NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12610, 20 July 1935, Page 12

NEWS BY MAIL

A high place in any list of accomplishments whose usefulness is net immediately apparent • must be reserved for the form of proficiency! practised by oue Ichiro- Tada, who just died in. Kobe. Reuter says that lie wa,? one of the laist exponents of “Nojima-Ryu,” which is “the classical style of Japanese swimming. c< The late Mr Tada therefore specialised “in swimming in a suit- of arm•>ur while carrying a fan,“ which i 4 apparently the essence of tho NojimaRyu code of aquatic exercises. “Oin| hand must hold ■ the fan with which! certain set gestures must bo made.' 4 It sounds decorative (and ' undeniably difficult) but! not exactly easy to A justify on grounds of mero utility y (comments the “Manchester - Guar®* dan“). Of course, if one happens ta be bathing in water? which are infested with sharks and swordfisli tliero may be something to be said foi!' the suit of armouri-rbut why tha fau? Is that to keep the butterflies away,' or to cool the performer if hiS exertions make him feeT too'warm inside his armour-plating ? A periscope sound's as though it-would have been more useful; equipped ■with 1 that and a few hand-grenades the Nojima-RyU export might’ then function as a oneman liubmarihe. British: bathers wh<l are frightened f of-jellyfish 1 might likd to borrow ,a st.it of armour from the nearest museum' and apply themselves to' thelNojima-Ryu - code, le*s4 ( -the fan.- And yet 'one' never knows; . The fan might come in useful to hidq fheir' blushes when aro