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Before Morihei Ueshiba founded his incredibly popular art of Aikido, he practiced and taught the art of Daito Ryu, a jujutsu school led by a very unusual man named Takeda Sokaku. Many of the followers of Daito Ryu insist to this day that it is an ancient traditional jujutsu school, but no evidence has emerged to support this claim.
An estimated 1000 or more whales meet their end at the hands of Japanese whaling fleets every year. Hunting whales for food is prohibited, though the International Whaling Commission allows the Japanese boats to hunt them as long as they are doing it for research purposes. Much of the whale meat, however, is making its way into Japanese markets to be sold. This has the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society up in arms and waging a (mostly) non-violent war against Japanese whalers.
Between the original rough style of Gekiken and the refined modern art and sport of Kendo, there are various remnants of “pre-war Kendo.” Before World War II, Kendo was not quite as standardized and included some rougher tactics such as throws. When the Allied Occupation forces banned the practice of Kendo, Japanese swordsmen were able to get permission to practice it again only by making it a little less overtly militaristic. Some of the harsher elements of pre-war Kendo were removed in the process, but a handful of dojos did not go along with the change.
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear incident, the Japanese government has endured a continuing wave of anger and reprimand from sources across the globe. From their own citizens and politicians, to environmental activists and organizations worldwide, to Japan’s neighbors who are particularly concerned about eating and drinking up the country’s nuclear waste products. Without the proper regulations and safety procedures, Japan’s nuclear energy program seems to be doing more harm than good.
One of the most successful and widespread schools of Japanese martial arts in the United States is the Bujinkan, the “Ninja school” of Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi. Read more about The Bujinkan
Ever since the end of World War II, the American presence in Japan has been a point of contention. What the Japanese government decides about U.S. military bases is not always what their people wish for. This is particularly true of the island of Okinawa. The U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station has recently become even more of a hot-button subject for Okinawans, Japanese and the U.S. alike.
Last week I talked about Gekiken, the practice of sword sparring out of which modern Kendo developed. So what's the difference between the two? In a word, it's standardization.
Gekiken was a training format through which the practitioners of different styles of swordsmanship were able to test their skills against each other. As such, they could bring anything they wanted to the encounter- different stances, different footwork, different cutting styles and methods of power generation, different preferred targets, different favorite tactics.
Read more about Kendo
Over the years, cosplay has changed forms from the superhero clad fan boys and fan girls of comic book conventions to a specialized form of dress-up known as Kigurumi. This latest costume craze is a little more than just picking out a character and dressing up. The practitioner of kigurumi wears a full-body costume and a mask. The word kigurumi means, literally, “to wear a stuffed animal,” though animals are not the only thing people dress up as. There are a few different varieties of this brand of cosplay, each with a different angle.
Modern Japanese swordsmanship is divided into distinct categories: Kendo for “sparring” with the shinai or bamboo swords, Iaido for sword-drawing, and the various classical Koryu or “old schools” for the study of the ancient forms of swordsmanship passed down from the samurai era. One often hears it repeated that Koryu exponents never spar, and that the practice of sparring is completely untraditional in Japanese swordsmanship.
In the last few decades, Japan has been suffering from a declining fertility rate. While with an overpopulated world this might initially seem to be a good thing, it has many negative repercussions. Since 1975, the number of children born in Japan is insufficient to keep the population stable; meaning the overall population of Japan is shrinking. If the trend continues, it could mean some serious economic issues for the country.