Juiz hat geschrieben:Ist es denn wirklich so unkompliziert auf Englisch zu kommunizieren? Ich frage deshalb weil es meinen Erfahrungen aus Sendai komplett widerspricht. Ich habe während meines Studiums dort im Judoclub mittrainiert und selbst da sah es mit Englisch eher mau aus. Wie meiner Erfahrung nach in ganz Japan. Im Zweifel stimmt es aber auch wenn man keine gemeinsame Sprache spricht! Wenige Japaner sind uns Gaijins gegenüber so offen wie die Judoka. Judo ist halt irgendwie auch eine gemeinsame Sprache :-D
Ich frag wirklich nur aus Interesse, aber mich hat es damals kalt erwischt
Ansonsten echt cooler Bericht. Ich bereue immer noch, dass ich bei meinem halbjährigen Aufenthalt in Japan nie im Kodokan trainieren war, aber meine Abreise aus Japan war damals recht abenteuerreich und die Japanrundreise erst einen Monat später geplant.
One hears many stereotypes and fantasies when the topic
Kôdôkan enters conversations.
First question ... why on earth would someone go to the
Kôdôkan ? In its entire history the
Kôdôkan itself has rarely produced a decent
jûdôka. Most superb
jûdôka were produced elsewhere, such as notably Kumamoto. The
Kôdôkan is more an international "touristic
jûdô" place where
jûdô or what is supposed to represent
jûdô is some kind of what best would be termed "salonesque
jûdô".
The only reasons one should go to the
Kôdôkan are:
1. So you can tell your friends and
sensei you have been there.
2. So you can show pictures of yourself with some red-belt wearing person in an attempt to impress others.
3. So you can once visit the museum, which is OK as long as you aren't a real researcher who wants to actually do critical and objective research in there, as you will only be stonewalled or worse. It is OK as long as one realizes that it has been created mostly to sustain the myth of Kanô Jigorô in the context of the historic reinvention which Kôdôkan jûdô has become. Anything critical or that would now raise eyebrows has been carefully removed. Nothing there about the close association between Kanô Jigorô and ultranationalist Uchida Ryôhei or Miyagawa, as if no such thing ever existed. Some of the labels in English are incorrectly translated or mention incorrectly converted dates. Of course, the Westerner who only has a superficial knowledge of jûdô would not notice and would instead consider whatever there in support of his admiration.
4. So, when you are a beginning researcher and have a totally inadequate library at home, you can find some older books there, but then again, unless you read Japanese and willing to put more hours into
jûdô than what the average
jûdôka today still is willing to do, there isn't much sense in that either.
5. So you can verify for yourself how much
jûdô today has deteriorated from the virtual concept that over decades has been created through books, vidoes and myths.
If you think that at the
Kôdôkan you are going to see some 120-year old
jûdô grandmaster with a long white beard and wearing a red belt, who will be throwing around young heavyweights with nothing else but a his little finger, dream on. I guarantee you, you won't find anything there like on the infamous Mifune video, and I guarantee you that most of the people there who walk around in red or red/white belts, I have not seen do anything that remotely resembles
jûdô in the past few decades if ever. If you are looking for that, I am sorry, but you have been born at least half a century too late.
If you have a real commitment to learning
jûdô, find a
dôjô far away from the
Kôdôkan where preferably no foreigners and no
jûdô politicians are, and where nobody speaks a word of either German or English. The mere idea of today's
Kôdôkan being the guardian of the legacy of Kanô Jigorô is laughable. Most there barely know anything about
jûdô. The old guard, Ôsawa, Abe, is now formally retired, and much of what is done there today is demonstrated by youngsters who were molded for years to superficially copy what someone else did without having any clue what and why they are doing something.
Second question, why would you just for
kata go to the
Kôdôkan ?
Kata is not some specific separate discipline of
jûdô. There is no sense in practising
kata if you also are not practising
randori, engaging in
jûdô discussions, reading about
jûdô and attending specialized lectures. What do you think the purpose of
kata is ? Doing demonstrations in front of a handful of other people whose thoughts have not developed any further ? Doing
kata in
jûdô has one and only one purpose: to improve your
jûdô, not attempting to convince someone else you can copy to some degree what someone else does. The result of having improved your
jûdô also implies that your
randori skills should have improved.
As to the English "translations" at the
Kôdôkan, they are horrendous and totally inadequate. Yes, you can get around without any problems at the International Department when it is about reserving a room or paying a fee, but I am sure that probably isn't the essence of why you just paid 1.000 euros and traveled all the way to Japan. When it comes to the translations in the
dôjô, say of a lecture that Daigo or whoever just gave, then no, the "translations" are ridiculous. Typically, this will be something like after 5 minutes of talking in Japanese, the "translator" or better "interpreter" since "translating" really implies converting a written piece into another written piece, will then give a supposed translations which is a one- or two-sentence supposed summary. However, those "translators" lack the formal training of actually translating and synthesizing, so you will often hear there totally nonsensical things such as completely wrong historic facts, that really makes you wonder how much they really know about
jûdô. Often the situation is right out embarrassing and painful. Since it is typically for anyone present there, certainly the totally flabbergasted foreigners, to ask any critical questions, the entire idea surpasses the nonsensical and absurd. This certainly is true when the translation is in fact blatantly wrong, since foreigners will typically lack the tools to ascertain the actual accuracy of the translation, and instead through an odd combination of visual perception and their own past experiences will assume they understood everything correctly even if they do not speak a word of Japanese ... The lack of self-criticism is indeed addictive. It can get worse though, f you are lucky and one of their clowns who thinks that he also can speak French and Italian and wants to impress you by demonstrating just that. It is an educated art to simultaneously interpret, and it requires serious skills in terms of language-mastering, fact knowledge and background. However, knowing that 99% of the foreigners go through some odd metamorphosis when they step inside the Kôdôkan, they seem elated when they hear someone say ... "
Jûdô was founded by Kanô Jigorô.
Nage-no-kata consists of 15 techniques divided in 5 series.
Jûdô consists of
tachi-waza and
ne-waza." (...)
Congratulations, this all just cost you over 1,000 euros in plane tickets and lodging ... I am prepared to tell you the same just for 500 euros.
P.S.: There is an excellent honest blogpost of a visit to the Kôdôkan by Mitesco on:
http://mitesco.blogspot.be/search?updat ... date=false
