These days it appears that the transition from Budo karate to sports karate is complete in the Kyokushin World. The two most powerful groups in terms of numbers are Shinkyokushin and IKO-Matsui. ShinKyokushin has a more progressive management structure and it's President is the 5th World Open Karate Tournament Champion, Midori Kenji. IKO-Matsui is headed along the old-style sole owner management with the 4th World Open Tournament Champion, Matsui Shokei, as its Director. The way these two organisations are managed financially are distinctly different.
In their World Tournaments last year, IKO used their new rules which allow for point scoring without inflicting damage on your opponent, thus an element of what Oyama Sosai called dance karate, in contrast to Budo karate, has been introduced. Consequently, now it would be more accurate to distinguish between Oyama Kyokushin and Matsui Kyokushin. Shinkyokushin removed the tamashiware from their World tournament. Being able to break a minimum of three 24mm/ 1 inch thick cedar wood boards was an essential requirement of Oyama Kyokushin and demonstrates the unification of body, mind and spirit in an expression of Zen or pure "no mind" state. Developing this state of "no mind", such that as people, karateka can perceive reality directly, i.e. mental/ psychological clarity is an essential part of Budo Karate.
Now this state of Zen in karate is the most important aspect of karate as it contributes to what Oyama Sosai wrote in his books:” The spiritual development of the karateka is more important than mere physical strength and being able to execute the techniques of karate effectively”. By achieving this level of development, we can contribute to Oyama Sosai’s goal of international brotherhood and World peace much more effectively.
Another development that makes Kyokushin karateka weak in terms of practical self defence is the popularity and emphasis on weight division tournaments. Karateka now watch their body weight or drop weight to fight in lighter divisions to improve their chances of being winners in these forms of tournaments. Amazing how the ego loves the shiny gold plastic! They then completely sell out the principles of Budo karate. Imagine my beloved game of Rugby Union was played in weight divisons! I love rugby because it’s a game of brute force directed by intelligence…not far from a Budo activity. Like Sumo wrestlers, Rugby players in general are bigger, stronger and more explosive than ever. These days not many Kyokushin karateka would be able to stand up to the average rugby player if there was an incident at the pub!
A young Oyama Sosai had the physique of a wrestler of those times. He had a 4th Dan in Judo, the legendary Kimura was a good friend. Judoka are mostly stronger and more muscular as all their techniques involve trying to control a resisting opponent. The uchi deshi at Honbu under Oyama Sosai all became much bigger and stronger over their 1000days of training. There was a strong emphasis on eating and more eating to achieve this. One of the most distinguished uchi deshi, Nicholas Pettas, went from 67kg to 106kg. His fighting weight was around 97kg. Would you prefer to fight him on the street at 67kg or 97kg? I know what I would choose!
Therefore weight division tournaments and their philosophy breeds weakness in practical self-defense situations. Now I am not proposing that we should all become Sumo wrestlers and walk around at 130kg plus. However, certainly physical strength brings many advantages to a karateka. The truth is many techniques do not work well or break down if your opponent is more than 10kilograms bigger than you. This can only be offset by excellence in technique and speed…(or you pack on more muscle). But this requires daily training at a level of intensity that I just don’t see much these days (reference here is to Australia and South Africa). And even then as a back-up, it makes sense to be physically bigger and stronger. Policemen on the street used to have to satisfy certain height and weight criteria. Imagine a police officer of 70kg having to tell a 120kg rugby player to be less boisterous at the pub…how will this policeman proceed?
Shihan Kenny Uytenbogaardt commented after the Second World Open tournament, he said no one under 70kg should take part, in fact it’s dangerous for fighters under 65kg! How to get around this? Again, displaying the Budo attitude, Midori Kenji, trained hard at the gym to increase his bodyweight from 64kg to 73kg and become a World Champion!
Another trend that is contrary to Budo karate is the practice where karateka have been training for many years and have tons of gold bars on their belts without having reached high levels of both spiritual development nor technical excellence. There is the old Mac Dojo competition around earning a living from teaching karate and keeping up with the Jones’s. Once the profit motive is involved, Budo principles are mostly subverted. The balance is challenging, and one must be of strong moral and spiritual orientation to achieve it. In my opinion 5th Dan must be reached by 35years old latest, when the 50men (not 50 persons, that is men and women together does not qualify) kumite is achievable. If you didn’t make it, then you should not be graded beyond! Very few of todays “Masters” would be real Masters. Most would be somewhere between Shodan and Sandan. Certainly, from a practical point of view, women would find it very challenging to make Shodan. Only the exceptionally strong ones would reach this level. Of course in a world of non-practical, sports and dance karate , both men and women can achieve high ranks, without being able to defend themselves with their karate in a street encounter. Oyama Kyokushin karate is a demanding practice! It is Budo karate in which we strive to reach the ultimate of physical and spiritual development.