Martial Art.

This is my essay for IE Writing class. I have been wondering what martial art is, so I chose this topic. I tried to find the charactreristics of 3 kinds of martial art and analyze their thought from their technics. It was quite interesting to see the differences between them.


Martial Art

Shouzou Hirata

Martial art has an aspect as a kind of body language between two bodies. Each kind of martial arts has a philosophy on how the player looks on the opponent and it is represented in its techniques. There are two types of martial art according to how the player approaches the opponent: one is a battle with blows (In Japanese, it is called Go, which means hard and strong), and the other is with throws (In Japanese, it is called Ju, which means soft and adoptable). The difference between Go and Ju comes from the difference in philosophy in each on how the player looks on the opponent.

The typical sport of Go is boxing. The players keep firing blows at each other until one is knocked out, gives up or time runs out. In this sport, the opponent is not a human but a wall. He stands in front of the player like a wall that tries to illustrate the limit of his physical ability. To overcome the limit in himself, he has to crush the wall. According to Wikipedia, this sport started in ancient Europe. As the background, there is probably the dualism of traditional European philosophy. The structure that either is to be ruled by power is the same thing that we can see in the history of European science’s ruling nature.

On the other hand, the typical sport of Ju is aikido or judo that both have, according to Wikipedia, stemmed from jujutsu. The player throws the opponent and ties him down. According to it, the fundamental philosophy of this sport is survival of both self and others, and discipline of mind is an important aim. So, on the contrary to that opponent is a wall that should be crushed in boxing, the opponent is to be respected and cared in Judo and he is not an object but a person whose path should be changed to avoid collision. One of the best ways to know what Judo is to watch the movie “Sugata Sanshiro” by Akira Kurosawa. In the movie, a judoist Sugata, with a match near at hand, sees his opponent’s daughter pray to God for her father’s win. Sugata finds unbeatable air in her unselfish shape, and realizes that unselfishness is the essence of invincibility. Sugata, who achieved unselfish mind through training under his master, at the match, throws the opponent. Carried from the hall, he tells Sugata that he felt good when thrown by him and expresses gratitude. However, judo has a match, so the players are still eager for win. Aikido puts more importance in mentality than judo. Aikido denies conflict, so doesn’t have a match. Tatsuru Uchida, who is a philosopher and also an aikido player, says, in aikido, the players become one creature at heart and body, so he feels sad when the training is over feeling as if he parts with a part of himself.

As we live our life, there are both times when we have to crush a wall and when we have to change a path of a person, so we need them both. Boxing is originated in Europe, and judo and aikido are in Japan, but now boxing has gained great popularity in Japan, and in European country such as France the number of people who plays aikido or judo is bigger than in Japan. As we assimilate each other’s martial arts, we can reach the better way to balance with our world.


Works cited
Sugata Sanshiro. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. With Susumu Hujita. Eigahaikyuusha, 1943
Uchida, Tatsuru. Home Page. Uchida Taturu no kenkyuushitsu. 12. May. 2008. 13. May.2008
“Judo” Wikipedia. 12. May. 2008
“Boxing” Wikipedia. 12. May. 2008 <>