Ishikawa Martial Art Gym
Today we visited an enormous martial arts gym, a decent bus drive away. I wasn’t expecting something so big when I heard we were going there, so I was shocked to see a three story complex the size of my high school! We took off our shoes just like in any Japanese building and put on small red slippers (not big enough for Western feet). The place looked like a high school on the inside as well, due to its size, architecture, floor and ceilings.
Our first visit in the school was to the archery field. Japanese archery (kyuudo) is different from Western archery mainly in the fact that you are deemed successful or not based not on where you hit the target, but your form. We watched for a little while, and the few students we saw doing it were very good and it was quite impressive.
After kyuudo, we went to the second floor and watched the judo practice. Judo is basically Japanese wrestling. The group we watched were young, perhaps elementary school, and they were already at such a young age very skilled. The warm-ups they did were almost exactly the same type of warm-ups I did when I studied Tang Soo Do, which I found rather interesting.
Finally, we went to the third floor and watched kendo, Japanese sword fighting. Kendo is very complicated; the combatants wear all sorts of body armor and look more like beekeepers than martial artists. The sword is a set of wooden rods that make a loud crack whenever a proper strike is made. After watching, we got to have a kendo lesson. We suited up in traditional blue clothing sans armor (mine was way too large so I looked rather goofy), were handed swords, and went out into the gym. At first we were shown basic stances and the main head attack (to attack the head, you have to shout, “MAN!” or else the strike is not counted), and then we did some drills. Afterwards, we were told to line up in front of the students, all young kids again. We all became a bit nervous, and then were told to strike the kids… we all hesitated, but the instructor insisted… And so, for about 15 straight minutes, a dozen nervous gaijin beat on the heads of young Japanese children with sword, while the gym echoed with our shouts of “MAN!”
I was complimented on my stance by the instructor, which impressed Yasuko… I explained that I had taken martial arts in the states and thats why I was able to do the stances well… but then again I was speaking English and the instructor only spoke Japanese… so I don’t know if I got through.
Kendo was fun… if I get a chance to study martial arts again, that would be one worth taking.
It was a rainy day and we got back to Eurocentres a bit late after our visit to the budokan, so we all went our separate ways for dinner with our host families.