Did Oyama O Sensei, Ashihara O Sensei meet Shifu Bruce Lee

[Dobbersky]

Senpai's and Sensei's

I been wondering did Oyama O Sensei, Ashihara O Sensei meet Shifu Bruce Lee, I watched the Bruce Lee Story on the Network and wondered if he ever did step into a Kyokushin Dojo and meet Oyama O Sensei

If you know please tell us all

[eamoncramb]

sorry i dont no but would be very interested to find out

osu

[Kurisu]

I had heard a rumor about Bruce Lee going to Hawaii to fight against Kyokushin karateka but I've never got a firm confirmation that this event actually took place.

[Shura]

Well, Bruce Lee met Ed Parker, who was also acquainted with Hawaiian Kyokushin karateka Bobby Lowe, so there may have been a reference about Kyokushin to Bruce Lee.

[kyokushinkevin ®]

well, this threas was 1 year ago, someone knows something?.. im so interesting in this thread...

osu!

[schuyler]

Bruce Lee couldn't hack Kyokushin....Okay, maybe that was just a rumor I made up.

[orisha66]

Bruce is what got me training in karate, so yes i am big Bruce Lee head, especially back in the day. I dont think Buce met them because he would have had another idea of what karate really is. if you look at any of his books on theories, he spent alot of time telling what he thought karate was, nothing about karate attacking centerline, hesays karate punching is at your shoulder, it was like he thought karate training was very basic and had no real application. he thought that the karate tournaments of the 60's (Ed Parker's LB tourney) that the kumite didnt touch eachother, instead they would stop the fight and judge the severity of the waza.......WHAT??
anyhoo...Oyama takinging on challenges left & right, same with the kyokushin devil and there was never a match between bruce and the GodHand, it would have been told. old dojo fights and in the shiai's in japan the fights were pretty hard core in the 60's & 70's and thats not only the kyokushinkai.
I do have an article with Bruce and baby Brandon sitting ringside at a karate tournament watching Shihan Oshima fighting.
Even after all that... i still get ready to train after watching Enter the dragon and Return of the dragon.
Woohah!.. oops. I mean Osu!!

[Iwaks]

Someone apparently asked Oyama sosai if he was stronger than Bruce Lee... He laughed and replied "Bruce needs to gain some weight"...

The other story I've heard is what was in Japanese manga "Karate Bakaichidai", which could be complete fiction from Kajiwara Ikki

[Kyokugen]

I never know about that but it is very interesting and nice info

[Shura]

I do have a healthy respect to Bruce Lee and the concepts behind his Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Some people would dismiss him as not being ring-tested or in real-life fights as opposed to his celebrity career that helped foster in public interest into the martial arts. However, I do feel that Bruce Lee and Kyokushin should have encountered one another. In Lee's writings, he paints a critical view on the karate that he encountered in the United States. Aforementioned by orisha66, the karate Lee had experienced was primarily the non-contact tournaments of the '50s and early '60's. Had Bruce Lee witnessed the first Kyokushin tournaments, his perception towards karate in general would have been reassessed, and who knows? Maybe there would have been an exchange of ideas and instructors to examine and compare one another's inherent strengths and weaknesses as well as to promote inter-style cooperation.

[Dobbersky]

Excellent responses to this thread, I am still wondering did Shifu Bruce respectfully use some of the Kyokushin techniques and Did Ashihara O Sensei respectfully use some of Jeet Kung Do techiniques I wonder?

Osu

[powerof0ne]

It's funny because I have trained in Karate with some of Bruce's former students. One of my father's old friends used to work at the old Ivar's resteraunt in Seattle and would give Bruce free clam chowder. He told me once about a story of a Karateka that Bruce was friends with, and they were both afraid of eachother. I never could get this karateka's name but it was someone local to Seattle.
However, I don't think Bruce never went to a Kyokushin dojo in Japan, that would have been documented by at least a few sources considering the fact he would have had to go to Japan to do so.

[orisha66]

Bruce once said that Steve Anderson of BKF kenpo karate had the fastest hands on earth, so that may have been a small look into karate, not for sure.
I do know that before he died, he was interested in incorperating muay thai with his JKD theory but he didnt get the chance. As far as Bruce being afraid of anyone is a little hard to swallow, not saying that that its not true, but him growing up in HK, he use to have street fights on the rooftops and there are a few accounts that he had challenges here in the US with different stylist as well as brawlers. Bruce was too hard on himself to actually backdown from a fight...after all, when he was younger and would loose a fight he would starve himself until he beat the guy who beat him