Hatsuo Royama (盧山 初雄, Royama Hatsuo, born 31 March 1948) also known by his Korean name of Noh Cho Woong (Korean: 노초웅; Hanja: 盧初雄) is a master of Kyokushin Karate and was current Kancho (Director) of the Kyokushin-kan International Organization Honbu, one faction of the International Karate Organization (IKO) founded by Mas Oyama (1923–1994) until April 2022.
During the fall of his first year of high school in 1963, Royama was introduced to Oyama Karate Dojo, which would be renovated into the Kyokushin Shogakukai Foundation, under umbrella of Kyokushin-kaikan, in April 1964.
[3] After that, he began kickboxing under the ring name Arashi Goro, and received training from Kenichi Sawai - practitioner of Taikiken (Yiquan), who had a working relationship with Mas Oyama.
In the 1st World Open Karate Championships in 1975, he fought against Charles Martin (currently the most senior student in the United States of Tadashi Nakamura's Seido Juku), one of the American national team's players.
In December 2002, Royama established the Kyokushin-kan International Honbu, which was to follow Kyokushin's original spirit which Oyama's envisioned, and became the organization's first director.
On February 7, the same year, with the withdrawal of the deputy director and several branch managers, Royama declared that he would work under the new system with the mission of continuing the will of President Oyama.