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Old 10-24-2013, 03:57 AM   #69
TokyoZeplin
Dojo: Seishinkan Dojo
Location: Copenhagen
Join Date: Jun 2012
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Re: Can you truly understand budo without training in Japan?

Quote:
Carsten Möllering wrote: View Post
"aikidō is japanese and will allways be." a shihan.
"I can teach you only a part of what I know. Because you are not Japanese. You are not able to understand." a shihan.
"You will never be able to learn aikidō because foreigners are not able to form the japanese sounds correctly." a shihan
...
I should add, that this is a fairly typical Japanese mentality, not restricted to Aikido or Martial Arts in particular. This mentality is often referred to as "Nihonjinron" - that Japan, and ethnically Japanese people, are "uniquely unique".
Other examples of this, is that "you can never learn to be Japanese", that "Japan is the only country with 4 seasons" (I've actually met people that told me this, with a straight face), that "Japanese people used to walk differently than the rest of the world", and so forth.

It is, frankly, silly to say the least, and is a big part of the discrimination that half-Japanese children and foreigners face in the country.

I just wanted to point out, for those who don't know, that this has nothing in particular to do with Aikido, but is more a Japanese mentality all around.

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