Stevens wrote: Jonesy wrote: Stevens wrote:
I heard that last year questions are asked to Takahashi sensei and Yano sensei. This year, march, only Yano sensei was back in Holland and he must have said these things. After the question last year both sensei went back home and must have done some investigestions. I just picked up these things by listening to some Dutch judomasters on the tatami.
I am afraid that I would not believe a word that comes out of the Netherlands on the historical origins of judo kata.
Witness the embarrassment of Jan Muilwijk's Go-no-kata, the so-called "Busen standard" and also the recent debate about how to say "hands up" in Japanese in the Kodokan goshinjutsu. All of these have the Netherlands as a common denominator. There is a long way to go before credibility is restored.
I understand, but when you know Muilwijk sensei, you'll find out he's a real budoka! He only made a book by the knowledge of that time. When you read his book you'll find out he's writing that he's still studying on the subject.
I think it would be best for everybody to avoid publicly talking about other living people, unless they are public people (e.g. politicians, famous sports or movie stars).
About the book (= an object, not a person) there were two main issues that have a very significant effect on the quality of any book:
- Sources. Not a single historic Japanese written or other primary source was used for a book that essentially is about a historic Japanese phenomenon. It's a bit the same as writing a book about Dutch windmills or cheese without visiting a single Dutch windmill or cheese factory and based only on recent books about Holland written in, let's say, Portuguese by people who have never been to Holland, nor have any professional formation in history or architecture, engineering, or nutrition.
- The second main problem was that the book was written in what is called a "teleological" way; "teleological", not "theological". This is a typical thing for people "doing research" who have never had proper research training. It means that someone starts with a conclusion which usually is given in by some personal belief, and then assembles things that fit into that a priori defined conclusion. It is something that is unfortunately rather prevalent in jûdô and that we also see when random people start (what they call) "investigating" whether someone really holds this or that dan-rank he claims, in particular when it is from a different federation. Usually, such "investigations" are guided by a personal dislike for an individual, chitty-chat with other similar people lacking the training, knowledge and objectivity to do such research, then serves to "proof" the conclusion they had already established before they started. Proper research obviously requires no a priori established conclusion, but a research design, a definition and acknowledgement of the limitations and delimitations of the research methods one will be using, a collection of sources and recording the results, analyzing those results, comparing those results with previous outcomes in the light of the limitations of the study, and discussion and conclusions that on the basis of the results arrived at should allow to accept or reject one's hypothesis.
In this case, the author(s) were warned beforehand about the major weaknesses of their plan, but instead of a willingness to consult or learn from those having that expertise, they angrily reacted that they would soon publish their book. In other words, the actual act of publishing, was far more important that the solidity and veracity of its contents. This is very sad, but also very typical in the world of jûdô where after the death of Kanô jûdô became sportified with an increasing dislike for the intellectual goals of jûdô; let's not forget that Kanô explicitly defined education as the highest goal, with the overall goal of jûdô (so also of the mental, physical and moral pillars) being intellectual development. One of the major mechanics in jûdô that has helped achieved this travesty is the dan-rank system and the power that comes with that. In jûdô today the highest dan-rank (and thus the highest power) is always correct, no matter how nonsensical what he or she might claim. This is no surprise since the standards on which the dan-rank, especially the highest dan-ranks, is awarded has nothing to do anymore with 'knowledge', and is a combination of politics, a logical consequence because someone has been X-number or years in a previous rank, and that absence of sufficiently knowledge in those having to do the assessment to assess whether the person seeking the higher rank has such knowledge; even the term knowledge is then reduced to mere mechanical performance in the absence of virtually anyone possessing that what is necessary to assess anything beyond that.
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