“Oyama’s Adopted Son”

Steve Arneil 1934 –

“Oyama’s Adopted Son”

Steve Arneil is a prominent South African-British master of Kyokushinkarate.He learned directly from Masutatsu Oyama and was a senior instructor in Oyama's International Karate Organization (IKO) until 1991, when he resigned from the IKO.

Arneil is the founder and President of the International Federation of Karate (IFK), holds the rank of 10th dan, and holds the title Hanshi. He and his wife settled in the United Kingdom in 1965.

When he was 10 years old he began training in judo there.By the age of 17, Arneil had earned black belt status in judo, and he had also practiced kenpo and karate.

In Durban, Arneil trained at a judo dojo (training hall) that also offered karate training. He made a practice of going down to the harbour and asking arriving Japanese people if they practised karate; if they did, he would invite them to training at the dojo.

Unlike the other karate schools he had visited in Japan Oyama's Kyokushin school was selective. On their first meeting, Oyama told Arneil, "Remember, you asked me to train, I didn’t ask you.

Arneil was promoted to the rank of 1st dan in Kyokushin karate on 15 May 1962. He was later 'adopted' by Oyama, in order to allow him to marry a Japanese woman in 1964.

On 22 May 1965, Arneil became the first person to complete the 100-man kumite after Oyama himself.

Originally, Arneil had planned to return to South Africa, but Oyama asked him to go to the United Kingdom to help establish Kyokushin karate there in 1965.

Kyokushin's 5th World Tournament, in 1991, was a significant point in the history of the IKO. Arneil stated simply, "It was a fixed tournament", but "the decider was when Sosai [Oyama] was supposed to meet me in Switzerland, and he didn’t come.

I didn’t want to be involved in the politics anymore. I left the IKO, not Kyokushin and founded, the IFK.

On 23 July 2011, Arneil was awarded 10th Dan.