the lineage · ultimate truth
the legacy you're stepping into.
Kyokushin means "ultimate truth." Train here and you inherit an unbroken transmission - from the founder of the style, to the original Oishi dojo in Japan, to your mat in Ellensburg.
The Founder · 1923–1994
sosai mas oyama
Born Yong I-Choi in a Korean village, he earned 4th dan in Funakoshi's Shotokan by twenty, and then walked into the mountains alone. Eighteen months of twelve-hour days under freezing waterfalls, so close to quitting that his master told him to shave off an eyebrow so he couldn't bear to return to town. He came down and won the national championship.
one strike, certain death. he became the godhand.
18 months
Alone on the mountain
52 bulls
Three dropped by hand
270 challengers
Most fell in one punch
the keeper of the standard · 9th dan
hanshi daigo oishi
He read Oyama's book as a schoolboy and never looked back, becoming a live-in student at Honbu. Oyama himself named Oishi's kick 'Muramasa,' after a legendary blade. He passed the 50-Man Kumite at age forty and the 70-Man at age forty-eight. When Kyokushin splintered after Oyama's death, he built World So-Kyokushin to keep the original teachings from being diluted.
the direct source of our art, in japan
honbu uchi-deshi
Oyama's live-in student
70-man kumite
Passed at forty-eight
world so-kyokushin
Founder and leader
The art carried west · 8th dan
shihan roman szyrajew
Fifty years in the art. On national television he broke two baseball bats with a single shin strike, and six ten-inch ice blocks, soaked in gasoline and set aflame, with one knife-hand. He has mentored thousands across the world, served decades as North American chairman, and now represents World So-Kyokushin under Hanshi Oishi. He is also the man who wrote the Oyama history this dojo trains by.
A master of the basics who could break the unbreakable.
50+ years
In Kyokushin
1,000's of students
Taught internationally
N. America
Carried Kyokushin here
the art reaches ellensburg · 6th dan
Shihan Ian Quitadamo
Nearly 40 years of training, from Danzanryu jiu-jutsu to Kyokushin rokudan; graded on four continents, in Maine, Sydney, Japan, and Chile. An internationally certified referee who has officiated World Cups and World Tournaments. He built Central Kyokushin from four students, has put eight of them on the U.S. national team, and teaches the science of martial mastery as a tenured Distinguished Professor at CWU by day and the applied art of it on the mat by night.
The next connection in the art, and the person you'll train under.
38 years
Jiu-jutsu to rokudan
founded ckk
Grew from four students
8 students
On the U.S. National Team
the unbroken line
Global Legacy, made local.
It runs from a mountain in Japan to a mat in Ellensburg. That legacy can be carried by you, too.
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