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JUDO The fight style that we now call Judo was created in the year 1882. A 23-year-old young man called Jigoro Kano founded the Kodokan Institute, which is considered the Mecca of the martial art teachings. With thousands of judo practitioners and federations spread all over the world, Judo became one of the most practiced sports, representing a niche of loyal and well-defined market. Not restraining its practitioners to strong men, and expanding its teachings to women, children and old people, Judo has had a significant raise in the number of lovers of this noble art. Judo's philosophy is to integrate body and mind. Its technique uses the muscles and the reasoning speed to dominate the opponent. Master Kano used the following words to define the fight: "Art in which the physical and spiritual strength are used to the maximum." The victory, still according to its founder and master, represents a spiritual strengthening. In the gyms, something beyond fighting and body contact is passed on. To become a good fighter, first of all, it is necessary to be a great human being. Eisei Maeda brought judo to Brazil in 1922. The Count of Koma, as he was also known, did his first presentation in Porto Alegre. He went on presenting the art in the states of Rio and São Paulo, later moving to Para, where his knowledge of the noble art became popular. Other masters also did exhibitions and accepted challenges in public places. But it was a tough beginning for a sport that would later become so spread. An important factor for the ascent of Judo was the arrival of a Japanese group to the country in 1938. They had, as leader, teacher Riuzo Ogawa and he founded the Ogawa Academy, with the object of improving the physical, moral and spiritual culture, through the kimono sport. From this moment on the culture and teachings of Master Jigoro Kano were passed on and on March 3rd, 1969 the Brazilian Judo Confederation was founded, being recognized by decree in 1972. Nowadays it is taught in gymnasiums and clubs and it is known as a healthy sport that is not related to violence. An Olympic sport of great prestige and very disputed, it has in Brazil a 'nest' of good judo practitioners, making the country well known and admired internationally, even in Japan. For being a sport of national triumphs, it has 'its mark' associated to success. Judo, an excellent business: A sport of principles, also considered an art, a philosophy of life, admired, respected, victorious and of great prestige. Who does not want to have its brand associated to something with such noble concepts? Olympic Games Brazilians that won medals: 1988 - Seoul, Korea: Aurélio Miguel - Heavyweight - Gold; 1992 - Barcelona, Spain: Rogério Sampaio - Lightweight - Gold; 1972 - Munich, Germany: Chiaki Ishii - Half Heavyweight - Bronze; 1984 - Los Angeles, United States: Walter Carmona - Middleweight - Bronze; Luís Onmura - Lightweight - Bronze; 1996 - Atlanta, United States: Aurélio Miguel - Half Heavyweight - Bronze; Henrique Guimarães - Half Lightweight - Bronze. Source: Brazilian Judo Confederation KUNG-FU Kung-Fu is an ancient expression that, generically, in the Cantonese dialect, meant "time and effort spent in an activity" or "achieved perfection level in any acting area" or still "deep knowledge of a subject". In the 70s this Cantonese expression, used to call the Chinese martial arts, became known all over the world through martial arts films. However, the grammatically correct expression to define martial art is WUSHU, which comes from Mandarin (remember that, after 1945, Mao Tse Tung declared Mandarin the official Chinese language). Somebody might ask: why was 'Kung Fu" chosen instead of "KUOSHU" or "WUSHU" to represent the Martial Art? Very simple: the first Chinese immigrants were from Canton, that, as said before, is a region in the south of China by the seaside. The access to the sea by these immigrants was easier than to other regions of China. These people spread all over the world: Europe, Africa, Oceania and Americas, to try to make a living and to have better life conditions than they had in their country. They were the only ones that could understand the Chinese language, because it was a difficult language. In their everyday life, they always reserved some time to practice the movements of the fighting exercise that they had learnt in China. Other times, they were chased for being of oriental origins and starting fights. Although they seemed to be slender and weak they won fights against bigger and stronger men. Evidently, this caused surprise in the local habitants of any country. What technique was it that such tiny man could easily beat any big guy? As they were curious, people asked the Chinese how they called this technique, this 'weird thing' that they knew so well. Here began the confusion of idioms. The Chinese wanted to explain that, to know such movements, it was necessary lots of practice, dedicate some hours a day for these techniques, in short, that it was an arduous work to get such physical condition for fighting. So, as they did not have enough vocabulary to talk, they simply answered: "It's Kung Fu" (that meant: hard work to be good at it, or simply know how to do it) and that was all. On the other hand, people started to think that those Cantonese Chinese practiced a fight called Kung Fu. Therefore, thanks to those first immigrants from the south of China, the name Kung Fu was spread all over the world. The Kung-Fu pioneers in Brazil. From 1959 on, the first Chinese Grand Masters disembarked in Brazil coming from Canton (a province in the south of China and Hong Kong). They began their teachings with a lot of difficulties, mainly due to the language and the Brazilian culture, first with private classes at home, then in community centers and finally opening their own gyms where most of them continue until today. The pioneers in Brazil were the Grand Masters Wong Sun Keung (Tai Chi Chuan), Chan Kowk Wai (North Shaolin - Bak Siu Lum) and Chiu Ping Lok (South Shaolin - Fei Hok Phai). In 1971, Master Li Wing Kay arrived in São Paulo, representing the Claw of the Eagle Style, (Jen Jiao Fan Tzi). In 1979, Master Li Hon Kay arrived, representing the Hung Gar Style and Wing Chun. In 1980 the Shen She Chuen Style begins to be taught in Brazil under the supervision of Master Hu Chao Tien, Master Hu Shi Wen's son. Source: Paulista Kung Fu Federation TAEKWONDO Nowadays, the sports of oriental fights are very popular among us. Occidental people have joined the so called Martial Arts, like Kung Fu from China, Karate and Judo from Japan, Taekwondo and Hapkido from Korea and capoeira from Brazil. In primitive times, no matter where they lived, men had to develop personal techniques of fighting to get their food and to defend against the enemies, including wild animals. They had to invent effective weapons for defense and to make life easier. Even after the invention of the weapons, men never stopped developing body and mind, through the practice of various martial or sports modalities, specially as religious rituals. Taekwondo, whose translation means the art of using feet and hands for fighting, appeared in Korea approximately 2000 years ago. It is considered to be the oldest martial art, having probably originated or influenced in the creation of the others, according to some historical documents and pictures found in graves and walls in that country (Korea). The origin of Taekwondo has its beginning at the time of the Koguryo Dynasty (that goes from 37 BC to 427 AD). In that time Korea was divided into three kingdoms: Silla, Koguryo and Baek je. Silla, that was the smallest of them, was constantly invaded and looted by the two kingdoms and, during the reign of Chin Heung, the young aristocrats and the militaries formed an elite troop called Hwa Rang-Do. Similar to the samurais in Japan and the knights of the Middle Age, in the occident, this troop of warriors, in addition to the normal spear, bow and sword practice, they also learned mental and physical discipline and many other ways of fighting with the feet and the hands, like Sôo-Bak, and others. To make their bodies stronger they climbed steep mountains, swam in turbulent rivers in the cold months, concentrated ruthlessly on the task of defending their land. Their honor code or spirit of Hwa Rang-do consisted of 5 items: 1-Obey the King 2-Respect the country 3-Loyalty to the friends 4-Never go back before the enemy 5-Killing only when extremely necessary The Hwa Rang-do commander was General Kim Yu Shin and Taekwondo appeared officially in that time, in the city of Surabul, with the name of Taekyon (kick jumping). Surabul is now called Kyung-ju. Some historians consider Taekwondo much older, because Taekyon was the perfection of many other ancient fights, among which is Sôo Bak. Pictures on walls found in the ruins of graves from the Koguryo Dynasty show scenes of Sôo Bak practice. In 1935, a group of Japanese archaeologists, searching one of these tombs found a picture that represented two men, face to face, in Sôo Bak position. Referring to this and other pictures, the Japanese historian, Tatashi Saito, in his book Study of the Ancient Korean Culture, says the following: "the time of the construction of the tombs was from 3 BC to 427 AD, period in which the province of Hwan-do remained as the capital of Koguryo. We can infer that the Korean people practiced Taekwondo in those days. Some people believed that Taekwondo had originated from Kung-Fu, the Chinese art of self defense. According to manuscripts, it is believed that such art has had its origin, as a kind of physical exercise, when the famous Buddhist monk, Daruma Daesao, taught the monks from Xaolim, Buddhist temple in the county of Tungpung, in the province of Ho-Nam, in China. Daruma arrived by the year 520 AD and spent nine years there, in the Xaolim temple, where he introduced the practice of Kung-Fu, that means study, wisdom, ability, or martial art. Having in mind that those Taekwondo pictures found in the tombs date from the period between 3 and 427 AD, we conclude that it is impossible for Taekwondo to have its origin in Chinese Kung-Fu. Others think that Taekwondo is a style or variety of Karate. There are two currents. One says that, a Chinese master, called Chem Yuan Pin, that had lived at the end of the Song Dynasty, had been naturalized Japanese and that he had taught Kung-Fu techniques to the people from that country. The other says that, Karate is a developed way of the Okinawa-te, fight practiced by the habitants of Okinawa. The origin of the Okinawa-te is also unknown. The historical records of the Chosum Dynasty say that people sent from the islands (Okinawa) came, frequently, to pay taxes to the kings of Chosun (Korea). In that time, as seen before, Sôo Bak (a primitive form of Taekwondo) had great popularity, and it is licit to suppose that the people sent from Okinawa had learnt Sôo Bak and introduced it in their country. Such speculation is more logical when we remember that Nul (folkloric modality) was equally adopted, under the same conditions, by the people of Okinawa. All these facts show that Taekwondo is not only a technique that came from Korea, it has also developed independently during a long historical time. Karate got more projection and popularity because Korea was invaded and occupied by Japan from 1909 and 1945. During these 36 years of Japanese occupation, all the Korean culture remained stagnated, for the invaders prohibited the practice of Taekwondo, besides other arts. It was in this period that Karate began to be spread around the world, being introduced in Korea in 1921. When Japan was defeated on the Second World War (1945) the Korean people went back to the practice of Taekyon ostentatiously (because they had not stopped practicing it clandestinely) and ten years later join efforts with a group led by General Choi Hong Hi, and after a lot of desistance, they finally get to unite, in 1955, various schools and styles, adopting the name of Taekwondo. And that is explained in the following way: Taekwondo was created for the defense of the country and its philosophy was not fighting. This was used just as the last alternative. But, as Karate and other sports motivated the public through tournaments and championships, Taekwondo directors, with the intention of promoting it, began to create competitions. The 1st Taekwondo Championship of the world took place in 1964, in Korea. Source: Gaucha Taekwondo Federation HAPKIDO In the beginning, Martial Arts were already practiced not only for the physical exercise of the monks, but by some people fighting for their goals. In this same way, some time ago, the country that we now know as Korea, was divided into three kingdoms: Silla, Koguryo and Paekche. Among the conflicts of these three kingdoms, they all had the practice of Martial Arts in common. These arts continued being practiced and developed till our days, suffering great influence of their neighbor countries, like China and Japan. One of the people that had great influence in the development of the Korean Martial Arts was Young Sul Choi. Born in 1904 in Chung Buk (Korea), orphan at a young age, was taken to Japan and adopted as a student by one of the greatest Masters in that time: Sokaku Takeda. Takeda was the great Master of the Datoryu Aikijujutsu Style (practiced, conducted and spread until today, by the Takeda family). This style has also contributed to the development of another Japanese Martial Art, Aikido. After more than 30 years of training, Choi decided to return to his country, taking all his knowledge in his baggage. Therefore, with all the existing structure of the Korean styles, always having kicks as a strong characteristic, plus the arsenal from Young Sul Choi, style names appear as Hapkikwonsul, Yusul and finally Hapkido. There are diverging lines when we ask who the founder of Hapkido was. Some attribute to Young Sul Choi and others to Han Jae Ji. It is important to say that Choi was Ji's teacher. But, we can see the situation from different angles. The great Korean Martial Arts scholar, Dr. Kimm He-Young, after years of research, tells us: "We can take both positions by saying that Choi lit the match, but who made the fire was Ji" Source: Brazilian Hapkido Institute AIKIDO In Japan, since ancient times, people thought that strength, beauty and correction were the necessary elements for the ideal way of life. Aikido expresses these elements through body movements. The only use of strength causes aggression. Beauty itself serves no purpose. When we look for strength joined with beauty, we reach correction. Being correct means being according to the laws of nature. Also, everything that is correct is beautiful and strong. In Aikido, we practice every day how to be correct. One technique to be efficient, is necessary the correction of movements. Moving the correct way means moving the natural way, with natural feelings. Having natural feelings means banning bad feelings, like: wrath, fear, sadness and anger, and accept the good feelings. Usually, martial art is considered a violent thing that aims to hurt the other, being useful only as a self-defense way, but in reality, what is aimed is the training to be able to keep the correct feelings even under extreme situations, as in a combat. The founder of Aikido, after training several martial arts, noticed that the true strength is in the correct feeling. After proving this in practice, he developed a training way, thus, creating Aikido. In Aikido there are no competitions. That's because a competition prizes for the strongest, leaving aside beauty and correction. Aikido is an exercise for the whole body. Muscles that are not used in our every day life are used, including those near internal organs. We can say that it is a way to massage the whole body. Many techniques that exercise the joints of the body are used in a way to improve blood circulation that tends to decrease at these points. Using the Aikido techniques is very simple. With the right use of the inferior limbs, even women and children can throw big men. That's because with the use of natural movements, power from nature comes to help. We call this power KI. In Aikido it is not necessary to practice grabbing your partner, being possible to practice between opposite sexes or in family, in a pleasant way. Aikido was created based on ancient ways of martial arts, adapted to modern times. It is the martial side of the spiritual exaltation of supreme correction observed in the Japanese culture. Practice Aikido correctly and open the door for the infinite power of the great nature. Source: Paulista Aikido Federation. |
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