柔道大会

Yesterday I went to Kanazawa with my Judo friends to watch the Yushikan elementary boys compete in an Ishikawa Judo match (Yushikan is the dojo that I practice with). My friends came by to pick me up bright and early at 6:00 am and we headed down to Kanazawa. We arrived at the sports center and met up with the other families from our dojo. The players had about 40 minutes to warm up before the match began at 9:00 am.

We sat up in the stands overlooking the floor which had three separate judo rings. There were probably a couple hundred players ranging in age from ichinensei through third year of junior high. Looking out over the tatami mat were crowds and huddles of white clad players practicing judo moves and preparing for their match. The match started with aisatsu (of course, what doesn't in Japan!) and the pounding of a huge taiko drum. 

The players warming up!

Yushikan Team- not sitting seiza like they should be! （笑）

The players lined up listening to opening remarks.

There were matches going on in each of the three rings simultaneously starting with the elementary students. The teams walked up to either side of the ring, bowed to each other and then the one on one fighting started. Each student who won, won a point for their team so the team with the majority of individual wins won the match. The matches are overseen by a grand panel, and each ring had a referee and two judges. 

In Judo, if you score an ippon, one full point, you win the match. An ippon can be scored by a proper throw in which your opponent lands on their back, if you hold your opponent in a ground pin for 25 seconds, or your opponent gives up. Half points and smaller scores can also be scored, and penalties can be given for things such as not being aggressive enough, stalling, purposely hurting your opponent, etc. For elementary students the matches are 2 minutes long, but for the olympics the matches are five minutes long. A match is over when a player wins an ippon or the the time runs out. 

The Yushikan players won their first match, but the lost the second round they played. But that is mostly because we didn't have an ichinensei nor gonensei, so we had to forfeit those wins to the other teams. 

At elementary level, boys and girls fight each other

Ground pin!

I noticed that many of the other players wore various colored belts, yet none of the Yushikan players do. I asked my friend about this and she explained that at Yushikan the students are not tested for belts. Apparently many years ago, at a big, important Ishikawa tournament all the Yushikan players were white belts and they fought against all black belts. But the Yushikan players dominated every match, to the surprise of all the people watching the tournament. Because of this, our sensei says it does not matter what color belt you wear, what matters is how strong of a player you are; even a white belt can beat a black belt if they play with their heart. So, at Yushikan the players do not test for belts until they are ready for black belt. Supposedly even the black belt is not important, since the story demonstrates that a white belt can be stronger than a black belt, however that does not stop our sensei from wearing his black belt! 

While we watched the match, the dads who help coach me pointed out good players for me to watch and different moves for me to notice. They are ever encouraging of me to work hard and earn a black belt someday! Watching the tournament was fun for me and made me more excited about Judo. Watching all those matches I could clearly see how all the moves and training they are teaching me actually come into play in Judo. Before we left, my sensei asked me what I thought of the tournament and I told him I wanted to compete, to which he laughed and said "after more practice". 

Only in Japan are they this obsessed with Cherry Blossoms!