One Boy’s Flight to Mas Oyama’s Japan

Mere teenagers at the start, Judd Reid of Australia, Nathan Ligo of the United States, and Nicolas Pettas of Denmark were the only three foreign uchi deshi (personal residential students) of Mas Oyama to receive certificates of completion from his famed, three-year Young Lions' program. After enduring overlapping periods of three years each, Judd and Nick would go on to become formidable fighters, proponents of a training style that reached its pinnacle in the 1990s and emphasized body toughening in the pursuit of tournament victory. But Nathan Ligo, "the American," the most unlikely of the three in terms of temperament, reached something short of 600 days in the program and disappeared in the night, unable to face Mas Oyama at the moment of his unexplained collapse. What had happened? Why did he leave? And why did Mas Oyama, who'd had more than 100 foreign residential students over the years for short periods of time, select only Nathan two years later for an honorary certificate of completion? What was it about Nathan's raw personal struggles, and the path he chose in response - combining academic learning and writing with what would become 25 additional years of karate training experiences around the world - in which Mas Oyama saw a spark worthy of uplifting? Could he see that having felt failure once, Nathan would now never break his vow to dedicate his life both to teaching Kyokushin in America, and to the daily individual struggle against oneself that Mas Oyama taught should be at the core of Kyokushin?

One Boy's Flight to Mas Oyama's Japan forms the more intimate side of a natural trilogy with Judd Reid's The Young Lions and Nicolas Pettas's Blue-eyed Samurai. What was life really like in the Young Lions' Dormitory? What were the sounds, the smells, the sensations, the hopes, the fears - the dangers! - the pleasures and the pain? What was it like to learn directly from Mas Oyama, every single day, for hundreds of days on end at his world headquarters dojo? Who was Judd Reid in his first 500 days, and Nicolas Pettas in his first six months, after they arrived in Japan to begin their training? Who was Nathan Ligo, who spent more days training under Mas Oyama than any other American, and was ultimately celebrated by Mas Oyama even though he didn't complete the program? If you've read either Judd's book, or Nick's, and still hunger for a read that will draw you in and complete your picture of what life actually felt like as a student of Mas Oyama, you will find it here in this first installment of a saga that will continue as Nathan, a classically trained writer, totally immerses you in the Young Lions' Dormitory.