Читать книгу The Fighting Spirit of Japan - E. J. Harrison - Страница 9

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Under the general heading of kubigatame, or necklocks, the Kano School of Judo has a very extensive repertoire of effective methods of choking an obstreperous adversary into submission, and unless surrender comes in the nick of time the victim will infallibly lose consciousness. Although the recital in the absence of a photographic commentary must be little better than a Chinese alphabet for the majority, as the Russian saw has it, I may mention the namijiujijime (literally “normal cross”, the Japanese equivalent for the word “cross” being “sign of ten”), gyakujujijime (reverse cross), katajujijime (half-cross), hadakajime (naked stranglehold), okurierijime (sliding collar lock) and sodeguruma (sleeve-wheel). Many more could be cited but as this is not a textbook the foregoing will suffice.

It must be well within the recollection of any ordinary reader of the newspapers and of fiction that the would-be descriptive, picturesque writer not infrequently indulges in heroics when it comes to dealing with the sensations of an individual undergoing strangulation, while the question whether or not our common form of capital punishment is the most humane one possible in the circumstances also occasionally furnishes food for lengthy polemics. It so happens that I am in a position to write intelligently on the subject of strangulation for the simple reason that I personally have been choked into insensibility, and have scores of friends and acquaintances who have undergone a similar experience. I will say, and they will say that being choked by a competent hand is per se a bagatelle not worth making a fuss over. Indeed, beyond the preliminary sensations, as in the case of being chloroformed—another of my personal experiences—the sensation is rather pleasant than otherwise and if the victim is intelligently revived by means of katsu—a method of resuscitation afforded by the overall system termed Kappo—he feels as fit as ever five minutes afterwards. So lightly do the Japanese practitioners of judo and jujutsu regard strangling that apart from those accidental cases which are bound to occur quite frequently during judo contests, it is the time-honoured custom to choke deliberately all newly appointed shodan, or students of the art who hold the lowest teaching grade, the outward symbol of which is the black obi or belt. The idea at the bottom of this seemingly cold-blooded procedure is both to steel the victim’s nerves and round off his experience, as it were, and to afford the newly promoted members an opportunity of putting into practice certain forms of kappo which are demonstrated by an expert teacher before the strangulation takes place.

THE BUTOKUKAI KYOTO

THREE FAMOUS FENCING MASTERS

My particular friend of those early days, D. T. Weed, already mentioned, first underwent the above experience and afterwards furnished me with an account thereof which, I think, makes interesting reading.

Weed first practised the art at the dojo of Keio University, Tokyo, the instructor of which was the famous Iizuka, then holder of the sixth-grade (rokudan) but years later promoted to the highest grade of judan (tenth-grade). Of stature somewhat below the average even for a Japanese, he was built on the lines of a miniature Hercules, and although in those days some thirty-seven or thirty-eight years of age, was still more than a match for the strongest and most expert of his pupils ten and fifteen years younger. Shortly after his promotion together with some ten others Weed attended the customary lecture and strangulation ceremony—if it may be so called—at the private residence of Mr. Fukuzawa, the son of the revered founder of Keio University, Yukichi Fukuzawa. Mr. Iizuka delivered the lecture which dealt generally with the ethical aspects of judo and this was followed by a demonstration of specific methods of kappa, the art of resuscitation, and finally by the choking of all eleven shodan and their speedy restoration to consciousness by the application of the appropriate katsu the details of which every initiate was under the most solemn pledge never to reveal to outsiders. It should perhaps be added that since those days the veil of mystery wherein kappo was then shrouded has been largely lifted and anybody interested can now buy for himself in several European languages quite reliable printed descriptions of these methods. The proceedings were so arranged that every new shodan alternately choked a colleague, was choked by another, and revived a third by the application of the special katsu which had shortly before been illustrated either by Mr. Iizuka or some other high-class yudansha present. The room in which the ceremony was performed was of course in Japanese style and matted, and the shodan participating in these experiments wore the usual keikogi or practice garments, also called judogi, as most suitable for such an occasion.

Weed was asked by Mr. Iizuka whether he had ever been deliberately choked outside an actual judo contest. On receiving a negative reply Mr. Iizuka cheerfully rejoined, “Well, in that case you had better go through with it; otherwise you cannot regard yourself as a full-fledged judoka.”

Affecting an air of easy nonchalance, which, he cheerfully confessed, was very far from being a faithful reflection of his true state of mind, Weed lay down on his back, and the famous expert, having secured a good hold in the katajujijime style, in which the loose collar of the upper garment is tightly constricted against the depression below the Adam’s apple by the dual motion of pressing against it with the right hand and pulling the left lapel of the jacket downwards with the left hand, deftly dispatched Weed into the land of nod in forty seconds by actual watch count. Weed informed me however that he lost consciousness after the timekeeper had counted eleven, this being the last sound he heard, but his legs and arms continued to move convulsively for twenty-nine seconds more, so that the full count of forty seconds must be accepted as the interval required in which to “put him to sleep”. As a matter of fact, with the exception of one student who took forty-five seconds to go off, Weed displayed the greatest resisting power of anybody present. It should be added that under these conditions the victim does not try to resist but rather to co-operate with the operator in consummating this congenial task. To that end he is required to empty his lungs as far as possible and to relax the muscles of the throat which are at other times brought into play when the subject has no overmastering desire to take a nap merely to oblige another. As already stated generally, so in Weed’s case the first sensations were the usual ones of suffocation, the symptoms of which are a singing in the ears and a black void before the eyes. Complete oblivion speedily ensued. While in this state all perception of time and space is lost. Weed’s earliest realization of his own identity took the form of a dim, confused attempt to balance a series of conflicting figures which presented themselves to his mind, but to no purpose. Next he heard the dull murmur of voices, and then suddenly regained complete consciousness with a start, and opened his eyes to find himself sitting on the mats surrounded by a circle of grinning comrades.