sports

sumo

Sumo is a traditional combative Japanese sport that is well known throughout the world. Most rikishi (Sumo wrestlers) are professional competitors weighing 100 to 200 kg.

Rules are simple compared to western-style wrestling: two competitors wearing mawashi (silk belts) fight in a ring 4.5m in diameter and placed on a square mound. When any part of a competitor’s body, except the sole of the feet, touches the ground or goes out of the ring, he loses the bout.

kendo

Kendo, the “Way Of The Sword” is the traditional Japanese style of fencing that today is a modern martial art practised throughout the world. As the roots of kendo can be traced to early Samurai time and later on to the studying of Bushido - the “Way of the Samurai” - knowledge of the past is a determining factor to really understand the meaning of Kendo.

karate

Though arguably one of world's most famous martial arts, karate's beginnings are somewhat hazy. Often thought of as Japanese, the earliest antecedents of karate are said to have originated as far away as the Indian Subcontinent.

From there it passed into China, where it was developed and refined. Chinese traders brought these fighting skills to the Ryukyu Islands as early as the fourteenth century. Now incorporated in what is known as Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, the Ryukyus were once an independent kingdom with a culture completely distinct from that of Japan. It was here that karate as we know it today was developed.

Aikido

Aikido is sometimes loosely translated to mean "way of the harmonious spirit". It is a less overtly aggressive martial art that focuses on defence by redirecting the power and energy of the attacker, with the ideal outcome that neither the attacked nor the attacker is harmed.

judo

Of all of Japan's martial arts, Judo is perhaps the one that has spread most successfully around the world. The essence lies in the speed, subtlety and skill of using the size and strength of the opponent against themselves.