An International Student Fought Bravely in a Japanese Martial Arts Event!
Jun 27, 2019 (Thu.)
Gary Tetreault from Old Dominion University, U.S.A., who just completed the Asian Studies Program last month, participated in the 56th Osaka Jōdō Championship held last Saturday, June 22. He took the Japanese Martial Arts course offered by Professor Ichizo Takayama in the last fall semester, where he learned Jōdō (Japanese traditional martial art using stick called “jō”) first time. He has been practicing it with the professor even after the completion of the course. He participated in the class of 1st dan and below in the event, but unfortunately fought in the first round against the boy, who eventually won the tournament of this class and lost by the score of 1:2. According to Professor Takayama, given his relatively short period of training of Jodo, he did an excellent performance in his bout. Gary finished his internship at a local high school as assistant English teacher and will leave Japan early July.
Incidentally, Professor Takayama won the tournament for the 5th-dan in the same event. He has been practicing Jōdō for more than 15 years and started the Japanese Martial Arts course for the ASP last fall. The course introduces Japanese martial arts, primarily focusing on Kendō (sword-play) and Jōdō, as traditional Japanese culture. The objectives of the course is to provide the students with basic knowledge on Japanese martial arts and their history (including Bushido Spirit) as well as to increase their physical fitness levels through actual training of Kendō and Jōdō in a dōjō (special hall for marital arts training).