| While there have been many fantastic karate masters, | | | | to practice jumping over it as it sprouted. It is said he |
| only Mas Oyama can honestly lay claim to being the | | | | could leap incredible distances because of this practice. |
| toughest karate master of all time. This is most | | | | After the Second World War Mas made his home in |
| interesting, because Karate came from China, was | | | | Japan, where he was looked down upon because he |
| born on Okinawa, and migrated to Japan, which | | | | was Korean. In 1946 he became a student at Waseda |
| became the 'Land of Karate.' Mas Oyama, (birth | | | | University and took karate lessons from the second |
| name--Choi Yeong-eui), however, was not from any | | | | son of Gichin Funakoshi. Because of his Korean |
| of those countries, but was born Korean. | | | | heritage his training was very lonely, and many would |
| Sensei Oyama was born into Japanese occupied | | | | claim his solitary lifestyle would keep him dedicated to |
| Korea in the year 1923. He took his first martial arts | | | | his karate and free of distractions, and enable him to |
| instruction from a Chinese worker named Lee when | | | | achieve a very pure and elevated level of martial arts. |
| he was 9 years old, he was told to plant a seed, and | | | | |