The Evolution of Tournament Kyokushin Karate

The World Open Karate Championship is the largest competition in Kyokushin Karate, which Sosai Mas Oyama organized as a way to showcase full-contact karate, its validity and as a marketing tool for his organization, Kyokusinkaikan. This tournament was arranged to happen every fourth year in Tokyo, and did so until the passing of Sosai Oyama after the 5^th World Tournament in 1991.

After the passing of Sosai Oyama, Kyokoshin fractured and many new organizations were formed under different leadership, each featuring their own World Tournament. I will only focus on IKO and WKO for this article, as it would be just too much to include them all, but the focus would remain for each. Undeniably this analysis is from my own perspective and I welcome feedback or insights from others, which I can incorporate.

Irrespectively, each organization continued to evolve, and along with it, the style and experience of the fighters. So much so, that the fighters of today bare close resemblance to those of the 1^st World Tournament. In this article, I want to take a look at the evolution of Knock-Down Full-contact Karate.

Before diving into the evolution it is important to layout the rules of full-contact karate and clear up some confusion, mostly by those outside of knock-down karate.

Normally knockdown rules include:

• No protectors or guards are used, with exception to groin guards and teeth protection.
• 3 minutes match time
• The fighter that achieves an Ippon (one point) will win the match and the fight is stopped. An Ippon is achieved when an attack that knocks down the opponent for more than 3 seconds or renders the opponent being reluctant to continue the fight. An ippon can also be granted if an illegal technique is used and the other fighter is disqualified.
• A fighter can also win the fight by Waza-ari (half point), which is awarded if the opponent is knocked down by less than 3 seconds and is able to continue the fight. If two Waza-aris is achieved during the fight it is counted as an Ippon and the fight is stopped.
• If no knockdowns occur, the judges can declare one fighter as the winner by overall efficiency of techniques, force and dynamics.
• In case of a draw there can be up to 3 extensions (each 2 minutes long). Some tournaments will also settle draws by weight different and result of Tamaeshiwari (breaking of tiles)

No Face Punches

There are no punches to the face, or head-butts, elbows to face, etc. Sosai originally wanted the tournaments to include strikes to the face, however, when trying to get permission from the government to host the tournament he was told this would not be allowed. They could use protective gloves, but Sosai Oyama believed that wearing protective gloves would detract from the realism that the style emphasized. Therefore, it was decided that hand and elbow strikes to the face, head and neck would no longer be allowed in training and competition. Furthermore, Japan at that time, and today, along with many governments around the world, do not allow bare-knuckle strikes to the head in any sanctioned competitions. I have read that the Japanese government and public feared that competitors would die, or be brutally injured, at the first full-contact tournaments held by Mas Oyama if face-punching were allowed. You can read more about this here.

Leading up to the 1^st World Tournament in the 1960s into the 70s, All Japan Tournaments were held. However, it was the World Tournament that put Kyokushin on the stage.

1^st World Tournament

The 1^st World Tournament was held November 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 1975, Tokyo, Japan and featured 128 competitors from 32 Countries, and open to all styles of stand-up.

What is most evident in this tournament is how similar the movements were to traditional Japanese sport karate, with the addition of full-contact strikes and mawashi geri gedan, or low kicks, which were influenced by Muay Thai. Most were not use to this and gave a great advantage to the Japanse Kyokushin stylist.

In this video of the final bout between Katusaki Sato and Hatsuo Royama, you can see the use of higher forward stances and open hands reminiscent of Shotokan tournaments of the era. What is also interesting to note is the use of audible kia! with most each strike.

https://youtu.be/VJjpCvDbNyw

The tournament itself was a great success, attracting a record crowd of 15,000 on the final day. All countries performed well, but it was the Japanese exponents who excelled most brilliantly and the winner of the first world open Kyokushin Karate championship was Katsuaki Sato.

The tournament was a huge success, binding many strong ties of friendship and really placing Kyokushin Karate into the world’s consciousness as truly the strongest karate.

Final results:
1. Katsuaki Sato JAPAN
2. Hatsuo Royama JAPAN
3. Joko Nimoniya JAPAN
4. Daigo Oishi JAPAN
5. Toshikazu Sato JAPAN
6. Takashi Azuma JAPAN
7. Charles W. Martin USA
8. Frank Clark USA

2nd World Open Tournament

The 2nd World Open Tournament took place 23-25 November 1979 with 187 competitors from 62 Countries. By now, within four years, we began to see changes in the style. As you can see in the video below from the final between Makoto Nakamura and Keiji Sanpei.

Fighters footwork was changing, becoming more mobile on the feet, they began to close the distance using multiple strikes, as compared to the one-strike / one-kill approach of the first tournament.

This tournament was not without its controversy, where it was rumoured Willie Williams was forced to lose the match on purpose, instructed to do so by his teacher, and Williams was very upset by this, and went out on disqualification by taking out his frustration on Keiji Sanpei.

Final Results:

1. Makoto Nakamura JAPAN
2. Keiji Sanpei JAPAN
3. Willie Williams USA
4. Takashi Azuma JAPAN
5. Howard Collins GT BRITAIN
6. Bernard Creton GT BRITAIN
7. Ceno Maxer LIECHTENSTEIN
8. Koichi Kawabata JAPAN

3rd World Open Tournament

The 3rd World Open Tournament took place 20-22 January 1984 with 192 competitors from 60 Countries. Again we can see progress where fighters are becoming more mobile, lighter on their feet with continuous action and striking.

Final Results:

1. Makoto Nakamura JAPAN
2. Keiji Sanpei JAPAN
3. Akiyoshi Matsui JAPAN
4. Ademir Da Costa BRAZIL
5. Yasuto Onishi JAPAN
6. Nicholas Da Costa GT BRITAIN
7. Keizo Tahara JAPAN
8. Dave Greaves GT BRITAIN

4th World Open Tournament

The 4th World Open Tournament took place 6-8 November 1987 with 207 competitors from 77 Countries.

In this tournament, there was again great progression, which is demonstrated by the improvement in technique, with more fluid movement and beautifully executed kicks by the likes of Akiyoshi Matsui and Andy Hug.

Again, however, the tournament was not without controversy. There have been rumours that Sosai Mas Oyama the founder of Kyokushin karate, demanded that Matsui should win the fight and world title, at any cost. A rumour that Sosai Oyama started himself, when just before the World Open he stated on Japanese TV, that as long as he lived, the champion of the world in Kyokushin karate, will always be Japanese. Shihan Yuzo Goda judged the final fight, between Hug and Matsui. Yuzo Goda was Sosai Oyama’s right hand, and Head Instructor at the Honbu Dojo, so many thought he helped in fulfilling the plan of having a Japanese become champion. Watch the bought and judge for yourself.

Final Results:

1. Akiyoshi Matsui JAPAN
2. Andy Hug SWITZERLAND
3. Akira Masuda JAPAN
4. Michael Thompson GT BRITAIN
5. Ademir Da Costa BRAZIL
6. Hiroki Kurosawa JAPAN
7. Yasuhiro Shichinohe JAPAN
8. Nicholas Da Costa GT BRITAIN

5th World Open Tournament

5th World Open Tournament took place 2-4 November 1991 with 250 competitors from 105 Countries

By the 5^th World Tournament, the skills of the fighters had improved dramatically. This is very evident in the kicking of Kenji Midori, the high-level technique of the up-and-coming fighter Francisco Filho and not to mention the display of technique by Andy Hug.

The tournament once more was not without a lot of controversies. Andy Hug returned again and showed skills, strength, and technique in a league of his own in his opening fights, though his draw for the tournament was extremely difficult, many believe because Andy was the biggest contender to the title. He fought hard to get it to the 4th round, where he was to fight the young newcomer from Brazil, Francisco Filho. In the absolute last second of the fight, the judge screams Yame witch in Japanese means stop, just like a break means in boxing. Andy hears and obeys the judge, and is about to put his arms down – showing that he will stop fighting, but unfortunately, Filho didn’t hear the judge, and at the same time delivers a powerful roundhouse kick in the face of Andy, who falls down totally unconscious. It was a really ugly knock out. Andy truly believed that the Kyokushin organization would give him a 2nd chance to get back in the tournament, because of the way that he lost, being KO after the judge had to stop the fight. However, Sosai Oyama made the final decision that Andy was out of the tournament by simply pointing his fingers down to the 5 judges in the ring, meaning that he was out. Again, Andy never made and official complaint, he knew and respect his destiny. For Andy the tournament was all over, and so was he his time as a Kyokushin karate-ka.

Kenji Midori went on to win the Kyokushin 5th World Open, and we can’t help think what if he had met Andy in the final. Andy and Midori had already fought once before, where Andy won by a 3-0 judge decision.

1. Kenji Midori JAPAN
2. Akira Masuda JAPAN
3. Hiroki Kurosawa JAPAN
4. Jean Riviere CANADA
5. Kenji Yamaki JAPAN
6. Yutaka Ishii JAPAN
7. Yasuhiro Shichinohe JAPAN 
8. Johnny Kleyn HOLLAND

6th World Open Tournament

In 1995 a year after the death of Sosai Masutatsu Oyama, the 6th tournament was realized, however this time because of the split of the International Kyokushin Organization two tournaments were held for this 6th World Open Tournaments (1995).

IKO1 November 3rd, 4th & 5th, 1995, Tokyo, Japan168 competitors from 85 countries AND IKO2/WKO February 1996, Tokyo, Japan with 172 competitors

By the 6^th World Tournament, there was a huge jump in progression, with remarkable kicking techniques, and fighters combining speed and power, with efficiency, for the most devastating results with many of the participants. The contestants had trained using more modern principles, which is evident in their performances. With a cross between technical fighting & countering, fighters in both organizations demonstrated phenomenal growth, which was spectacular to watch for the spectator. Hajime Kazumi with elusive fighting style incorporating great use of mawashi gedan (low kicks) and Taikiken, Garry O’Neill’s impressive footwork and kicks, to Norichika Tsukamoto’s incredibly unorthodox movements, all meant it was the beginning of the “golden era” of Kyokushin Karate.

Results IKO1:

1. Kenji Yamaki JAPAN
2. Hajime Kazumi JAPAN
3. Francisco Filho BRAZIL
4. Garry O’Neill AUSTRALIA
5. Nicholas Pettas DENMARK
6. Hiroki Kurosawa JAPAN
7. Luciano Basile BRAZIL
8. Glaube Feitosa BRAZIL

Results IKO2/WKO:

1. Norichika Tsukamoto JAPAN
2. Kunihiro Suzuki JAPAN
3. Kou Tanigawa JAPAN
4. Tsuyoshi Murase JAPAN
5. Akira Masuda JAPAN
6. Hiroyuki Miake JAPAN
7. Toru Okamoto JAPAN
8. Kouji Abiko JAPAN

7th World Open Tournament

7th World Tournament IKO1 November 5th, 6th & 7th, 1999, Tokyo, Japan with 192 competitors from 86 Countries AND IKO2/WKO December 4th & 5th, 1999, Tokyo, Japan with 128 competitors from 53 countries

The 7^th World Tournament saw another leap in progression, with the fighters demonstrating technique far beyond the early tournaments. This World Tournament would see the return of the phenomenal technician Hajime Kazumi, who reached the finals of two World Open Tournaments, but in the 7th he experienced a devastating loss to Francisco Filho, due to the final decision being on board breaks, losing by one.

Kazumi integrated Taikiken training into his karate practice and modified his fighting style to rely on punching and low kicks (inside/outside Gedan Mawashi), instead of the high kicks that are characteristic of Kyokushin Karate. A style he used with great success, and a style that was adopted by many Kyokushin practitioners worldwide.

Francisco Filho became the 1st non-Japanese fighter to win the world championship, and showed great reflexes, and demonstrated such great counter fighting, some of his opponents would be nervous to engage. His cautious style is a cross between technical fighting & countering, the key is being deceptive & waiting till an opponent makes & opening and then counter. The position of the hands in the guard is somewhat different, usually, the lead hand sticks out, generally, this is because the lead is used to gauge the distance somewhat & used to parry/block whatever technique an opponent throws, as well as a means of aiding timing. Filho is a classic example of a fighter who uses this style – the lead hand & yoko geri play a huge part in his style of fighting.

WKO also saw progress, which is demonstrated by Toru Okamoto, who always had extremely powerful low kicks but now appeared more relaxed as a fighter and this showed immediate benefits. In 1998 after many podium positions he finally won the All Japan Title and in 1999 he defeated all who faced him to win the World WKO Tournament.

IKO1 Results:

1. Francisco Filho BRAZIL
2. Hajime Kazumi JAPAN
3. Alexander Pichkunov RUSSIA
4. Glaube Feitosa BRAZIL
5. Nicholas Pettas DENMARK
6. Yasuhiro Kimura JAPAN
7. Ryuta Noji JAPAN 
8. Ryu Narushima JAPAN

IKO2/WKO Results:

1. Toru Okamoto JAPAN
2. Muzaffer Bacak GERMANY
3. Sotoshi Niiho JAPAN
4. Kouji Abiko JAPAN
5. Kunihiro Suzuki JAPAN
6. Tadashi Ishihara JAPAN
7. Yuichiro Osaka JAPAN
8. Viktor Karasyuk RUSSIA

8th World Open Tournament

8th World Tournament IKO1 November 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 2003, Tokyo, Japan with 240 competitors from 63 Countries AND WKO 4-5 October 2003, Tokyo, Japan with 128 competitors from 63 countries

By the 8^th World Tournament fighters were using intelligent pressure, applying constant forward momentum with strikes and movement. Similar to stalking an opponent (constantly applying pressure and sticking with them), it involves grinding opponents down with a high work rate and when they slow down, go in for the KO. Practitioners using this style tend to throw many different combinations and will regularly change levels or use feints within combos to catch opponents off guard, they will also always make use of angles & circular footwork (Tai Sabaki) to get in an advantageous position in which to throw another strike, they also tend to be naturally quick on their feet.

Hitoshi Kiyama (8th World Open Tournament Champion) is an example of a fighter who used this style with a lot of success. MMA fighter Katsunori Kikuno also uses a similar approach in his stand-up game, he tends to stalk opponents in his adapted sanchin-dachi stance – the reason for this style of preference is because Kikuno trained at the same dojo as Hitoshi Kiyama, that particular dojo seems to put an emphasis on this approach to Kyokushin Karate.

IKO Results:
1. Hitoshi Kiyama JAPAN
2. Sergey Plekhanov RUSSIA
3. Ewerton Teixeira BRAZIL
4. Glaube Feitosa BRAZIL
5. Lechi Kurbanov RUSSIA
6. Yasuhiro Kimura JAPAN 
7. Sergey Osipov RUSSIA
8. Hiroyuki Kidachi JAPAN

WKO Results:

1. Kunihiro Suzuki JAPAN
2. Yuichiro Osaka JAPAN
3. Takayuki Tsukakoshi JAPAN
4. Valeri Dimitrov BULGARIA
5. Francisco Jose Carpena SPAIN
6. Muzaffer Bacak GERMANY
7. Norichika Tsukamoto JAPAN
8. Daniel Torok HUNGARY

9th World Open Tournament

9th World Tournament IKO1 November 16th, 17th & 18th, 2007, Tokyo, Japan with 192 competitors from 65 Countries AND WKO 13-14 October 2007 with 128 competitors.

IKO Results:
1. Ewerton Teixeira BRAZIL
2. Jan Soukup CZECH REPUBLIC
3. Artur Oganasian ARMENIA
4. Darmen Sadvokasov RUSSIA
5. Andrey Stepin RUSSIA
6. Alejandro Navarro SPAIN
7. Eduardo Tanaka BRAZIL
8. Tatsuya Murata JAPAN

WKO Results:
1. Takayuki Tsukakoshi JAPAN
2. Donatas Imbras LITHUANIA
3. Valeri Dimitrov BULGARIA
4. Roman Nesterenko RUSSIA
5. Maxim Shevchenko RUSSIA
6. Darius Gudauskas LITHUANIA
7. Norichika Tsukamoto JAPAN
8. Denis Grigoriev RUSSIA

10th World Open Tournament

10th World Open Tournament IKO1 (4-6 November 2011) with 192 competitors from 43 Countries AND WKO (4-6 November 2011) with 129 competitors from 52 countries.

At the 10^th World Open Tournament (IKO1) Tariel Nikoleishvili of Russia became the youngest champion of the World Tournament at only 20 years old. This also marked the “Russian Invasion” of IKO1. Russian competitors began to dominate in IKO, and other organizations, bringing with them a new approach to fighting.

While earlier fighters utilized distance, angles and counter fighting, the Russian approach was based on leaning pressure, close-range striking, focusing on power and conditioning. While many commented this became the era of “boring” Kyokushin, with a more stand-and-bang style, it was extremely effective and very difficult to deal with.

WKO World Tournament was won by Norichika Tsukamoto who in contrast to the Russian fighters of IKO demonstrated a very unorthodox method, with long-range use of kicks, side-ways stances, Brazilian kick, yoko geri and hiza geri, broken rhythm etc. It made him very difficult to fight and would go on to influence many others.

IKO Results

1. Tariel Nikoleishvili RUSSIA
2. Ewerton Teixeira BRAZIL
3. Goderzi Kapanadze  RUSSIA
4. Makoto Akaishi JAPAN
5. Zahari Damyanov BULGARIA
6. Nikolai Davydov RUSSIA
7. Alexander Yeremenko UKRAINE
8. Ilya Karpenko RUSSIA

WKO Results:

1. Norichika Tsukamoto JAPAN
2. Tsutomo Muruyama JAPAN
3. Roman Nesterenko RUSSIA
4. Lukas Kubilius LITHUANIA
5. Brian JakobsenDENMARK      
6. Andrey Materov RUSSIA
7. Yuji Shimamoto JAPAN
8. Yevgeniy Andrushko RUSSIA

11th World Open Tournament

11th World Open Tournament IKO1 (20-22 November 2015) with 192 competitors from 46 Countries AND WKO (31 October – 1 November 2015) with 164 competitors from 60 countries

The 11^th World Open Tournament IKO1 had four Russian competitors in the top 8, but Zahari Damyanov was the winner, displaying powerful technique including inside gedan that many fighters felt the effect of.

IKO Results:

1. Zahari Damyanov BULGARIA
2. Djema Belkhodja FRANCE
3. Darmen Sadvokasov RUSSIA
4. Kiril Kochnev RUSSIA
5. Ashot Zarinyan RUSSIA
6. Mikio Ueda JAPAN
7. Ivan Mezentsev RUSSIA
8. Shoki Arata JAPAN

WKO Results:

1. Yuji Shimamoto JAPAN
2. Kembu Iriki JAPAN
3. Lukas Kubilius LITHUANIA
4. Shota Maeda JAPAN
5. Kazufumi Shimamoto JAPAN
6. Nazar Nasirov RUSSIA
7. Edgard Sečinski LITHUANIA
8. Macej Mazur POLAND

12th World Open Tournament

12th World Open Tournament IKO1 (22-24 November 2019) with 164 competitors from 38 Countries AND WKO (9-10 November 2019) with 161 competitors from 71 countries

After the 11^th World Open Tournament changes were made in the rules. Believed to be instituted to deal with the close-range fighting of recent years. As stated by the official IKO1announcement, there were four main goals for this revision:

1. To pursue the true martial aspect of karate and aim at a « beautiful kumite » praised by OYAMA Masutatsu, by getting rid of the stalemate situations occurring during some fights.
2. To ensure the uniqueness of Kyokushin karate, by having fights closer to realistic fighting situation, while keeping the originality of full-contact karate.
3. To promote technical improvements and evaluate high-quality techniques.
4. To improve the interest, the clarity and the thrill of each fight, by keeping the possibility of reversal of situations until the very end.

Among the new rules:

1) Pushing; with one hand ONCE allowed (adults only)
2) Parrying; sabaki+single hand kake-te allowed (adults only)
3) New Waza Ari; opponent falls down due to your counter-attack must incl. zanchin+technique
4) New Waza Ari; sweeps including sabaki+kake-te must incl. zanchin+technique
6) New Waza Ari; contact with the foot to the head which disturbs the opponent must incl. zanchin+technique
6) New Waza Ari; evade opponents roll kick and counter-attack with gyaku tsuki (light contact) on the opponent’s stomach while the opponent is on the ground.
7) New Counter Attack Waza Ari; if the opponent is on the ground due to being swept, failed roll kick, failed sweep, opponent may defend themselves by retaliating with any kick, any head kick retaliation will award the opponent the waza ari.
8) New Ippon; deliberate sweep conducted to the opponent, opponent lands on their back, conducting gyaku tsuki (light contact) on opponent’s stomach
9) Adjustment to penalty rule; chui, chui ni, gentan ichi = minus waza ari, gentan ni (disqualified)

Here is a video demonstration of the new rules:

The result was more dynamic matches utilizing the new rules and distance. Whether because of the new rules or not, the winner of the Open Tournament was Japanese Mikio Ueda

Rules for the WKO Shinkyokushinkai can be found here

IKO Results:

1. Mikio Ueda JAPAN
2. Alexander Yeremenko RUSSIA
3. Andrey Luzin RUSSIA
4. Yuta Takahashi JAPAN
5. Konstantin Kovalenko RUSSIA
6. Ryunosuke Hoshi JAPAN
7. Igor Zagainov RUSSIA
8. Shoki Arata JAPAN

WKO Results:

1. Yuji Shimamoto JAPAN
2. Macej Mazur POLAND
3. Daiko Kato JAPAN
4. Valeri Dimitrov BULGARIA
5. Kosei Ochiai JAPAN
6. Eventas Guzauskas LITHUANIA
7. Yuto Eguchi JAPAN
8. Ilya Yakovlev KAZAKHSTAN

Closing remarks

Kyokushin tournaments and their rules are evolving to make it more spectator-friendly and to also deal with fighters who rely on size and pressure. The new rules are more catered towards realism and with intent to be used as a transition towards MMA, and other more combat realistic sports. The results so far have been more dynamic matches.

As well, fighters themselves are evolving, and we are beginning to see very unorthodox styles, as demonstrated by fighters like Yuta Takahashi, with the use of angles, and extreme cardio conditioning. Cross-training in other movement sports, working on body mechanics and the influence of different martial arts, such Taekwondo and sport point-style “blitz” Karate, is making for more versatile and dynamic fighters.

We will have to wait and see what the future holds, but if by watching the young fighters who are up and coming, the future looks bright for Kyokushin Karate.

OSU!