Karate Baka Ichidai

Karate Baka Ichidai (空手バカ一代) is a Japanese manga serialised from 1971 to 1977 in the weekly Weekly Shonen Magazine. The script was written by Ikki Kajiwara; the art was done at first by Jiro Tsunoda and from the twelfth volume by Joya Kagemaru. According to English Wikipedia, it was collected in 29 volumes. The story is based on the life of the real karateka Masutatsu Oyama, founder of the Kyokushin style. The main character is thus a real karate master, and the manga follows his path as a fighter. However, we did not find the individual fights and episodes the manga depicts documented in the sources. How faithfully the work captures Oyama's life is disputed. English Wikipedia states that the story is based on Oyama's life, while Japanese Wikipedia, on the contrary, cites the testimony of several people from the Kyokushin circle, according to whom authorial fiction predominates in the work. These testimonies give no original source, so we treat them as unconfirmed. The manga gave rise to an anime series (1973–1974) and a live-action film (1977), and according to English Wikipedia it is often associated with the wave of interest in karate in Japan in the early seventies.

Martial arts in this work

Fact and fiction

The degree of fiction in this manga cannot be reliably determined today. Japanese Wikipedia cites three testimonies, but for none of them does it give the original source, so they can only be taken as claims of specific people. According to Hisao Maki's testimony, cited by Japanese Wikipedia, more than ninety percent of the content was Kajiwara's invention. Shokei Matsui, according to the same source, states that only Teruaki Yamazaki truly resembled his comic-book image in fighting and character. Yasuhiko Ienaka, according to Japanese Wikipedia, claims that the work is based on Oyama's book Sekai kenka ryoko from 1968. Which specific episodes are documented and which invented, we have not been able to determine from the available sources.

Influence

According to English Wikipedia, the success of the manga Karate Baka Ichidai and the anime that followed it is often cited as the cause of the so-called karate boom in Japan in the early seventies. This is an attributed assessment, not a documented measurement of interest in karate. The same source states that Keiji Inafune was inspired by the manga when designing several characters of the game Street Fighter from 1987. The manga was adapted into an anime by Tokyo Movie for the NET station (1973–1974, 47 episodes) and a live-action film from 1977, directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi for Toei and starring Shinichi Chiba in the lead role.

People and martial arts

• Masutatsu Oyamathe real person the work is about — as Masutatsu Oyama· Kyokushin (real practitioner)
• Ikki KajiwaraAuthor
• Jiro TsunodaIllustrator
• Joya KagemaruIllustrator

Details

Status

Completed

Volumes

29

Demographic

Shonen

First published / aired

Weekly Shonen Magazine