5 "Ukemi" and Olympic in Judo

Defensive postures are very important in case of there is an accident in judo. Judo has three basic defensive postures; front defensive posture, back defensive posture, side defensive posture. People who do judo must master these defensive postures at first and then learn many kinds of judo techniques. Defensive postures are used when judokas are thrown or knocked down on tatami. They soften impact by beating tatami with their hands and prevent from hitting their heads to tatami. They beat tatami with either hand in side defensive posture and front defensive posture, but with both hands in back defensive posture. As they beat tatami strongly, they can soften more impact. Defensive postures are called "ukemi" in Japanese. "uke" means receiving and " mi" means body so literally translated as "receiving body", it is the art of knowing how to respond correctly to an attack and often incorporates skills to allow one to do so safely.

Judo was known foreign countries for the first time in Los Angeles Olympic in 1932, but judo was not an official sport in the Olympic at that time. Finally judo became a official sport in Tokyo Olympic in 1964.　Although Japan dominated three of the four weight divisions (light, middle and heavy), Anton Geesink, who is from the Netherlands, won the final of the open weight division, defeating Akio Kaminaga, who is one of the most famous Japanese judoka at that time, in front of his home crowd. This game was the surprising event for Japanese. At the result, this game caused judo to prevail in the world. Women can come to take part in judo in Barcelona Olympic in 1992.  Now judo is prevalent in the world and International Judo Federation was established. The international governing body for judo is The International Judo Federation (IJF), founded in 1951. Members of the IJF include the African Judo Union (AJU), the Pan-American Judo Confederation (PJC), the Judo Union of Asia (JUA), the European Judo Union (EJU) and the Oceania Judo Union (OJU), each comprising a number of national judo associations. As many as 199 countries join The International Judo Federation now. The IJF is responsible for organizing international competition and hosts the World Judo Championships and is involved in running the Olympic Judo events. Judo is also popular in Russia, Europe, and Brazil. In particular there are more than 500 thousand judokas in France. This number is larger than that of Japan.

reference wikipedia

              ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/柔道‎

              柔道チャンネル
　　　　　　　 www.judo-ch.jp/

4 The Ranks of Judo

Judo has a rank system and there are many ranks in judo. These ranks are known by the color of Obi. Obi is a belt which the judoka wears when they do judo. The rank system has been used in many Japanese games and sports since old times. For example, Kendo, Kyudo, Igo and Syogi. These are Japanese traditional culture

Jigoro Kano is a first person who introduced the rank system in Japan. Ranks consists of beginners, 5th kyu, 4th kyu~1st kyu, 1st dan, 2nd dan~10th dan. The color of Obi represents strength. As the number goes down, the rank goes up from 10th kyu to 1st kyu, but as the number goes up, the rank goes up from 1st dan.


Many Japanese martial arts feature an obi as part of their exercise outfit. These obis are often made of thick cotton and are about 5 cm wide. The martial arts obis are most often worn in the koma-musubi knot (square knot); in practice where hakama is worn, the obi is tied in other ways.
In many martial arts the color of the obi signifies the wearer's skill level. Usually the colors start from the beginner's white and end in the master's black, or red and white.
Below are the colours of obis worn for judo practise. Junior practitioners have a different colour range. There are also other colour ranges used worldwide

Level	Obi colour
beginners	red
10th kyū	white
9th kyū	yellow
8th and 7th kyū	orange
6th and 5th kyū	green
4th and 3rd kyū	blue
2nd and 1st kyū	brown
1st - 5th dan	black
6th and 7th dan	red and white
8th - 10th dan	red
Shōdan-ho	brown and black ("temporary black")
1st – 5th dan	black
6th dan and higher	red and white

Judokas can raise their ranks if they pass the Judo league contest, but they need to go Kodokan and pass the contest in case of 6th dan and higher. Many judokas who are higher than 6th dan uses not white obi but black obi because black means the quantity of a lot of practice.The highest grade jūdan (tenth degree black belt) has no formal requirements and is decided by the president of the Kodokan, currently Kano Jigoro's grandson Yukimitsu Kano. As of 2011, fifteen Japanese men have been promoted to this rank by the Kodokan, three of whom are still alive; the IJF and Western national federations have promoted another seven who are not recognized by the Kodokan. On July 28, 2011, the promotion board of USA Judo awarded Keiko Fukuda the rank of 10th dan, who is the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level, albeit not a Kodokan-recognized rank.

 reference; wikipedia

                  ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/柔道

                  柔道チャンネル
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