Thread: Bowing
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Old 02-11-2002, 02:36 AM   #51
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
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[quote]Originally posted by Peter Goldsbury
[b]I have a bad feeling about a judge passing a judgement compelling people to bow in a dojo as a point of law.

A few further comments.

I have listened to the interview and noted the suggestion that bowing in judo is apparently shinto religious ritual. Okumura Shigenobu Sensei (9th dan Aikikai shihan) wrote somewhere that there was a kamidana at the Aikikai Hombu before the war. This was removed after the war, partly because prewar state Shinto had fallen into disrepute and also because the decision had been made to make aikido available to everybody, including non-Japanese. The practice of bowing before the kamiza was kept, but as a sign of respect and no longer had any religious significance.

During my daily life & activities here in Hiroshima I am bowed to, and bow back, probably a dozen times each day. I really do not think it is a Shinto ritual. It is a kind of greeting, a sign of respect, and a hangover of something that used to have more significance.

On the other hand, the Japanese do get very upset about honoring / not honouring criminals / patriots among the war dead at the Yasukuni Shrine and I could well imagine a Japanese person, possibly with memories about the war, getting upset on being told that bowing in judo was required as a Shinto ritual. Perhaps the court action was a typical response to the rigid attitude being displayed.

My unease is that the judge appears to have ruled that bowing was not a Shinto ritual, but was nevertheless required because it was part and parcel of 'non-religious' judo practice. To my mind this places unusual stress on the outer form at the expense of the inner attitude that the form is a sign of.

Best regards,

P A Goldsbury
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