Tournament

Karate tournament sparring began in 1924 when Funakoshi outlined the basic sparring techniques and the rules to be used in tournaments. The techniques that Funakoshi taught were very basic sparring techniques and not complete. One of Funakoshi's students, Hironori Otsuka, began teaching Karate at Tokyo University and expanded the sparring techniques that Funakoshi had outlined and made them more complete techniques by using his Jujutsu training. By 1927 the Karate students at Tokyo University were practicing this tournament style sparring.

The first Karate tournaments in Japan began on November 30, 1957 and were held by the All Japan College Students Karatedo Federation. Now I want to discuss full contact sparring tournaments in Japan. In 1927, Hironori Otsuka and his student, Hideo Bo, began to practice full contact sparring at the University of Tokyo Karate club. They used protectors then. It was the first full contact sparring in the history of Karate. In this connection, Funakoshi disappointed their action and thought by resigning his instructor's position in 1929. After that, Kenwa Mabuni, Gogen Yamaguchi and Tatsuo Yamada began to develop full contact systems, but they could not succeed in making it popular.

There was one important person who made a full contact tournament that became publicly popular. He was Masutatsu Oyama, whose real name was Che Yonwi(7/27/1923-4/26/1994). He came from Korea and learned Shotokan-Ryu and Goju-ryu for a short time.