blog:This time his training was fanatical
This time his training was fanatical — 12 hours a day every day with no rest days, standing
under (cold) buffeting waterfalls, breaking river stones with his hands, using trees as
makiwara, jumping over rapidly growing flax plants hundreds of times each day. Each day also
included a period of study of the ancients classics on the Martial arts, Zen, and
philosophy.After eighteen months he came down fully confident of himself, and able to take
control of his life. Never again would he be so heavily influenced by his society around
him. (Though it is probably safe to say that his circumstances were also probably never
again as traumatic!)Bulls, Challengers, and the Godhand In 1950, Sosai (the founder) Mas
Oyama started testing (and demonstrating) his power by fighting bulls. In all, he fought 52
bulls, three of which were killed instantly, and 49 had their horns taken off with knife
hand blows. That it is not to say that it was all that easy for him. Oyama was fond of
remembering that his first attempt just resulted in an angry bull. In 1957, at the age of
34, he was nearly killed in Mexico when a bull got some of his own back and gored him. Oyama
somehow managed to pull the bull off and break off his horn. He was bedridden for 6 months
while he recoverd from the usually fatal wound. Today of course, the animal rights groups
would have something to say about these demonstrations, despite the fact that the animals
were already all destined for slaughter.
