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Old 04-29-2009, 01:18 PM   #14
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,511
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Re: A question on Mochizuki

Quote:
Clark Bateman wrote: View Post
This type of translation project is exactly what I and other language-challenged folks need... Why don't you guys collaborate and do this thing? The current development of on-demand publishing makes it very doable, at minimal financial investment. These stories need to be transmitted and preserved. I would be first in line to add your new book to my collection. Please let me know if you need to contact some POD publishers for more info...
When I lived at the yoseikan hombu in Shizuoka, Mochizuki Sensei wanted me to help him write a book. I told him he should have Nihon Den Jujutsu translated into English but he indicated that that would not be possible due to the agreement he had with the publishing company that produced it. He paid to have the book printed and apparently barely broke even on selling the books and he couldn't afford to do it again and he also couldn't take it to another publisher. But when we worked on his new book, we put a lot of effort into translating the front section of Nihon Den Jujutsu into English. There was some very interesting material in there and a lot of it was really funny. For instance, in one part, he told of meeting a Chinese martial artist who wanted to fight him with a bo against Mochizuki's bokken. Sensei said that the fellow started spinning the bo above his head "like a helicopter" and Sensei just stood waiting with his bokken until he saw an opportunity and he just stepped in and smacked the fellow on the head with his bokken. He said he put a knot "like an egg on top of his bald head." And there was a story about a guy in France who wouldn't come to his judo classes but spoke badly of him in public and who one day just showed up at his apartment and demanded to "fight right here, right now," on the sidewalk. Mochizuki agreed and the started into judo randori on the sidewalk. He said the guy had good timing and rhythm, good technique and strength, but at one point Mochizuki (former uchi-deshi to Mifune) saw his opening and moved in with uchi mata gaeshi (inner thigh reversal), swept the guy off his feet and threw him with so much force that Mochizuki himself came off his own feet and the two of them crashed to the sidewalk with Mochizuki on top (what else?). He carried the Frenchman up three flights of stairs on his back and put him in his bed and massaged his back. The guy couldn't get up for something like three weeks and no one knew where he was. He had just disappeared. The rumor started going around that Mochizuki had killed the guy. But finally, the guy got better and he became "a dear student" to Mochizuki.

Various problems arose with this translation. I worked on it with an Italian uchi deshi and a Japanese uchi deshi. A Japanese professor said that the English version I produced was excellent and I got a commitment from Charles Tuttle to publish the book when Alex Kask and Nick Ingleton were running the Tokyo office. This would have given Sensei an advance and would have paid him royalties, which would have continued to his family after he was gone. But some things were going on behind the scenes in the dojo and the whole project was called off in favor of another Japanese edition of a book and a two-part video set by a Japanese company in Tokyo. It was disappointing, to say the least. And as far as I know, no competent translator has ever produced a full translation of Nihon Den Jujutsu or any major part of it since that time. If anyone ever does fully translate it, I'd love to see a copy.

Best to all.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com
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