The Art of Judo: The Spirit of Summer

By Nicolas Messner on 21. Nov 2018

For the second episode of its series 'the Art of Judo', the International Judo Federation focused on the passion for the sport in the country where it was born in 1882, after a young man, Jigoro Kano, discovered all that he could bring to the society of his country and by extension to the society of the whole world.

After dedicating the first episode to the founder of Judo himself (https://youtu.be/q5epM-h7Cx8), the IJF, in partnership with the All Japan Judo Federation (AJJF) and Kodokan, shone its cameras on the small community of the Goto Islands in the East China Sea. Isolated and close to nature, the inhabitants of Goto are nevertheless attached to judo. The youngest, for example, collect bottles from old people for recycling. This they generate income that allows them to travel to competitions away from their base.

In this episode, you will discover, on the background of an interview with Yasuhiro Yamashita, judo legend, member of the IJF Executive Committee and President of AJJF, how the Kinshuki National High School Judo Tournament in Fukuoka has become a must-attend event and how it helps the development of judo throughout the Japanese archipelago. Akira Sone, who has participated and won this tournament two years in a row and is one of the great Olympic hopefuls of Japan, leads us into the corridors of her high school and explains her passion for judo.

In the introduction, you can also learn from the words of Akiko Amano, international referee, regularly on the world circuit and the first female director of one of the largest fireworks companies in Japan. She details the commonalities between her profession and sport and how the judo values have been able to help in an exclusively male professional world.

Thanks to these different portraits and through the colorful festivals that punctuate the warm months in Japan, you will discover this 'Spirit of Summer', this passion which has contributed, and continues to do so, to the radiance of judo at the very heart of its native country but also around the world.

As the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo are fast approaching, 'The Art of Judo' is a series of four episodes (one per year) produced by the International Judo Federation and entirely dedicated to judo in Japan. The first episode filmed in autumn 2017 was devoted to Jigoro Kano. This second film focuses on the passion of an entire people for the sport. The third episode to be shot in January 2019 will focus on the mental dimension of judo.