One of the pillars of strength is committed eating. Sosai states while young, one should build strength and his advice is per his own experience and well described in his books, “This is Karate”( pg. 335) and “Essential Karate” (pg. 222). Of the three main requirements of karate are technique, speed and strength, Sosai states strength is most likely the most important. (This is Karate pg. 335 and Essential Karate pg. 222) Sosai advises that karateka should focus on strength and speed while young. The basis of strength is eating!
During my time at the Uchi Deshi dormitory the time that eating was probably the most emphasized was during dinner with Oyama Sosai on a Saturday night. As uchi deshi after morning training on a Saturday, most of our time was spent cleaning the dormitory and doing preparations for “Sosai Dinner”. Sosai dinner was usually from 6 to 8pm, sometimes longer. The dinner was essentially a 3 course meal, however we stuck on the second course for a long time!
Sosai would arrive in his black Nissan President, we would be lined up and shouting a loud “Osu!” as he got out. He would then stroll over to the dormitory while we followed. Sosai was always seated at the head of the table, the nearest to him was the dormitory chef, a stern Japanese lady well described in Judd Reid and Nicholas Pettas’s books. From nearest to Sosai downwards would be the Third year, Second years and finally First year uchi deshis. As I was already a Nidan, I was seated amongst the Second year students. The first course was salad with rice and a pork chop, although Sosai had beef. However at this time Sosai was already 70years old and not a big eater, so he would give out presents! Meaning he would often pass down his steak to one of the skinnier looking first years! Mostly we hoped to be skipped by Sosai’s generosity because of all the food we would have to shove into our stomachs! Second course is where we really had to put in the hard work! This consisted of more white rice and a chicken based soup. This soup had chunks of chicken and vegetables like Japanese cabbage, carrots and potatoes. It was placed in the center of the table in a very large silver pot or tub. We would have several rounds of this under Sosai’s watchful eyes and encouragement of eating more and more!
Sosai would be telling stories asking questions and was generally in a relaxed and entertaining mood, however we were sweating and hard at work trying to impress him with how much we could eat. Eventually you reach a point where your back is straining and you stomach feels like it’s about to explode. I heard the stories of how previous uchi deshi has actually thrown up during Sosai dinner! Finally we managed to move onto desert. Usually Sosai brought us some nice Japanese cakes, but when you have food up to your throat, even these delicious cakes were not appealing. Sosai would also mostly hand down his cakes as presents too. After working down the cakes, Sosai would take his leave…we jump up and follow him out of the dormitory. We sprint past him to line up in front of his car, while Sosai leisurely strolls in his firm powerful walk. One of the uchi deshi will open and close his door, once he is seated and we will do a thunderous Osu! Then we wait for the car to disappear around the bend and do another loud Osu! Finally we can relax. I remember often strolling over to the first floor dojo with Sempai Nicholas Pettas to measure our weight on that famous scale. The scale that has decided the fate of many a fighter at the World or All Japan…10kg heavier than your opponent and it’s the end of your tournament. Typically we were up 1.5kg in weight!
This extreme approach to eating was carried through the rest of the week as one of Sosai’s favourite questions were regarding your weight because this meant strength. There was a notice in the main dojo on the first floor regarding Sosai’s special class on a Sunday. It said that it was for black belts and anyone over 80kg. Sosai recognized the importance of one’s mass. Both Judd Reid and Nicholas Pettas went from around 65kg to well over 90kg during their 3years as uchi deshi. In the 8 months I lived in the dormitory my weight went from 81kg to 87kg. When I returned to South Africa I continued to eat in this manner and combined with weight training I took my weight up to 95kg.
What this power translates to is that any opponent, unless they were exceptional, under 75kg, you could just slice through their defences. Their blows also just did not really feel powerful in general. These days there are many weight class tournaments, but Kyokushin is Budo karate and the main tournaments, the All Japan and the World tournaments are Open tournaments. In my opinion it is better to be the biggest and most powerful you can be than to limit your weight and be a weight category champion. The True Kyokushin way is about being the strongest and not necessarily for tournaments but for yourself! Being physically, spiritually and mentally the toughest and strongest you can be!
Depending on your height, you can determine your weight. Let’s quickly review in my opinion Sosai’s greatest World Champion, Midori Kenji. His height is 165cm or 1.65m. After his defeat to Michael Thompson at the Fourth World Open Tournament, he increased his weight from 65kg to 74kg for the Fifth World Open Tournament at which he was crowned the Champion. Below is a table of heights and weights of some of the greatest Kyokushin tournament fighters.
From the above data, I have excluded Nakamura, I would recommend a multiplier of 1.19. Therefore as an example then if you are 1.80m tall like Kazumi, and you weigh around 80kg, then 80 x 1.19 = 95kg. This should be your weight or at least 80 x 1.14 = ~90kg. A good weight training program will get your weight up provided you put the hard effort into healthy eating as well! It is not easy and it may take 3 to 4years, but stick to it and you will see your strength increase.
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