IYASAKA

"No matter what I do, I'll never be number one anyway." As a child, Tetsuya Yamato suffered from a severe inferiority complex and hyperactivity. Bad at ball sports and stuck warming the bench in school sports, his life pivoted when he saw K-1 legend Masato on television. Driven by a burning desire to change his fate, he joined Yamato Gym. Balancing brutal 12-hour shifts as an apprentice painter with late-night sparring, Yamato fought his way to the top—winning the inaugural K-1 WORLD MAX -63kg Japan Tournament with three consecutive KOs in a single day in 2010.

Yet behind early success, arrogance began to nest. What followed was a devastating downward spiral: a violent KO defeat to Muay Thai god Saenchai that sent him to an American hospital in an ambulance; an extreme weight-cut nightmare that led him to beg doctors to "drain 500cc of my blood"; a brutal loss accompanied by 10 minutes of memory loss; and the heartbreak of divorce and losing his gym mentor.

In his darkest hour, Yamato rediscovered a fateful book resting on his shelf: Dojinai (Unshakable). Surrendering his ego, the World Champion tied a white belt and enrolled in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (Ki-Aikido). Shifting from brute physical force (left brain) to complete relaxation and flow of energy (right brain), he created his signature fight style: "Aiki-kick."

The result? At age 34, Yamato executed a miraculous 50-second KO to reclaim the K-1 WORLD GP Super Lightweight Championship. At age 38 in 2026, he delivered a lethal 29-second body-blow KO—proving that true strength only deepens with age.

IYASAKA is an ancient Japanese word for "ever-increasing prosperity." This book is an unforgettable masterclass in human resilience, mental unification, and reframing rock-bottom defeats into inevitable gifts of transformation.