts and concentrated on karate. In 1947, after he had won the All-Japan Karate Tournament, he resolved to live his life in the way of karate and determined to follow the doctrines of its way.
After 1948, for a full three years, he secluded himself from human society, devoting himself completely to a life according to the precept of zen. He lived in temples and in the mountains and subjected himself to the disciplines of the martial arts both night and day. Through such rigorous training as seated meditation under waterfalls, struggles with wild animals, and smashing trees and stones with his bare hands, Oyama refined not only his doctirne of karate, but also his own mind and body. When he had completed this course of rigid discipline, his self-confidence returned to him.
In 1951, he returned to civilization from his mountain retreat to teach the true meaning of karate to the world. His amazinag techniques, manifested most dramatically in his abiity to rip the horns from bulls, caused a sensation in the karate world. The renown of Oyama karate flashed abroad with such speed that a training hall soon became necessary for the many students clamoring to be trained in the Oyama way.
Oyama's 1952 karate tour of thirty-two of the United States met with great success. In 1956, he toured Southeast Asia, and in 1962, starting in Europe, he went around the entire world establishing training halls for the Oyama karate method. Now Oyama karate halls number 17 in the United states and 76 in 16 other counries of the world. The number of students already exceeds 100,000. In 1958, for the sake of these students, Oyama published his first karate guide book, What is Karate?
In Japan, the first Oyama training hall, the Kyokushin Kaikan, opened in 1955, and in 1964 a new five-story hall, with present Prime Minister Eisaku Sato as honorary chairman, began carrying on the master's training program. Masutatsu Oyama is the most outstanding teacher of the real meaning of kartate, not only Japan, but in the entire world.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Photographic Prelude
Part I Basics
1 Introduction
2 Techniques and drill system-Techniques; Basic Techniques Classification (Strike and thrust methods; Kicking methods; Blocking methods; Covering methods); Drill system
3 Hands and Feet-Karate Weapons-Hands (Inverted fist; forefinger one-knuckle fist; middle-finger one-knuckle fist; two-knuckle fist; forefist; dragon's head fist; forefinger spear; two-finger spear; sword-peak hand; chicken-beak hand; spear hand; spear hand-bent-knuckle version; inner knife hand; palm heel; wrist; fist edge; elbow; knife hand; forearm); Feet and legs (heel; knife foot; knee; ball of the foot; instep; arch)
4 Preparatory Calisthenics-Toe joint exercise; ankle exericse I & II; knee exercise; achilles tendon exercise; thigh joint exercise; leg-spreading exercise; forward bend exercise; forward bend exercise with feet together; push-ups with legs spread; hip exercise I & II; hip and aback exercise; rokulndhokuse block exercise; rokunhuse block exercise for back mukscles; roundhokuse block exercise for chest muscles; neck exercise; arm exercise with clasped hands; knuckle exercise; variations on the push-up; three-finger push-up; two-finger push-up; one-finger push-up; two-finger hand stand
5 Stances-Karate stances (normal stance; open-toes stance; parallel open stance; pigeon-toe stance; stable stance; sumo stance; straddsle stance; foreward leaning stance; back leaning stance; crane stance; sanchin stance; cat stance; hooked stance; one-foot-forward stance); balance; Walking and turning (walking methods; turning methods)
Part II Techniques
6 Basic techniques training
Thrusting and striking methods-Correct thrusts; correct and incorrect methods (forefist middle thrust; forefist upper thrust; forefist strike to the chin; forefist roundhouse strike or thrust; front inverted-fist strike; right and left inveted-fist strike; inverted-fist strike to the spleen; inverted-fist low thrust; knife-hand strike to the face; knife-hand strike to the collarbone; driving knife-hand strike to the collarbone; knife-hand stirke the spleen; upper elbow strike; middle elbow strike; rising elbow strike; descending elbow strike); some other techniques
Kicking methods-Correct and incorrect (high kick; knee kick; groin kick; front kick; roundhouse kick; side high kick; side kick; ankle kick; roundhokuse kick to the neck; heel kick; back kick
Blocking methods-Correct and incolrrect blocks (forefist upper block; forefist middle inside block; forefist middle outside block; forefist lower parry; forefist middle inside block an low parry; knife-hand ukpper block; knife-hand middle insike block; knife-hand middle outside block; palm-heel upper block; palm-heel middle outside block; palm-heel lower block; wrist middle inside block); correct blocks against a wooden sword
Lunge techniques-The lunge thrusts (strikes) (forefist middle lunge thrust/forefist upper lunge thrust; inverted forefist middle lunge thrust/inverted upper lunge thrust; lunge thrust from the sanchin stance/inverted lunge thrust from the sanchin stance; alternating thrust series; elbow upper lunge thrust/elbow middle lunge thrust/rising elbow lunge thrust); the lunge kicks (front lunge kick; high lunge kick; groin lunge kick; roundhouse lunge kick; side high lunge kick; side lunge kick; knee lunge kick; jumping kick); the lunge blocks (upper lunge block/inverted upper lunge block; middle ouside lunge block/inverted middle outside lunge block; forty-five-degree straddle stance low lunge block; knife-hand lunge block; inside inner-knife-hand lunge block; palm-heel outside lunge block; wrist lunge block from the cat stance
Formal Exercises-about the formal exercises; Taikyoku I,II, III; taikyoku I; tensho (executing the tensho; taikyoku II and III; proper ibuki breathing)
Formal practice fighting-about the formal practice fighting; three-step practice fighting (hand techniques in the attack, block, and counter-attack 1-8); foot techniques in the attack, hand or foot techniques in the block, and in the cokunter-attack 1-8; one step practice fighting 1-36; free-style practice fighting 1-21
Part III Special Techniques
The roundhouse block-the roundhouse block (the right roundhouse block; the left roundhouse block); the knife-hand roundhouse block (the right kinfe-hand roundhouse block; explanation of the knife-hand roundhouse block; the left knife-hand roundhouse block; difference between the knife-hand stike an knife-hand block
The roundhouse inverted thrust-the techniques; explanation of the roundhouse inverted thrust; training to cover and seize your opponent's hand
Part IV-Special drills
Special drills-thrusts (paper thrust; soybean thrust; water thrust; extinguishing a candle); kicks (candle kick; cigarette kick block; bow-and-arrow block; hat kick
The Stone-breaking techniques-About the stone-breaking techniques (what are they?; correct methods); dynamics (the physical object; speed; the point of contact); Breaking roofing tiles (the head thrust; the forefist strike; the knife-hand strike; the elbow strike; the knife-foot strike) breaking boards (the forefist; the rising elbow strike; the spear hand; suspended boards; head thrusts; the front kick; the side kick; the front high kick; the rokundhuse kick the doukble kick); breakding bricks (knife hand 1 & 2; the forefist; the head thrust); stone breaking (the knife hand; correct and incorrect form); ice breaking (the head thrust; the inverted thrust; the knife hand; the bottle cut (position; striking method)
Part V-Appications
Hand-hold reversals-against hand holds (single hand 1 & 2; both hands); against lapel holds (single lapel 1-6; both lapels; collar hold form gehind; two-hand sash hold); against an armpit or sash hold (armpit hold; both armpits); covering and blocking
Lying-down techniques-face-up position against (forefist thrust 1-3; collar hold 1-2); seated position against (roundhouse kick left front kick); in combat against (shoulder pins; half shoulder pins; square hold from above; full nelson; neck lock from behind; neck lock from the front; wrist lock)
Everyday self-defense-walking stick (blocking a-f; attacking a-h); one against two (front and back holds 1-2; two-hand holds 1-2; back hold and front strike); against a knife
Self-defense for women: handbag techniques-Against an attack (hold from behind 1-2; against a kinfe (front knife attack 1-2); self-defense training
Part VI-Significance and Background
Significance-Karate as calisthenics; karate for spirits; spiritual unity and breathing methods; the real meaning of karate
The origins-Karate's antecedents; bodiharma and shao-lin-ssu boxing; karate origins and growth
Development-China (the shao-lin-ssu and its decline; hand-to-hand combat, north and south); Korea (growth and decline; Chakuriki-spiritual; medical; physical); The Ryukyu Islands (from China to the Ryukyu Islands; Okinawa-te); Development in Japan
Schools and formal exercises-schools; formal exercises
Karate and the Martial Arts-The birth of the martial arts; the martial arts of the Sixth senses; the martial arts of great valor; karate's innermost meaning
Relation to Zen-Karate is Zen; Spiritual unification and the state of impassivity; mastery of the instant; Zen's basic concepts (the nothingness of Zen; extinguishing the self; austerities and act); methods of mastering Zen (the positions; how to practice Zen)
Rhythm-points in common with music and the dance; rhythm in the karate foot positions; music's importance to karate
Karate future's progress-a correct view of karate; karate structure: circle and point; unification of the schools and the trend to make karate a sport
Part VII-Appendix
The practice suit and bowing procedures-the proper holding of the pracitce suit; tying the sash; various bowing procedures
Using training equipment-barbells; iron geta; chashi; long-handle chashi; sandbag and punching-balls; the wooden hourse; jump rope; padded boards; suspending a jar; practice before a mirror
Body stucture and vital points
The Karate trainng hall-trainng hall practice; outdoor training; training and the use of this book; some formalities (entrance pledge; the training hall oath; training hall by-laws
Author's note
Glossary
Index
Karate, the fountainhead of the Japanese warrior code and today a subject of worldwide interest, is one of Mankind's most priceless pieces of wisdom. Everyone prizes the sort of incredible strength the karate master uses to smash wood and stone with his bare hands, because it is a
Show More
sort of magic that brings the impossible into the realm of possibility. Though the history of karate is long, its power and techniques are forever new. Karate extends back to Man's origins and continues in usefulness to the present.As a means of defense, karate has a vigour and power that other martial arts lack. Conceived from the wisdom and strength that made life possible for Man's ancestors, karate has fused with modern rationality to become a truly miraculous art of self-defense.
Karate has been the last stronghold of defense for tens of thousands of people; it can be yours too!.
In this book, Masutatsu Oyama, a karate master standing at the very pinnacle of today's karate world, makes available to everyone the essence of his thirty years of karate study and training. Mr. Oyama poured his whole being into writing this book and has included a large number of special techniques. There are two thousand photographs in this massive work, which took four years to complete from planning to final production.
Oyama karate begins and ends with points and circles, in which lie the miraculous strength and the life of the system. Through these points and circles, a sense of flowing motion calls forth dynamic waves and creates great billows of strength. Mr. Oyama, whose psychology is based on zen Buddhism and Shinto, has developed a karate that is serene in movement, and refined and stable in form. In this book, the reader will find revealed many of the mysteries of the martial arts, the true aim of which is peace and freedom.
For the first time, in this book, you will have before your eyes the entire content of the karate that has aroused interest and excitement throughout the world. We can safely say that no other karate book will ever present so much of the real meaning and value of this outstanding art.
Karate is strict, but with a little speed , its magic can tranform your entire body into a weapon. The inner meaning of karate lies in an instantaneous explosion of life force.
This book will not only delight those who have an interest in karate, but it will also be a novel and colorful soruce of endless interest to thousands of readers who will see how consummate human skill, combined wiht life force and explosive power, can make the impossible possible.
368 pages with more than 2000 gravure illsustations, many diagrams, and sketches. Photographs were taken mainly by a multi-stroboscopic techniques intiated for this purpose. In addition, 29 chapters of text explain karate completely for primary students as well as for the more advanced, and also for the general reader. Cloth-over-boards binding with laminated jacket and slipcase.
Masutatsu Oyama was born in Wa-Ryong-Ri Yong-chi-Myo'n Chul Na Do Korea in 1923, and completed middle school in Seoul. In 1938, when he was 12 years old, he came to Japan to live,where in 1941, he entered the Tokyo Takushoku University. Oyama had mastered the eigthteen techniques of Chinese kempo while he was still in his homeland. When he came to Japan, he became a pupil of Gichin Funakoshi, the man who introduced karate into Japan, and soon achieved the status of a second-greade (dan) karate master. He interrupted his college education when he was drafted into the military in 1943, but he continued his karate studies with Sodeiju, then karate instructor at the Gojuk school. By the time the war was over, he had become a fourth-grade karate master.
Though, when World War II was over, he temporarily volunteered to assist his native land in its recovery, because of the conflict that soon followed between North and South Korea he gave up these efforts and concentrated on karate. In 1947, after he had won the All-Japan Karate Tournament, he resolved to live his life in the way of karate and determined to follow the doctrines of its way.
After 1948, for a full three years, he secluded himself from human society, devoting himself completely to a life according to the precept of zen. He lived in temples and in the mountains and subjected himself to the disciplines of the martial arts both night and day. Through such rigorous training as seated meditation under waterfalls, struggles with wild animals, and smashing trees and stones with his bare hands, Oyama refined not only his doctirne of karate, but also his own mind and body. When he had completed this course of rigid discipline, his self-confidence returned to him.
In 1951, he returned to civilization from his mountain retreat to teach the true meaning of karate to the world. His amazinag techniques, manifested most dramatically in his abiity to rip the horns from bulls, caused a sensation in the karate world. The renown of Oyama karate flashed abroad with such speed that a training hall soon became necessary for the many students clamoring to be trained in the Oyama way.
Oyama's 1952 karate tour of thirty-two of the United States met with great success. In 1956, he toured Southeast Asia, and in 1962, starting in Europe, he went around the entire world establishing training halls for the Oyama karate method. Now Oyama karate halls number 17 in the United states and 76 in 16 other counries of the world. The number of students already exceeds 100,000. In 1958, for the sake of these students, Oyama published his first karate guide book, What is Karate?
In Japan, the first Oyama training hall, the Kyokushin Kaikan, opened in 1955, and in 1964 a new five-story hall, with present Prime Minister Eisaku Sato as honorary chairman, began carrying on the master's training program. Masutatsu Oyama is the most outstanding teacher of the real meaning of kartate, not only Japan, but in the entire world.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Photographic Prelude
Part I Basics
1 Introduction
2 Techniques and drill system-Techniques; Basic Techniques Classification (Strike and thrust methods; Kicking methods; Blocking methods; Covering methods); Drill system
3 Hands and Feet-Karate Weapons-Hands (Inverted fist; forefinger one-knuckle fist; middle-finger one-knuckle fist; two-knuckle fist; forefist; dragon's head fist; forefinger spear; two-finger spear; sword-peak hand; chicken-beak hand; spear hand; spear hand-bent-knuckle version; inner knife hand; palm heel; wrist; fist edge; elbow; knife hand; forearm); Feet and legs (heel; knife foot; knee; ball of the foot; instep; arch)
4 Preparatory Calisthenics-Toe joint exercise; ankle exericse I & II; knee exercise; achilles tendon exercise; thigh joint exercise; leg-spreading exercise; forward bend exercise; forward bend exercise with feet together; push-ups with legs spread; hip exercise I & II; hip and aback exercise; rokulndhokuse block exercise; rokunhuse block exercise for back mukscles; roundhokuse block exercise for chest muscles; neck exercise; arm exercise with clasped hands; knuckle exercise; variations on the push-up; three-finger push-up; two-finger push-up; one-finger push-up; two-finger hand stand
5 Stances-Karate stances (normal stance; open-toes stance; parallel open stance; pigeon-toe stance; stable stance; sumo stance; straddsle stance; foreward leaning stance; back leaning stance; crane stance; sanchin stance; cat stance; hooked stance; one-foot-forward stance); balance; Walking and turning (walking methods; turning methods)
Part II Techniques
6 Basic techniques training
Thrusting and striking methods-Correct thrusts; correct and incorrect methods (forefist middle thrust; forefist upper thrust; forefist strike to the chin; forefist roundhouse strike or thrust; front inverted-fist strike; right and left inveted-fist strike; inverted-fist strike to the spleen; inverted-fist low thrust; knife-hand strike to the face; knife-hand strike to the collarbone; driving knife-hand strike to the collarbone; knife-hand stirke the spleen; upper elbow strike; middle elbow strike; rising elbow strike; descending elbow strike); some other techniques
Kicking methods-Correct and incorrect (high kick; knee kick; groin kick; front kick; roundhouse kick; side high kick; side kick; ankle kick; roundhokuse kick to the neck; heel kick; back kick
Blocking methods-Correct and incolrrect blocks (forefist upper block; forefist middle inside block; forefist middle outside block; forefist lower parry; forefist middle inside block an low parry; knife-hand ukpper block; knife-hand middle insike block; knife-hand middle outside block; palm-heel upper block; palm-heel middle outside block; palm-heel lower block; wrist middle inside block); correct blocks against a wooden sword
Lunge techniques-The lunge thrusts (strikes) (forefist middle lunge thrust/forefist upper lunge thrust; inverted forefist middle lunge thrust/inverted upper lunge thrust; lunge thrust from the sanchin stance/inverted lunge thrust from the sanchin stance; alternating thrust series; elbow upper lunge thrust/elbow middle lunge thrust/rising elbow lunge thrust); the lunge kicks (front lunge kick; high lunge kick; groin lunge kick; roundhouse lunge kick; side high lunge kick; side lunge kick; knee lunge kick; jumping kick); the lunge blocks (upper lunge block/inverted upper lunge block; middle ouside lunge block/inverted middle outside lunge block; forty-five-degree straddle stance low lunge block; knife-hand lunge block; inside inner-knife-hand lunge block; palm-heel outside lunge block; wrist lunge block from the cat stance
Formal Exercises-about the formal exercises; Taikyoku I,II, III; taikyoku I; tensho (executing the tensho; taikyoku II and III; proper ibuki breathing)
Formal practice fighting-about the formal practice fighting; three-step practice fighting (hand techniques in the attack, block, and counter-attack 1-8); foot techniques in the attack, hand or foot techniques in the block, and in the cokunter-attack 1-8; one step practice fighting 1-36; free-style practice fighting 1-21
Part III Special Techniques
The roundhouse block-the roundhouse block (the right roundhouse block; the left roundhouse block); the knife-hand roundhouse block (the right kinfe-hand roundhouse block; explanation of the knife-hand roundhouse block; the left knife-hand roundhouse block; difference between the knife-hand stike an knife-hand block
The roundhouse inverted thrust-the techniques; explanation of the roundhouse inverted thrust; training to cover and seize your opponent's hand
Part IV-Special drills
Special drills-thrusts (paper thrust; soybean thrust; water thrust; extinguishing a candle); kicks (candle kick; cigarette kick block; bow-and-arrow block; hat kick
The Stone-breaking techniques-About the stone-breaking techniques (what are they?; correct methods); dynamics (the physical object; speed; the point of contact); Breaking roofing tiles (the head thrust; the forefist strike; the knife-hand strike; the elbow strike; the knife-foot strike) breaking boards (the forefist; the rising elbow strike; the spear hand; suspended boards; head thrusts; the front kick; the side kick; the front high kick; the rokundhuse kick the doukble kick); breakding bricks (knife hand 1 & 2; the forefist; the head thrust); stone breaking (the knife hand; correct and incorrect form); ice breaking (the head thrust; the inverted thrust; the knife hand; the bottle cut (position; striking method)
Part V-Appications
Hand-hold reversals-against hand holds (single hand 1 & 2; both hands); against lapel holds (single lapel 1-6; both lapels; collar hold form gehind; two-hand sash hold); against an armpit or sash hold (armpit hold; both armpits); covering and blocking
Lying-down techniques-face-up position against (forefist thrust 1-3; collar hold 1-2); seated position against (roundhouse kick left front kick); in combat against (shoulder pins; half shoulder pins; square hold from above; full nelson; neck lock from behind; neck lock from the front; wrist lock)
Everyday self-defense-walking stick (blocking a-f; attacking a-h); one against two (front and back holds 1-2; two-hand holds 1-2; back hold and front strike); against a knife
Self-defense for women: handbag techniques-Against an attack (hold from behind 1-2; against a kinfe (front knife attack 1-2); self-defense training
Part VI-Significance and Background
Significance-Karate as calisthenics; karate for spirits; spiritual unity and breathing methods; the real meaning of karate
The origins-Karate's antecedents; bodiharma and shao-lin-ssu boxing; karate origins and growth
Development-China (the shao-lin-ssu and its decline; hand-to-hand combat, north and south); Korea (growth and decline; Chakuriki-spiritual; medical; physical); The Ryukyu Islands (from China to the Ryukyu Islands; Okinawa-te); Development in Japan
Schools and formal exercises-schools; formal exercises
Karate and the Martial Arts-The birth of the martial arts; the martial arts of the Sixth senses; the martial arts of great valor; karate's innermost meaning
Relation to Zen-Karate is Zen; Spiritual unification and the state of impassivity; mastery of the instant; Zen's basic concepts (the nothingness of Zen; extinguishing the self; austerities and act); methods of mastering Zen (the positions; how to practice Zen)
Rhythm-points in common with music and the dance; rhythm in the karate foot positions; music's importance to karate
Karate future's progress-a correct view of karate; karate structure: circle and point; unification of the schools and the trend to make karate a sport
Part VII-Appendix
The practice suit and bowing procedures-the proper holding of the pracitce suit; tying the sash; various bowing procedures
Using training equipment-barbells; iron geta; chashi; long-handle chashi; sandbag and punching-balls; the wooden hourse; jump rope; padded boards; suspending a jar; practice before a mirror
Body stucture and vital points
The Karate trainng hall-trainng hall practice; outdoor training; training and the use of this book; some formalities (entrance pledge; the training hall oath; training hall by-laws
Author's note
Glossary
Index
Show Less
Genres
ISBN
870402544
Publication
Japan Publications, Incorporated