Great stuff on the best newaza judoka ever!

[duchman]

thanks to m.g

This is from Kashiwazaki's book "Fighting Judo" published in 1984:

When I began doing Judo at 10 years old, I never imagined that one day I would be world champion. At that age I certainly had no aspiration in that direction. I remember how, after school one summer evening, I was walking home and happened to pass the local Dojo, where through the open door I saw a friend practicing Judo and decide to give it a try. At first I was not very interested and took it up the way other childeren learn the abacus. Iwasn't strong or particularly gifted; everybody threw me around and I was unable to throw any of them, but I went to the Dojo seven day a week, without taking a day off. After six months, I was still only 5th kyu, but I was please because this meant that I was no longer a white belt. I now wore a green belt . I can remember buying the green dye to change the color of my white belt (as was the custom in those days) and being so keen to wear the new belt that I ended up with a green Judo suit as well, not having waited for the belt to dry properly! Now I am a 5th dan, but the feeling I experience the day I became a green belt has never benn surpassed. My teacher, Mr Shotaro Kubo (5th dan) said to me at the time: "you are getting stronger now, but never forget that as you get stronger you must grow in kindness; yuor grade is only borrowed from the Kodokan!" Apart from the obvious, he also meant that I must soon exchange it for a higher grade.

Kubo-sensei's teaching style encouraged very hard practice but also fostered an interest in things outside Judo. Every day we had to read the newspaper and after Judo class, we would be questioned about it by our Sempai (senior students) to ensure that we were not neglecting our minds in the pursuit of physical achievement. He considered the balance between physical and mental development to be very important, so much so that if we had not read what we had been instructed to read, we would be told not to come and practice Judo until we had. This blending of the mental and physical aspects of education epitomises the true spirit of Judo

Kubo-sensei's teaching style encouraged very hard practice but also fostered an interest in things outside Judo. Every day we had to read the newspaper and after Judo class, we would be questioned about it by our Sempai (senior students) to ensure that we were not neglecting our minds in the pursuit of physical achievement. He considered the balance between physical and mental development to be very important, so much so that if we had not read what we had been instructed to read, we would be told not to come and practice Judo until we had. This blending of the mental and physical aspects of education epitomises the true spirit of Judo

My first Judo teacher also taught us Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy) and the alphabet in English, but my grades, like Judo, did not improve as quickly as either of us would have liked. He was a very good teacher, but I was a very poor student. We did summer training (shochugeiko) and winter training (Kangeiko), we went mountain climbing, we collected money for charity and we were even taught table manners.



10/8/2001
22:00
Duchman
Black Belt Poster
1294 Posts I have many memeories of Kubo-sensei, but most vivid is how seven of us travelled with him to Tokyo one day, when I was 13 years old, spending alot of time and money to go to the Kodokan (a day's journey 20 years ago and a very big occasion for a group of country boys such as we were). The following day (back in Iwate) 3 of us arrived late for practice without any real excuse. Sensei was very sad. He said he failed as a teacher because he had not even been able to teach us a small thing such as punctuality. He was crying and one by one, grabbing us by the wrist, he forced us to slap his face. He said he was bad, but we also were bad, and hit each of us in turn, only once. The only time. This made a profound impression on me, although I did not fully grasp is significance at the time, though since becoming a teacher I have grown to understand it more and more.

When I was 14, Kubo-sensei went to live in Kanagawa. 17 years later, he was to be in Maastricht in Holland to see me win the World Championships, It was a very poignant moment for both of us.

When I was 16 years old I went to Kugi High School. This was to be the second period in my development as a Judoka. I had been taught Judo in the spirit of Kubo-sensei. At Kugi I first became aware of the importance of winning and losing. Mr Yuto Wayama was responsible for this. He gave me a good basis for what was to become my speciality - Newaza. He was a very good teacher of groundwork. He taught me that Newaza could always be improved with training, unlike Tachi-Waza where are limits are more or less predetermined and more quickly reached, and where natural talent plays a much greater part. I studied Judo after school with Wayama-sensei 365 days a year. Even when we went on school trips to Kyoto. My Newaza grew much stronger and I even won the occasional competition. Wayama-sensei was always taciturn and never smiled. He was a very big man, over 100 kilos, and we called him Nobushi ( a robber, Samurai or brigand). We were all very frightened of him because he had a very intimidatng appearance and remined us of a bear. But he inspired great confidence.

Once, when I was in the 2nd grade, I lost by Ippon in a friendly competition against an opponent whom I normally used to beat. I was sitting crying after my defeat and Wayama-sensei called me over. I was expecting him to hit me for fighting badly, but all he said was: "If you train harder, you will get worse before you get better." Nothing more.

this made me think and I beegan to increase my training, running every morning and every afternoon. We had never seen Wayama-sensei smile, but I thought that if I became a champion perhaps he would. From that moment on, I really wanted to win and began to concentrate my training with that end in view.

At the end of my second year in High school I entered the Area High School Championship and reached the final, but did not win. I was 16 and Wayama-Sensei had still not smiled. After the final I was given a second place cerificate, but tore it up feeling even more inspired to win than I had before. Aprt from my training, I began to plan competitions during my everyday school lessons. Instead of studying English or Math, I used to write down imaginary contest on paper. I would write: 'Rei, Haijime, attck with Seoi nage... he blocks...Kouchi gari...knockdown...Yoko-shiho gatame ...Ippon...Next fight...' and so on. I tried to visualize the condititions, my opponent, the atmosphere, everything.



10/8/2001
22:01
Duchman
Black Belt Poster
1294 Posts I normally imagine winnning in the final by a beautiful Ippon and then I would make a winning certificate for myself. Sometimes, when I was writing down my paper fights in English class, for instance, one of my teachers would say: ' Kashiwazaki, can you read the next chapter please?' and I would say: 'Sorry, I'm fighting in the semi-final, I must win.' They soon stopped expecting me to contributed to the lesson. They probably thought that I was a little bit crazy. Next year, I did win the gold medal in the championship, but in the time in between I had made myself about 500 winners certificates already, so when I received the real one, it was no surprise to me. Wayama-Sensei, however, still did not smile. I wrote in my diary: 'Even an expert can be beaten if you give him no chance to attack.'

However, when I went to the All-Japan High School Championship, which had not obessed me in the same way as the Area Championships, I lost in the first pool. I can recall clearly that I caught a cold three days before the competition and as I did not want to make excuses, I tried to hide the fact from my teammates, and teacher, and how the morning of the competition, Wayamaa-Sensei, whom I thought I had fooled, produced a bottle of cough medicine and said: 'This is for your cold.' He had left me alone with my cough the night before and I realized what a perceptive man he was. Incidently, every summer holiday and New Year we would go to his home because he was very popular, and has a very charming wife.

When we were in High School, she often made food for us to eat if we went to competitions and he always invited us to eat at his house on Sundays after Judo class. His wife is a very good cook and became like a second mother to us. When I fought in my first international, she gave me an omamori, which in Japan, is normally only done by relatives or fiances. She was an exceptionally kind lady

When I was a high school boy, I broke my right elbow twice and my left elbow once, as well as various fingers and toes, so my mother naturally wanted me to give up Judo and study something else. However, I decide that I wanted to be a teacher myself, because of the influence my two teachers had had on me. I applied to go to Tokai Unviersity, sta the entrance exams, and passed. I was very pleased by this because Inokuma-Sensei and Sato-Sensei were teaching there at the time, both were very famous Judo champs and teachers. Sato's nickname was Ne-waza Sato because his groundwork was so strong. When I entered Tokai, Sato-Sensei was in the process of trying to make it the strongest university in Japan, and at the same time win the All-Japan Chamapionships himself. He was completely dedicated to Judo, never taking holidays or resting. He never drank, nor smoked, and spent every spare moment exercising for Judo. Even coming to the University on the train, he would strengthen his grip using the hanging straps on the subway. Judo is still a way of life for Sato-Sensei, he still lives outsidde the Dojo, coming to work on a bicycle, even though he is now a full universiyt professor. When he wasn't teaching he would go to other dojos such as the Kei-Shicho (local Police Dojo) or Kodokan, or one of the strong university. He also studied combats sports - wrestling, Sambo, Sumo - anything which had relevance to Judo. He was an excellent model for a would-be-top-class competitor, teaching us by example rather than mere words.

10/8/2001
22:02
Duchman
Black Belt Poster
1294 Posts My first big competition was in my 2nd year at University - the All-Japan Judo Championships. Three months before the competition, I was told by Sato-Sensei that I was not a strong student and I lost my place in the Gasskujo, the hostel for potential champoins. After I had been told that I was weak by Sato-Sensei, I decided to prove him wrong, and tried my hardest to win the early-morning running. I came in first every day for 4 years. Trying so hard in running gave me great stamina and although I lacked technique, I battled through to the final. Although I did not win, I came in 2nd to Minami, and this gave me a great deal more confidence and also made me see that if I wanted to be champion I had to improve my technique.

I also began to study wrestling and Sambo and by the 4th year I had become a regular team member for the open-weight team events, which normally consist of teams of heavy weights fighting against each other, for obvious reasons.

I was the lightest player ever to fight for this team in history the university. I was also awarded a trophy for the best student Judoka of that year. Meanwhile, Sato-Sensei had been trying very hard but still hadn't succeeed in becoming All-Japan Champion, and one day, in 1972, he said to me: 'Anyone who tries harder then the rest can become a very strong Judoka, but to become champion you must have something extra, something special'. This was a very profound moment for me as well as for him. He was facing the possibility that perhaps he would never be champion. After my graduation in 1974, Sato-Sensei was 30 years old and still chasing his semingly unattainable dream. Many people thought he was now too old to win the All-Japan Championships, but that year, despite having been very ill and far from being at his peak of condition, he finally became All-Japan Champion. I was there to see it and afterwards he said with tears in his eyes: 'Kashi, if you train harder than the rest, you can even become champion' more to himself than to me. I was very lucky to have had three such special teachers.



When I was 23 I graduated from Tokai University. My ambition from early childhood had been to be a teacher myself; I had had good teachers and they had been an example for me. I went to teach in Ibaragi in rural northern Japan. My students and Colleagues at Taga High School were very helpful and supportive of my efforts to win the All-Japan title, and in 1975 I did so. This was considered to be quite unusual, because normally strong Judoka lived and trained together in big cities like Tokyo, but I had managed to prepare myself in the countryside using rather unusual training methods: running alot and doing lots of shadow Randori and Uchi-komi as I had very few strong people with who to train

I taught at Taga for 7 years without taking a break from training. Actually,my students wouldn't let me. I used to run evry morning with different students, sometimes members of the baseball team, or track and field club - not only those who did Judo.

Even after the big competitions, when I should have preferred to rest, there would be a knock on my door, early in the morning, and there would be one or more of students eager to start the day with a run. I had to train everyday because of this system, because my house was in the school grounds and every year, of course, there were keen students. This went on for 7 years and they kept me very fit. Of course, whenever I won a big competition we would celebrate together, and we had some very good parties in my house, which they , as good students, kept clean.

My colleagues on the staff were always very helpful and caring, covering any classes when I had to go to squad training. Asega Toshiyuki was of invaluable assistance, providing me with great support when things were not going too well. He is a very good man and a very good friend.

[duchman]

The greatest disappointment of my career came on may 24th 1980 when the Japanese government said that no Japanese contingent would be attending the Moscow Olympics. I received a medal from the AJJA as the lightweight competitor selected to represent Japan in the Moscow Olympics, but of course that was no consolation. I was about 30 years old and coming to the end of my career, and still had not won a world or Olympic title. The headmaster of my school naturally wanted me to be there as a teacher, and although he accepted that I had to go to squad training to prepare for the Olympics, he was not happy about me taking another year to become World Champion. I could feel myself getting older. I couldn't train as well as I had been able to in the past, and I had to choose between the Job I loved and Judo. I chosed Judo and I left Ibaragi to go and live and train in Tokyo. It was much better there, and I taught at Tokai University full-time, but was able to train very well with really strong Judokas at the best Dojos in Japan. When I fought in the World Championships, I felt that I absolutely had to win. I had made many sacrifices, giving up the job that I loved to come and train in Tokyo, everyone had helped me so much. My friends and students, Sato-Sensei, and the Tokai University. I couldn't even consider the possiblity of losing. I won the World Championships in Maastricht on September 5th 1981

[YeLLa-TiGeR]

facinating! I love reading this kind of stuff.

[Lacrymosa]

Good stuff, duchdude........compelling....

[duchman]

more to come