Latest / Spotlight English: Advanced / Fukuda Sensei: Strong and Gentle (Advanced Program)
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Andrew Davis.
- 0:08Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method
- 0:13Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
- 0:17Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
- 0:29Speaker 1: A small woman bows. She stands opposite a man. He
- 0:34Speaker 1: is much larger than she is. They both stand on
- 0:38Speaker 1: a large square mat. The woman wears a white shirt
- 0:43Speaker 1: and white trousers. She has a red belt around her waist.
- 0:49Speaker 1: The man steps towards her and holds her wrist. The
- 0:53Speaker 1: small woman moves her body quickly. The man lands on
- 0:57Speaker 1: the mat on his back. Up again, the woman flips
- 1:02Speaker 1: him over onto the floor. How can such a small
- 1:06Speaker 1: woman do this?
- 1:09Speaker 2: This woman is an expert in judo. Judo is a
- 1:12Speaker 2: martial art. It is a structured kind of fighting. People
- 1:16Speaker 2: practice these styles of fighting as an art form. This
- 1:21Speaker 2: little woman is one of the most famous judo experts.
- 1:25Speaker 2: She is a sense a master teacher. Today's Spotlight is
- 1:31Speaker 2: on sense kaiko fukuda.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Judo began in Japan. It is a combat sport. In
- 1:44Speaker 1: these sports, two people usually compete against each other. They
- 1:50Speaker 1: take turns attacking and defending. But in judo people do
- 1:54Speaker 1: not use violence. To win. Judo is based on using
- 1:59Speaker 1: an attacker's violence against themselves. Experts in judo train for
- 2:04Speaker 1: many years to learn to do this. They use special
- 2:08Speaker 1: moves to throw opponents to the ground, and they also
- 2:12Speaker 1: have to learn how to fall without getting hurt.
- 2:21Speaker 2: Keiko Fukuda's family was very important in martial arts. Her
- 2:26Speaker 2: grandfather taught a different sport called jiujutsu. One of his
- 2:31Speaker 2: students was a man named Jigoro Kano. In eighteen eighty two,
- 2:36Speaker 2: Kano created a new form of martial art from jujitsu.
- 2:41Speaker 2: He named it judo. This means the gentle way in Japanese.
- 2:47Speaker 1: The main idea of judo was that gentleness can control strength.
- 2:53Speaker 1: Judo teaches that people can use less effort to get
- 2:57Speaker 1: a greater result. Jigoro can wrote a book about judo.
- 3:02Speaker 1: In it, he describes judo this way.
- 3:06Speaker 3: Using force against a more powerful opponent will result in
- 3:12Speaker 3: your defeat, but moving and avoiding your opponent attack will
- 3:19Speaker 3: cause him to lose his balance. Then his power will
- 3:25Speaker 3: be reduced and you will defeat him. This can apply
- 3:32Speaker 3: even with differences in power, so it is possible for
- 3:38Speaker 3: weaker people to beat much stronger ones.
- 3:44Speaker 2: Kano's ideas were not just about combat. He believed practicing
- 3:49Speaker 2: judo would focus a person's mind and body. A person
- 3:54Speaker 2: could become skilled practicing judo, but they would also become
- 3:58Speaker 2: a better person through its discipline. Judo's final goal is
- 4:03Speaker 2: to improve society by improving its people.
- 4:10Speaker 1: Being good at judo depends on skill and training. A
- 4:14Speaker 1: person's size is not important. This was very good for Kiko.
- 4:19Speaker 1: For Kuda, she was only one hundred and twenty five
- 4:23Speaker 1: centimeters tall and she only weighed about forty five kilograms,
- 4:28Speaker 1: but she became the most famous female judo expert in
- 4:32Speaker 1: the world.
- 4:36Speaker 2: Fukuda began her judo training in nineteen thirty four. At
- 4:40Speaker 2: that time, Jigoro Kano started a new judo school for women.
- 4:45Speaker 2: Fukuda explained what happened in the documentary film Missus Judo.
- 4:51Speaker 4: I was twenty one years old at this time. Maws
- 4:55Speaker 4: Kano said to me, we have a new women judo section,
- 5:00Speaker 4: therefore please come. When I had that, there was nothing
- 5:05Speaker 4: left to a question.
- 5:07Speaker 1: Judo soon became the most important part of for Kuda's life.
- 5:12Speaker 1: She practiced judo through many difficulties. At the time, Japan
- 5:17Speaker 1: was fighting in World War II, Tokyo was very dangerous.
- 5:22Speaker 1: Bombs often fell throughout the city. But for Kuda was
- 5:27Speaker 1: determined to learn. She traveled across Tokyo every day to
- 5:32Speaker 1: practice and teach judo.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Fukuda gave up many things to do judo. She even
- 5:40Speaker 2: chose not to have a husband and family. Fukuda knew
- 5:45Speaker 2: that without a husband people would not give her as
- 5:48Speaker 2: much respect. But she also knew that she could not
- 5:51Speaker 2: do judo if she had a husband, so she made
- 5:55Speaker 2: a very difficult choice. She said in an interview on
- 6:00Speaker 2: judoinfo dot com.
- 6:03Speaker 4: Judo is my lifetime partner. Judo is my family. Anyway
- 6:08Speaker 4: I go, students are very nice to me. I have
- 6:14Speaker 4: family all over the world.
- 6:21Speaker 1: There were also other difficulties for women in judo. For
- 6:25Speaker 1: many years, women could not move up to the higher
- 6:29Speaker 1: levels of judo. Judo levels are called dans. Students wear
- 6:35Speaker 1: different colored cloth belts around their waists. Each color represents
- 6:40Speaker 1: for a different level of ability.
- 6:43Speaker 2: The highest level belt color is black. There are ten
- 6:48Speaker 2: degrees or dans. In the black belt. Very few people
- 6:53Speaker 2: reach the tenth level. Less than forty people have achieved
- 6:57Speaker 2: this rank. To be a tenth day, a person must
- 7:01Speaker 2: do more than be good in judo skills, they must
- 7:05Speaker 2: give something to the art form of judo. This could
- 7:10Speaker 2: be teaching students or writing a book.
- 7:15Speaker 1: When Fakuda was training, the Judo Institute had some different
- 7:19Speaker 1: rules for women. Women could not go higher than the
- 7:23Speaker 1: fifth dan. By this time, Kiko for Kuda was one
- 7:28Speaker 1: of the greatest experts in judo. She knew it was
- 7:32Speaker 1: not fair that she could not move to a higher dan,
- 7:36Speaker 1: but Fakuda continued to practice judo. She became a sense
- 7:41Speaker 1: a master teacher. She wrote books and taught around the world.
- 7:50Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty six, Fukuda was in California in the
- 7:55Speaker 2: United States. People at Mills College saw her judo demistration
- 8:01Speaker 2: and they quickly offered her a teaching job. Fukuda took
- 8:06Speaker 2: this position and moved to the US. Later, she opened
- 8:10Speaker 2: her own judo school in California. Fukuda taught there for
- 8:15Speaker 2: over forty years. She encouraged people who did judo. She
- 8:21Speaker 2: especially inspired young women. Fukuda also continued to travel around
- 8:26Speaker 2: the world. She did this even when she grew older.
- 8:30Speaker 2: In the film Missus Judo, Fukuda told this story.
- 8:36Speaker 4: I went to France to teach judo. People gave us
- 8:39Speaker 4: from all over the country, but I heard they were
- 8:43Speaker 4: not sure about what a navy old woman could offer.
- 8:48Speaker 4: Dave became sure when I showed them all forty throwing techniques.
- 8:54Speaker 1: Fakuda sense also led a movement for women in judo.
- 9:00Speaker 1: They wanted to be able to reach the higher dans.
- 9:04Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, the Judo Institute changed the rules.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Now women had no limits in judo. Over time, for
- 9:14Speaker 1: Kuda moved up to the ninth Dan. Then, in twenty eleven,
- 9:19Speaker 1: for Kuda's dream came true. USA Judo awarded her the
- 9:25Speaker 1: tenth Dan. She was ninety eight years old.
- 9:35Speaker 2: For many years, she continued to teach judo three times
- 9:39Speaker 2: each week, host an annual judo competition, and teach at
- 9:43Speaker 2: the Joshi Judo Camp until her death at age ninety nine.
- 9:48Speaker 2: She lived with her personal motto, well, be strong, be gentle,
- 9:53Speaker 2: be beautiful in mind, body and spirit.
- 9:59Speaker 1: Do you practice martial arts? Have you seen people practice judo?
- 10:05Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
- 10:10Speaker 1: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
- 10:14Speaker 1: on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and x.
- 10:20Speaker 2: The writers of this program were Rina dam and Dan Chrisman.
- 10:25Speaker 2: The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were
- 10:29Speaker 2: from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes
- 10:34Speaker 2: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This
- 10:38Speaker 2: program is called Fukuda Sense Strong and Gentle.
- 10:44Speaker 1: You can also get our programs delivered directly to your
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- 10:54Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
- 10:57Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye Dull Day through Time