Jon
Bluming was born in Amsterdam in 1933, and his life was marked by violence
in his teenage years. At sixteen, he participated in the Korean war along
side the American marines , and during his 3 year stay in Korea, he studied
Judo and returned to Holland with a 5th Dan Judo. In the following years,
he moved to Japan and trained under grand master Mas Oyama, the founder
of Kyokushin. His grand master awarded enormous sums of money for any fighter
that had the courage to even get in the ring with Jon Bluming. Nobody took
the challenge against Bluming, and the giant remained undefeated. Fighting
was serious business at the Oyama Dojo. You had to fight with everything
you had, with almost no restrictions in your techniques until you won or
you surrendered. No compromises, win or get knocked out. Over the years,
Bluming also mastered other fighting styles and became a 9th Dan Judo, 4th
Dan Bo Jitsu, 4th Dan Jodo, 4th Dan Iai Jitsu and 2nd Dan Kendo.
Having spent about 10 years in Japan, Bluming returned to Holland, where in 1962, he founded the first European Karate association named NKA, which organized the first Kyokushin karate championship tournaments in Europe. Over the years, Bluming grew unhappy with the development of Kyokushin in Japan and wanted to introduce some changes. When grand master Mas Oyama refused to amend his ways, Bluming left Mas Oyama’s Honbu Dojo and founded his own organization which later became known as the International Kyokushin Budo Kai. Kyokushin Budo Kai is based on the “utmost reality” and includes full contact hand and foot techniques, as well as throw techniques with following ground work. Bluming believed that a fighting system should be real and efficient, and give applicable results, and that beauty and grace should only complement the real techniques. Next
