> IKO Kyokushinkaikan Honbu Dojo

The International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan Honbu Dojo is the global headquarters of Kyokushin karate, established in Nishiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo in June 1964 by Masutatsu Oyama, also known as Mas Oyama. Oyama — a Korean-Japanese martial artist who trained in several classical Japanese styles before developing his own synthesis — first opened a modest training hall behind Rikkyo University in 1953, which he called the Oyama Dojo. As Kyokushin’s international reach grew through the late 1950s and early 1960s, Oyama relocated to the Ikebukuro facility and formally organized the International Karate Organization (IKO). The IKO’s honbu became the definitive proving ground for what Oyama called “the strongest karate”: full-contact knockdown competition in which kicks and punches to the body are scored as in a real fight, while face punches are prohibited in place of tameshiwari (board and tile breaking) demonstrations of power. The style spread to over 120 countries and produced some of the hardest-hitting karateka in tournament history. Following Oyama’s death in 1994 the IKO fragmented into several successor bodies; the primary organization (IKO Matsui) continues under the leadership of Kancho Shokei Matsui (8th dan) at the Ikebukuro honbu.