sumo in boots?

[Rowan Klein <rklein@surf.its.bond.edu.au>]

Towards the second half of the article, sumo is discussed


Viewfinder 2000 / Japanese turn to stylish, exotic martial arts 

Shigefumi Takasuka Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer 

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0613sp17.htm

Since the days of the samurai, Japan has been thought of as a country of
martial arts. Today, many of them--judo, kendo, karate, aikido--have spread
worldwide and are practiced by millions of people of every nationality. 

Ironically, however, a recent trend finds an increasing number of Japanese
dissatisfied with the traditional martial arts of their homeland and
looking abroad to places such as Brazil, Indonesia, southern China and
Mongolia to take up the practice of the martial arts practiced there. 

In a phenomenon akin to devouring the cuisine of other cultures at
restaurants, Japanese are taking to foreign martial arts even while staying
in Japan. 

A typical example is capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that incorporates
music, singing and dancing. 

"You can sing, dance and even laugh when practicing capoeira," said Ryo
Yabe, 31, an instructor with Capoeira Regional Japao. The group boasts
about 50 members in Tokyo, and practices a martial art rooted in the
culture of slaves who were brought to Brazil from southwest Africa in the
16th century. 

"Although capoeira training is very tough, the atmosphere is rather relaxed
and enjoyable compared to that of Japanese martial arts," said Yabe, who
has been practicing capoeira for seven years. 

Capoeiristas use many acrobatic movements, including handstands, spinning
kicks and cartwheels, with little emphasis on punching techniques because
the art is believed to have been developed by slaves who had their hands
shackled. 

"It may look like dance under normal circumstances," said Mestre Bamba, 36,
a Brazilian capoeira master, who was in Tokyo from May 22 to June 1 to
teach the Japanese group. "But you can use it as a fierce form of
self-defense when you face danger." 

The relationship with music and dance is also obvious in pencak silat, an
Indonesian martial art with about 1,000 years of history. The art developed
in Southeast Asian regions populated by Malay Muslims--present-day
Indonesia, Malaysia and parts of the Philippines. 

At a glance, pencak silat resembles karate, but its movements are speedier
and more rounded. 

"A major difference between pencak silat and other martial arts is that
traditional Indonesian music is played when a practitioner performs a set
pattern of movements," said Mari Kiyoshima, 28, a member of the Japan
Pencak Silat Association, which was founded in 1996. 

Beside performing movements with music, pencak silat practitioners also
spar very hard with each other using protective gear, study self-defense
techniques and practice exercises to develop tenaga dalam, or inner power,
which the Japanese call ki and the Chinese chi. 

Currently about 10 people are studying pencak silat at the Indonesian
school in Tokyo, where two world-class instructors sent from the Indonesia
Pencak Silat Association in Jakarta teach. 

However, "a majority of Japanese students have taken up pencak silat
because they are interested in Indonesian culture and tradition, rather
than in martial arts," Kiyoshima said. 

Although little-known in Japan, the martial art is widely practiced in
Southeast Asia today and is recognized as an official Asian Games sport. 

Like pencak silat, the martial arts of southern China are not well known in
Japan, but a large number of people in Asia, the United States and Europe
practice them. 

                "Most Chinese kung fu practiced in Japan, such as tai chi
chuan, originated
                in northern China," said Liu Xiang Sui, 40, an instructor
with the Chinese
                Traditional Kung Fu Association in Tokyo, where about 100
students
                practice various southern-style martial arts. 

"Southern-style kung fu forms are similar to what Hong Kong action star
Jackie Chan does in his movies," said Liu, who was born in Guangzhou,
Guangdong Province, in southern China. "These martial arts are said to be
the root of karate." 

Liu started practicing southern-style martial arts such as Hop Gar and Hung
Gar kung fu at the age of 7. Hung Gar kung fu is also commonly referred to
as "five-animal kung fu" because some techniques of the art allegedly were
derived from the movements of the tiger, snake, leopard, crane and dragon. 

"Many of our students decided to start practicing southern-style kung fu
thanks to the influence of Chinese action movies," said Tatsuyuki Tanaka,
24, who has been practicing kung fu with Liu for six years. "Young men seem
to like southern kung fu styles a lot because they look quicker and more
powerful compared to tai chi chuan." 

Although it does not look as theatrical as southern-style kung fu,
Mongolian wrestling also is gradually gaining popularity in Japan because
of its similarity to Japanese sumo wrestling. 

"Buh (Mongolian wrestling) is said to have been created by Mongolian nomads
based on their wild-horse-breaking techniques," said Bat-ochir Bold, 36,
who came from China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Japan seven years
ago. 

Bold, a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at Chiba University, founded
the Mongol Buh Club in Japan three months ago with friends who are not only
interested in buh, but also various styles of wrestling in Asia countries
and regions, including China, Korea and Okinawa. 

Wrestling has been practiced in Asia as a marriage of martial arts with
religious rites to celebrate rich harvests or the fertility of domestic
animals. 

"The club has about 30 members, who are both Japanese and Mongolian," Bold
said. "As well as practicing buh, we also participate in sumo competitions." 

A major difference between buh and sumo wrestling is the outfit: A buh
wrestler wears riding boots, a belt and a leather vest called a zudg, he
said. Rules are similar to sumo--a wrestler loses if any part of his body
except the soles of his feet touches the ground. Traditional buh, however,
does not have a ring or a time limit, reflecting the nomad culture of the
great steppes of central Asia, according to Bold. 

Hideki Asaoka, editor of Kakutogi Tsushin, a monthly magazine specializing
in martial arts, said that the recent foreign martial arts boom in Japan
has both a good and a bad side. 

"The bad side is that younger Japanese no longer like the propriety and
discipline stressed in traditional Japanese martial arts," Asaoka said.
"They easily leap at martial arts that look stylish or are novelties in
Japan." 

On the upside, however, younger Japanese seem to be more open and less
biased toward the cultures of other countries, Asaoka conceded. 

"They are willing to learn what they think is good or useful from other
cultures," Asaoka said. "They are also very active and borderless. Many
youngsters do not hesitate to go abroad to learn martial arts such as
capoeira in Brazil or muai thai (kick boxing) in Thailand."