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What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
What are deep? The ocean and truth. Christina Rossetti, What Are Heavy?
Fortune, honour, beauty, youth,
Are but blossoms dying;
Wanton pleasures, doting love,
Are but shadows flying. Thomas Campion, What If A Day Or A Month Or A Year
without regret
they fall and scatter
cherry blossoms haiku by Issa
They have created the beauty of cherry blossoms. from Sugata Sanshiro, directed by Akira Kurosawa
Spring in Japan. No, not yet. Not yet. The air is usually already warmer by the time of Buddha's birthday on 8 April. But this year spring has kept feinting an attack and then has hastily retreated. This week it has felt like we were still in December.
But the cherry blossoms have fallen. The cherry blossom viewing parties have all been held.
Cherry blossoms signal the changing seasons. I have written about cherry blossoms before. In 2011 after the Tohoku earthquake in cherry blossom and moon and also in 2012 in beneath the cherry trees and also here. There are some cool poems in those articles.
Cherry blossom viewing can be poignant. Weather forecasts give detailed forecasts of when the trees will be in full bloom. Some of the drinking and karaoke parties in the parks are superficial. But for many Japanese people there is still sadness behind the beauty. The trees bloom. T
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I was determined to go to Japan to outstrip them all, to learn judo. It wasn't to
go to the Olympics, it was to become really, really good at judo. Doug Rogers
How very Canadian - I had a one-way ticket to the Olympics. Doug Rogers
In the tunnel
the black taxi roof
a stream of neon Colin Oliver, haiku
Youth is not a time of life
it is a state of mind
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees
it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions Samuel Ullmann, Youth
There was a link on a judo site to an old documentary called Judoka. It's about a Canadian called Doug Rogers and his serious judo training in Japan. He was there from 1960 to 1965. He was obviously an exceptionally talented and determined judoka and he became one of the very best in the world. At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 he won the heavyweight silver medal.
It's a very interesting documentary. It shows the training and life of a young martial artist in Japan. It was a simpler, more innocent time.
There is a nice scene of Doug Rogers doing randori free training in the Nippon Budokan. The Nippon Budokan is a huge martial arts hall in central Tokyo. It was constructed for the 1964 Olympics. Over the years it has been used for rock concerts and many artists have recorded Live at Budokan albums. The All-Japan Aikido demonstration is held there every year in May.
Long ago, before writing, you'd send someone a stone letter. A stone that suited the way you were feeling. From its weight and touch, they'd know how you felt. From a smooth stone they might get that you were happy, or from a rough one that you were worried about them. Masahiro Motoki, Departures
The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera. T S Eliot, The Four Quartets, Burnt Norton
I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading Emily Dickinson, I Felt A Funeral In My Brain
After the feast of tear-stuffed time and thistles
In a room with a stuffed fox and a stale fern,
I stand, for this memorial's sake, alone
In the snivelling hours Dylan Thomas, After The Funeral
Yet when this Victory's fame shall pass, as grand
And griefless as a rich man's funeral,
Thro' nations that look on with spell-bound eye,
While echoing plaudits ring from land to land,
Alas! will there be none among the good
And great and brave and free, to speak of all
The pale piled pestilence of flesh and blood Sydney Thompson Dobell, A Musing On A Victory
ARTICLE XXIV
1. Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective, that is to say, an object of which the destruction or injury would constitute a distinct military advantage to th
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings. Rainer Maria Rilke, The Beholder
which one of them is raw, or baked in the sun or not,
so you might get to know one who is inactive and open,
pulling him down after throwing him over from the Chersonese
after hooking his leg with yours behind his knee
then after you turn his shoulder over,
you fall heavily upon him Aristophanes, Knights
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 3
Like all who contended in the games, the Wrestlers were accustomed to rub their bodies with oil, partly to check the excessive perspiration occasioned by the heat and the violence of the exercises, and partly from an opinion that the oil gave the limbs a greater degree of pliancy and agility. As the smoothness occasioned by the oil would have prevented the combatants from grasping each other with firmness, it was customary for them, after being anointed, to roll themselves in the dust of the Stadium, or to be sprinkled with a fine sand kept for that purpose at Olympia. If in falling, one of the Wrestlers dragged his adversary along with him, the combat was continued on the ground, till one of the parties had forced the other to yield the victory. Jacob Robinson and Sidney Gilpin, Wrestling and Wrestlers
sinking sand
skin and bone
bring on the dancing horses Echo and the Bunnymen, Bring on the Dancing Horses
I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind N Scott Momaday, The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee
somewhere up there he's waiting for me
and he knows that I'm coming' for him
and I just can't rest till I find
that raven black stallion that wears no man's brand
with a wild restless spirit like mine Chris Ledoux, Caballo Diablo
Because the pleasure-bird whistles after the hot wires,
Shall the blind horse sing sweeter?
Convenient bird and beast lie lodged to suffer
The supper and knives of a mood. Dylan Thomas, Because The Pleasure-bird Whistles
Sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 3
wild wild horses
we'll ride them
someday Rolling Stones, Wild Horses
My first aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh sensei liked art. His father was an artist. Asoh sensei had some pictures of horses. You could feel their power.
There is a kind of concise Japanese proverb called yojijukugo 四字熟語 よじじゅ&
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If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems. You'll be dead a lot. Dean Smith, basketball coach
Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave, but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates and your opponents. Phil Jackson, basketball coach
This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law. Coach Herman Boone, Remember the Titans
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
As to the moral phase of judo - not to speak of the discipline of the exercise room involving the observance of the regular rules of etiquette, courage, and perseverance, kindness to and respect for others, impartiality and fair play so much emphasized in Western athletic training - judo has special importance in Japan. Jigoro Kano
The coaches beat the athletes with bamboo swords and told them to die, a senior Japanese Olympic Committee official said. They also slapped the women's cheeks, shoved their breasts and kicked them. Asahi Shimbun
Jigoro Kano developed and codified modern judo from jujutsu techniques. But he also based his vision of judo on the principles of seiryoku zenyo - jita kyoei. The most efficient u
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What I say is, patience, and shuffle the cards. Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote
A man's idea in a card game is war - cruel, devastating and pitiless. A lady's idea of it is a combination of larceny, embezzlement and burglary. Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley on Making a Will
When I look up at
The wide-stretched plain of heaven,
Is the moon the same
That rose on Mount Mikasa
In the land of Kasuga? Abe no Nakamaro, Ogura Hyakunin Isshu
Uh, is this a game of chance?
Not the way I play it, no. W C Fields, My Little Chickadee
Last weekend in a community hall near where I live there was a karuta tournament. Karuta is a traditional Japanese card game. It's often played in the new year. The word karuta comes from Portuguese.
It's partly a literary memory game and partly a reaction speed battle.
The traditional game is based on a book of waka poems called the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. It was compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirteenth century in the Ogura district of Kyoto. It is a book of one hundred poems by one hundred poets. That is a simple concept for an anthology of poetry and there is a modern anthology of English poetry called 100 Poems by 100 Poets.
Now there are also karuta with many different themes and designs. There are sets based on popular comic characters like One Piece and Doraemon and sets for studying history or Shakespeare.
There is a popular manga and animé series about karuta calle
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Something in me wanted to find out how far I could run without stopping. Jacki Hanson, U.S. marathon runner
My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band
An apple cleft in two is not more twin
Than these two creatures. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 5, scene 1
This beggar might be perhaps
An angel, Luther said. Robert Browning, The Twins
Or Basho was just envious
He may be a poet of his age
But his poems never bore
Him a son
Or a mirror of his own face Ric S Bastasa, Perhaps to Basho the twins are boring
Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses. Wells Fargo stagecoach rules[/b]
One of the new year events in Japan is the Hakone Ekiden. An ekiden is a long-distance relay road race. On 2 January the runners run to Hakone near Mount Fuji. On 3 January runners run from Hakone to Tokyo. The race is broadcast live on television over the two days. It is one of the most popular sports events in Japan.
The idea of the word ekiden is like a stagecoach. The first ekiden was held in Japan in 1917 over 500 kilometres from Kyoto to Tokyo. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper sponsored the first ekiden race. Toki Zenmaro was a poet who worked at the Yomiuri Shimbun
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Movement number 4: dragon seeks path - dragon whips tail. Bruce Lee, Way of the Dragon
Hard by the lilied Nile I saw
A duskish river-dragon stretched along,
The brown habergeon of his limbs enamelled
With sanguine alamandines and rainy pear: Thomas Lovell Beddoes, A Crocodile
In this altar-piece the knight,
Who grips his long spear so to push
That dragon through the fading light,
Loved the lady; and it's plain
The half-dead dragon was her thought,
That every morning rose again
And dug its claws and shrieked and fought. W B Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer
But each day brings its petty dust
Our soon-chok'd souls to fill,
And we forget because we must,
And not because we will. Matthew Arnold, Absence
I had to spend many years losing my spirit, to unlearn thinking again, to forget the oneness. Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
Well, but something sure is wrong
'Cause I'm so blue and lonely
I forgot to remember to forget Elvis Presley, I Forgot to Remember to Forget
Japan in December is the time for parties for the end of the year. In Japanese they are called bonenkai. Parties to forget the year. Companies have them. Neighbourhoods have them. And of course dojos have them. Many people have to go to several.
So the bonenkai is the chance to forget all the bad things of the last year. It's a nice idea. If you forget all the bad things that happened during the year
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You better cross over
You better walk humble
Or you're gonna stumble
And Satan is waitin' to take your hand
You walk on the wild side Brook Benton, Walk on the Wild Side
Hey babe
Take a walk on the wild side Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform
into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street Denise Levertov, O Taste and See
He wore but a thin
Wind-thridded suit,
Yet well-shaped shoes for walking in,
Artistic beaver, cane gold-topped.
"Alas, my friend," he said with a smile,
"I am daily bound to foot ten mile -
Wet, dry, or dark - before I rest. Thomas Hardy, The Pedestrian
You meet him on the corners,
in bus stations, on the blind avenues
leading neither in
nor out of hell, you meet him
and with him you walk. Thomas Lux, Pedestrian
And we'll start the driving lessons when you've mastered the walking bit. Gregory's Girl
Japanese samurai used to walk in a special way. It's not a natural movement. You have to learn it. As you walk you swing your arm forward on the same side as your foot. It's called namba walking. I'll write about it in more detail another time.
I ride a bicycle most days. Today a young woman stepped into the road in front of me without looking. Yesterday a woman on a bicycle rode out in front of me without looking. Some Japanese people are perhaps a little vague about the rules of the road. ...More
04-17-2013 07:27 PM 
