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Old 01-09-2013, 05:00 PM   #16
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
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Re: religious terminology in martial arts and implication

Quote:
Ellis Amdur wrote: View Post
A modern - but very primitive - version of this are the Mai - Mai in Zaire - who are a combination of outlaw and militia - many of whom believe that magic water keeps them from being invulnerable to bullets. They get shot. But they charge enemy positions and overwhelm them as well, because unlike a reasonable man or woman, they do irimi in the face of death.

Ellis Amdur
I wonder if there was a similar type of belief among Japanese soldiers during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Japanese were laying siege to Port Arthur. Not a belief in the properties of magic water, but in the invulnerability of Japanese fighting spirit and Yamato damashii (occasionally used by Morihei Ueshiba in his discourses). This had to suffice in any case, because the Japanese could not produce enough ammunition to satisfy the demands of the army.

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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