A short history of the origins of Kyokushin karate
Kyokushin as an official style was first founded by Masutatsu Oyama in 1964. Mas Oyama started developing Kyokushin which means "ultimate truth" in the early 1950s. Mas Oyama was a lifelong martial arts practioner. In his early years he trained in Kempo and later extensively in Shotokan under Gichin Funakoshi, Goju Ryu under So Nei Chu and Judo. Mas Oyama cherry picked what he thought to be the strongest points from each style and incorporated them into Kyokushin in addition he incorporated techniques often seen in Muay Thai as he particularly admired their fighting style and found Muay Thai fighters to be particularly tough opponents.
Kyokushin rapidly gained in popularity and is now practiced by more than 12 million people worldwide. It became known as "The Strongest Karate", not only because of the incredible feats of strength and endurance that Mas Oyama performed, such as the 300 man kumite but also because of the rigorous requirements of training and tournaments. It requires you to be strong in mind and body and this characteristic of its practitioners is generally well recognised among the martial arts in general. Kyokushin is best known for its full contact fighting. In addition, kata and semi and no contacting fighting is practiced.
Mas Oyama died in 1994. His passing resulted in the original association splitting up into a number of different ones which used the same or similar name. Despite the politics Kyokushin karate continues to go from strength to strength and develops a strong passion and spirit in its karateka.