Japanese nationals •
Terutomo Yamazaki – the first champion of the All-Japan Full Contact Karate Open Championships in 1969, and has promoted Kyokushin famous through his accomplishments. Because he fought and defeated
Muay Thai boxers, he created a reputation for Kyokushin before the First All-Japan Open Full Contact Karate Championships was held. Yamazaki is highly skilled at and an
authority on
fighting and
breaking. When he fought someone, it was usual that he knocked them out without receiving any injuries himself. He is nicknamed "The Genius Karate Fighter" or "The Dragon of Kyokushin", and when he was an active fighter, he was the most popular figure of the time. He has shown off his mixed karate and Muai Thai style of fighting at both
full contact karate open championships and
kickboxing, and has been noted internationally as a prominent fighter in karate's history, appearing in
Black Belt Magazine in the United States. •
Yoshiji Soeno, founder of
Shidōkan Karate. •
Hatsuo Royama – 9th
dan, formerly Kancho (Director) and now Kaicho of the Kyokushin-kan International Honbu. •
Kenji Kurosaki – He is a 7th Dan Black Belt in
Kyokushin Karate and operates various martial schools focusing in different arts. He is most well known as a pioneer of Full-Contact Karate and Kickboxing in both Japan and
Netherlands. •
Hideyuki Ashihara – founder of
Ashihara Karate •
Tsuyoshi Hiroshige – founder of
Kyokushin Kenbukai •
Takashi Azuma – founder of the martial art
Kūdō. •
Akira Masuda – 8th
dan, Rijichō (chairman) of the International BudoMan Association (IBMA-KyokushinKai) •
Shokei Matsui (alias
Matsui Akiyoshi, born Moon Jang-gyu) – 8th
dan and current
Kancho (Director) of the
International Karate Organization Kyokushin-kaikan aka IKO-1. •
Katsuaki Satō – winner of the 1st World Full Contact Karate Open Championships and All-Japan Championships on two occasions •
Kenji Midori – winner of the 5th World Full Contact Karate Open Championships and current president of World Karate Organization (Shinkyokushinkai) • Seiji Kanamura - 9th
dan black belt, he began practicing Kyokushin Karate with Sosai Oyama in 1958. In 1971, he moved to the United States to teach Kyokushin Karate in the New York area. Prior to this, Shihan Kanamura was a special student (uchi-deshi) of Mas Oyama and served as Chief Instructor at the Hombu (the headquarters dojo) in Tokyo. He served as Head Instructor for the U.S. Kyokushin Karate team from 1975 to 1979 for the Tokyo Open Karate Tournaments. He is the founder of "All Japan Kyokushin Union". • Tsutomu Wakiuchi - He is a 7th
dan black belt (shihan), and he is director of the Italian Kyokushin Federation.
Japanese relocated overseas •
Shigeru Oyama – No relation to his teacher Mas Oyama, he was a karate practitioner and instructor who operated a dojo in New York and was head of the US Kyokushin organization for half a century. He taught
Kyokushin karate for many years before forming his own organization World Oyama Karate in 1985. •
Jōkō Ninomiya – founder of
Enshin Karate, he presides over the Enshin organization from the headquarters (
honbu) in
Denver, Colorado. •
Seiji Isobe – 8th
dan, designated to Brazil, became Shihan after spread Kyokushin through South America, who taught and trained
Francisco Filho, Glaube Feitosa and Everton Teixeira. •
Miyuki Miura – 8th
dan, operates independently as Miura Dojo in
Oak Park, Illinois, and works with other full contact
dojo internationally through his Global Budo Karate Alliance.
Non-Japanese expatriates •
Daniel Bernhardt – Swiss actor and martial artist. A black belt in
Taekwondo under
Black Belt Hall of Fame member
Hee-il Cho, he also studied Kyokushin karate under Mas Oyama. •
Steve Arneil – 10th
dan and founder of the International Federation of Karate (Kyokushin). He was the 1st person after Mas Oyama to successfully complete the 100-man Kumite. •
Howard Collins – in 1971 began training at the Kyokushin
honbu dojo (headquarters training hall) under Oyama. •
Loek Hollander 10th
dan. •
Bobby Lowe, 8th
dan who served as branch chief of Hawaii for many years. He was the first
uchi deshi (live-in student) of
Masutatsu Oyama, and was also the first to establish a Kyokushin school outside Japan. •
Nicholas Pettas – Last
Uchi Deshi. •
Peter Urban – Founder of USA Goju Karate; also a student of
Gogen Yamaguchi. •
Peter Chong PBM (alias
Peter Chong Seh Jam) – 9th
dan and a former
Assistant Superintendent of
Police in Singapore. In 1965, Chong sailed to Japan to train in Kyokushin karate under Mas Oyama, without informing either his wife or his father of his intentions. He attained the 4th dan in 1972. •
Don Buck – American martial artist and early pioneer of Kyokushin in the United States. In 1957, he established one of the first Kyokushin dojos in the continental U.S. in San Francisco under
Masutatsu Oyama. Promoted to 4th dan in 1960, he was later awarded 7th dan by Oyama and served as U.S. Branch Chief. In 1989, he was appointed Chairman for the United States, and in 1997 he founded the American Kyokushin Karate Organization (AKKO).
Celebrity • Sir
Sean Connery – was awarded an honorary Shodan in Kyokushinkai by Sosai Mas Oyama. •
Masashi "Milton" Ishibashi – worked as a Karate instructor at the Oyama Dojo and
Kyokushin Kaikan during his early days as an actor. He was also instructor for Sonny Chiba and
Terutomo Yamazaki. •
Sonny Chiba – popular Japanese actor and martial artist. While he was a university student, he began studying martial arts with Sosei Oyama (whom he later portrayed in a trilogy of films), which led to a first-degree black belt on 15 October 1965, later receiving a fourth-degree on 20 January 1984. Although supervised by Oyama, Chiba was mainly trained by Masashi Ishibashi. He now serves as an advisor for the International Karate Organization
Kyokushin-kaikan. ==Knockdown Karate==