WRESTLING IN JAPAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 2923, 12 September 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

WRESTLING IN JAPAN.

There is one form of athlet’c sport that is still kept alive, and this, in the opinion of the greatest and most patriotic men of Japan, should become still more popular and enjoy widespread favour. This is “jujutsu," literally the “gentle art," a misnomer, indeed, if it is supposed to imply any passive condition, for of all athletic exercises it demands the greatest amount of physical activity, brings every muscle into play, and requires years of constant and assiduous practice to be understood. It is, in a word, a kind of wrestling which teaches not only how to throw, disable or maim an antagonist, but which also and in particular teaches how to bo thrown without injury, or how seemingly to yield to superior strength, and finally to win, or at least to hold one’s own by dint of admirable address, muscular suppleness and undaunted courage. It teaches, first of all, a remarkable degree of presence of mind. There is no attack, however adroit, which an adept jujutsukee, though of puny physique, dues not know how to meet and parry. If the hundreds of tricks, twist?, turns, or falls he has been taught prove of no avail, he knows where to plant a blow which, not given with much force, will lay hia stronger opponent unconscious or kill him outright. These are secretly taught, after a long course of study, which not only show a profound knowledge of the physical form, but would even do credit to a past master of anatomy. The muscles are so perfectly trained that a blow will fall harmless, even in the pit of the stomach. Jujutsu deals pre-eminently with what would be deemed foul Hows and foul catchesin Western lands. Its professors are simply ready to meet any kind of attack, and proceed to any extremity themselves in order to secure a victory. It ia a “ gentle art,” therefore, only in so far as it teaches those who aro not physically strong to cope successfully with vastly superior force. As such, it is infinitely more scientific, more thorough, and more valuable a knowledge than any kind of wrestling taught elsewhere, though in its principal features it has a marked resemblance to the Cornish system.