サンボ着と柔道着
◎ Tuesday, Feb. 21st<サンボ着と柔道着>As mentioned in my previous diary, I visited a localelementary school in Kaho Town.I had a partner this day who is from Russia.We were supposed to talk about Russia, its sports, and culturesas well as other Asian countries.The Russian guy, named Edward, talked first for about 40 min.While listening to his story, I sometimes saw students to check howthey were listening to him.After his introduction, I began to talk about SAMBO.First, I introduced myself, saying "Hello, I'm Ken, an English interpreter.I'm very pleased to be here. And I am really happy to introducethe Russian national martial arts, sambo. Whenever I visit localschools, I teach English to the students. But today I am here to talk aboutsambo. This is the very first time for me to do so at a local school."Student were all surprised, because I spoke English just likean American does. This is what we call [掴み].I introduced myself as the designated translator for Japan WrestlingFederationespecially for Women's Team, joking about Mr. Animal Hamaguchi.After this, I said to them, "I've been a judo wrestler, Olympic-stylewrestlerand sambo wrestler. ", showing photos of wrestling, 柔道着、and サンボ着.I asked students of 5th and 6th graders if any of them experienced judo.One boy raised his hand and so I asked him to come to me.I told him to try 柔道着 on.He said that he did judo only for three days and quit.(Other students laughed at this story.)Then, I gave them a quiz:柔道着(他の着物でも)を着る時は、着物の左の裾を上にするでしょうか?右の裾を上にするでしょうか?I told them to raise their hands at each question.More students raised their hands when I asked them allif they thought the right-side hem (右裾) should be on the left.I told them, 着物を着る時は左側を上(前)にします。 (when we wear kimono or 柔道着, we should put the left hem on the right. )Japan was a samurai country, or samurai-oriented countryfor quite a long time. Samurai wore two swords on the left.If they had wore kimono with the right hem on the left,the right hem sometimes would have been an obstacleto them when they wanted to pull out their swords.That's why they should wear kimono with 左前.In Japan, the left side has been more oriented than the right side.For example, we keep left when we drive a car.I explained the above matter, helping the judo boy wearing 柔道着.I have a black belt (黒帯) and so I helped him wear black belt!!-------------------------------------------------------Next, I showed サンボ着 again.サンボ着 looks similar to 柔道着, but サンボ着 has severaldifferences from 柔道着.I found a relatively big boy who sat close to me and so I askedhim to come to me and try サンボ着 on.While helping him wear サンボ着, I started to talkthe differences between サンボ着 and 柔道着.First, my サンボ着 is a red-blue reversible type.Now, about how to divide people in two colors:In Japan, we tend to divide people in a white team and a red team(紅白).紅白歌合戦 is a good example. This comes from 源平合戦.Or sometimes we use black and white.But in case of wrestling, boxing and sambo,we use red and blue.Why???--- People in the word have different perspectives or images toward colors.◎ We, Japanese see the white color as pureness, finenessor something like that. On the other hand, western peoplesee the blue color as pureness and fineness.That's why European countries insisted that blue-colored柔道着 should be used and now in an international championships,they use white 柔道着 and blue 柔道着.Different from 柔道着, サンボ着 has a belt loopon both sides.*サンボ着には、帯を通す穴があります。These belt loops are designed not to let 帯get loose and fall down.When we watch 柔道の試合, we sometimes notice thata wrestler's 帯 become loose and falls down and the judge calls[待て]. This is really waste of time.The belt loops attached on サンボ着 preventa sambo match from becoming non-smooth and aim tomake the match go more smoothly and briskly. (つづく to be continued)ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー