United States Kyokushin Karate

After completing his engineering education, Hanshi Arneil went back home to Northern Rhodesia.  Still fascinated with the Orient, he decided to go there and experience it for himself, and his Chinese friend gave him the names of people to train with in China.  Fresh out of college and without any money, Arneil got a job as an engineer on a ship and worked his way from Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), to Kowloon, Hong Kong.  From there, he went into China and traveled northward to the province of Manchuria, where he came to a monastery at which he studied Shorin (Shaolin) Kempo.  The rigorous training, strict discipline, daily work in the monastery's fields and daily meditation was just what Arneil was looking for – he felt he was in "seventh heaven."

Unfortunately, China was beginning to experiencing Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, and life for a Westerner in China began to get difficult.  People outside of the monastery even started hitting Arneil on the head with their copies of Mao's "Little Red Book".  His friends at the monastery suggested that he leave China for his own safety, and they brought him back to Kowloon to train with another kempo teacher.  The training was very different than at the monastery, and Arneil didn't like it.

Around that time, Hanshi Arneil heard of a karate master in Japan named Mas Oyama, and he was determined to go there and seek him out.  He didn't have enough money to get to Japan, so he first had to work on boats to the Philippines.  When Arneil finally saved enough money, he returned to Hong Kong and from there went to Yokohama, Japan in 1961.

Initially, Hanshi Arneil was lost in Japan – he couldn't speak the language and knew nothing about Japan other than the name of its capital.  He somehow managed to get to Tokyo and found his way to the Kōdōkan 講道館, the headquarters of one of Japan's styles of Jūdō 柔道.  Arneil trained at the Kodokan for a short while and received the rank of Shodan 初段 (1st Dan) in Judo, but he was really interested in studying karate.

At first, Hanshi Arneil studied Gōjū Ryū 剛柔流 under Gogen Yamaguchi.  (Master Yamaguchi, who lived from 1909 to 1989, was also the instructor of Nei-Chu So, under whom Mas Oyama trained in the late 1940's.)  He trained in Shōtōkan 松濤館流 and Wadō Ryū 和道流 as well, but still felt that something was missing.

Shortly after earning his Shodan in Judo, Hanshi Arneil met an American named Don Draeger and asked him if he knew of this karate master who "knocks bulls out."  Draeger did, and he took Arneil to Mas Oyama's dojo.  Arneil saw the intensity of the training and the discipline of the students, and he knew that this was where he wanted to be.  Draeger (who was fluent in Japanese), asked the instructor if Arneil could train.  The instructor told him that if he were interested, he would have to sit and watch, since Mas Oyama was in America at the time.

For about six weeks, Hanshi Arneil sat and watched, until one day Mas Oyama returned.  Using Draeger as a translator, Mas Oyama told Arneil that he needed to come back and watch for a few more weeks in order to really make up his mind about joining the dojo.  And so he waited and watched some more.  After two weeks, Mas Oyama gave Arneil his first karate Gi 衣 (uniform) and told him "Remember, you asked me to train.  I didn't ask you.  You don't follow the rules, you're out.  Understand?"

Arneil trained very hard, and even though he wasn't Japanese, he was treated the same as the other Kōhai 後輩 (junior students).  They started training at 6:00 PM and couldn't finish until Mas Oyama was finished, usually four or five hours later.  Along with the other Kohai, Arneil had to wash the dirty karate uniforms for the entire school and empty the toilet buckets.  He also took part in the daily ritual cleaning of the dojo (Nitten Sōji 日天掃除), which kept the dojo spotless.  Before training, Arneil had to get down on his knees to knock the floor nails back down.  All of this made him want to train harder and earn his Black Belt, in order not to have to clean the toilets any more.

When Hanshi Arneil tested for the rank of Shodan in Kyokushin Karate, he learned an important lesson in life from Mas Oyama.  At the test, he thought that he did better than the others, but when the promotion list came out, his name wasn't on it.  No one told him why, and he became very upset and stayed away from the dojo for a few days.  Finally, Mas Oyama came by and asked Arneil where he had been, and he responded that he had been sick.  Arneil was depressed and wanted to leave Japan, but he didn't have enough money to do so.  Instead, he stuck it out and continued to train.  At the next promotion test, Arneil lacked some confidence in himself, but he did what he had to do.  When the promotion list came out, he was finally on it as a Shodan.  Looking back on what happened, Arneil later realized that he wasn't ready in his mind or heart when he first tested.  If he had earned his Shodan the first time, he would have left Japan and moved on to something else, thinking that he had learned enough.  Mas Oyama later told him that he saw more in Arneil than just a black belt, and he took the chance of losing his student through disappointment.  Arneil's initial failure eventually let him develop the patience, determination and perseverance (Osu 押忍) needed to master Kyokushin Karate.

Over the next few years, Hanshi Arneil intensified his training efforts and progressed rapidly.  During this time, Mas Oyama became like a father to him.  In fact, Mas Oyama actually adopted him so that he could marry a Japanese woman.  With the financial support of his wife, who worked in a bank, Arneil was able to stay in Japan and train.  To earn money, he also acted in some movies under the name "Steve Mansion", and occasionaly worked as a model for men's clothing.

One day, Mas Oyama told Hanshi Arneil that he wanted him to perform the 100 Man Kumite (Hyakunin Kumite 百人組手).  Others had tried to do it, but no one (other than Mas Oyama) was able to complete all 100 fights.  At first, Arneil thought that Mas Oyama was crazy for asking him, since he didn't think he could do it.  Mas Oyama kept pestering him until he finally agreed, and afterwards he trained fanatically for the event – 18 hours a day, every day, doing Kata 型, Makiwara 巻藁 (punching post) training and bag work.  Arneil asked when he would do the fights, and Mas Oyama said that he would let him know when he was ready.  Arneil kept on training, thinking that Mas Oyama had only done this in order to get him to train harder.  One Sunday morning, he went to the dojo to train.  When he walked in, everyone was there waiting for him.  This was the day.  At first, Arneil tried to keep track of how many fights he had completed, but stopped doing so after the first 20 in order to concentrate on fighting.  He completed all 100 fights in about 2 hours and 45 minutes – "you can save time if you knock them out."

Before leaving Japan in 1965, Hanshi Arneil had achieved the rank of Sandan 三段 (3rd Dan).  He moved to Great Britain and began to teach Kyokushin Karate there.  That same year, he and Shihan Bob Boulton founded the British Karate Kyokushinkai (BKK) organization.  Between 1968 and 1976, Hanshi Arneil was the team manager and coach for the All Styles English and British Karate team, which became the first non-Japanese team to win the World Karate Championship in 1975-76.  In 1975, the French Karate Federation also awarded him the title of the "World's Best Coach."

In 1991, Hanshi Arneil and the BKK resigned from the International Karate Organization (IKO). The following year in September 1992, he founded the International Federation of Karate (IFK).  The IFK currently has a members in 65 countries.  After the death of Mas Oyama in 1994 and the subsequent splintering of the IKO, Hanshi Arneil was asked by Mas Oyama's widow to lead the IKO(2).  Not wishing to become involved in the tangled politics of the various Japanese organizations, he politely declined the offer, in order to devote his time and efforts toward running the IFK and teaching Kyokushin Karate.

One of Hanshi Arneil's goals in the IFK was consistency – every Kyokushin karateka in any country at any dojo should perform the techniques and katas the same.  Toward that end, he developed a systematic grading syllabus for the IFK and published a book on Kyokushin kata.  Mas Oyama had told him that the only way you can unify an organization is by doing the same thing, and the only way you can do the same thing is by kata.

Mas Oyama, prior to his death, personally awarded Hanshi Arneil with the rank of Nanadan 七段 (7th Dan).  The entire British karate community later awarded him with the rank of Hachidan 八段 (8th Dan) for his dedication and services to karate in Great Britain.  On May 26, 2001, the Board of Country Representatives of the IFK awarded Hanshi Arneil with the rank of Kudan 九段 (9th Dan) in recognition of his work in promoting Kyokushin Karate throughout the world during the past 40 years, and in particular during the preceeding 10 years under the banner of the IFK.  After 50 years of training in Kyokushin Karate, and having dedicated his life to it's practice and instruction, Hanshi Arneil was awarded the ultimate rank of Judan 十段 (10th Dan) in June 2011.

While studying Kyokushin Karate in the early 1960's, Hanshi Arneil took meticulous notes of what Mas Oyama taught him.  Because of this, for almost six decades he practices and taught Kyokushin Karate true to the spirit of Sosai Mas Oyama.  Despite his busy schedule as head of the IFK, Hanshi Arneil taught Kyokushin Karate – to beginners as well as black belts – on a regular basis.

In 1998, the USA-IFKK hosted Hanshi Arneil at the 8th Annual American International Karate Championships in Rochester, New York.  In 2004, Hanshi traveled to the United States to lead the USA-IFKK Summer Training Camp.  He returned again in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011 to lead the USA-IFKK's Summer Training Camp.

​

Hanshi Arneil spent a lifetime studying and training in the martial arts including an incredible 60 years of studying, training, and teaching Kyokushin. Longer than any other Kyokushin karateka who has ever lived! 

On July 2nd, 2021 Hanshi Steve Arneil passed away in London, UK at the age of 86.  He is missed! OSU!!!