Why is Ono invisible? -for martial art fans-

I feel that those who are interested in the martial arts have been watching Tokyo Olympic games. I, as an Aikido fan, have been checking especially JUDO. I was very much impressed with the performance and results that Ono demonstrated, even though he was unsuccessful in group matches.

photo from wikipedia

As I have analyzed his performance and personality available on the internet, I would like to highlight the following as the secret of his strength.

Let me explain one by one.

1 Authentic aura

During the Rio Olympic, Akido master Yamaguchi said that now the Judo that we are watching is no more Judo. When the athletes put their back on the floor, they lose the match. They can’t train so called Ukemi,-rolling/ receiving attacks- . If there is no training of Ukemi, we never call it martial ART.

Yamaguchi also mentioned that among all the athletes, Shohei Ono looks the best. He understands quite well Judo. Actually, master Yamaguchi has not been supporting Judo that much as it ends up the battle of power versus power. However, while watching Ono’s matches, I understand that why Master Yamaguchi called Ono the best Judo athlete.

Ono’s Judo shows his philosophy. Let’s distinguish Do, as a form of philosophy, from Jutsu, so called strategy. What we have been learning is Budo, the martial art. Budo means a philosophy: how to create a harmony with others. Judo, originally, was supposed to be a philosophy by which we can harmonize with our counterpart.

Ono has been pointing out this fundamental dilemma. Now, even though JUDO has been spreading to the world but its significance as a philosophy has been lost. “Then I must be the one who bring that original Judo philosophy into tatami mat.” In this article, I use JUDO as a strategic sport, while Judo as a philosophy developed in Japan.

Every time Ono appears on tatami, he comes up with such a mindset, thus, the aura surrounding Ono looks very different. His counterpart can feel something very different from what he always deals with. However, the opponent has never had the world of philosophy in his athlete life, he would be overwhelmed by the aura released by Ono.

Ono also said that nowadays JUDO is a sort of deduction game. Athletes are obsessed with the idea how to get rid of the strength of our opponent. However, this is not the authentic value of Judo. Authenticity of Judo is adding, not deducting. We should bring everything we have to encounter with our enemy.

Therefore, the world which we can see on the back of Ono looks different from that of others.

This is the most notable feature of Ono’s Judo.

2 Center of gravity

Under Aikido, there is a throwing called “Koshinage”. Master Yamaguchi sometimes encourages us to train this Koshinage, to find out the center of gravity for each of us as well as for our opponent. Once we have found the centre of gravity for both of us, we should overlap those two concepts to create a beautiful throwing.

Ono is very good at finding that centre, as he always realizes his own center. Once he captures that center in his opponent, he can make his counterpart unbalanced by overlapping two centers, his and opponent.

Generally speaking, compared with Japanese, Athletes in Western countries are tall and their centres are placed in relatively high. So, they end up using their arms and upper bodies by delivering their power. However, Ono has a strong lower part, solid, stable and down to earth lower parts. Therefore, he was able to catch his opponent and throw him down.

3 Goodness, truth, and beauty 

Under the Buddhism, there are three fundamental values we can find in the universe. They are Goodness, truth, and beauty. If we behave taking into account these three concepts, we would be able to have unexpected support from the God.

When Ono won the game, he said that “I am glad if I could convey the BEAUTY of Judo to the audiences in the world. ” From his athletes career the most beautiful one was the match he had with Ebinuma, as both sides kept delivering the beauty of Judo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9cf34mueY

So, as long as Ono delivers the beauty of Judo, the something great, -the God- stays with him.

4 Taking the high road

Ono spent most of his athlete career at Tenri university, and during his time in undergraduate as well as graduate school, Ono had learned Judo. Tenri Judo’s principle is “Taking the counterpart as right manner and throw him away in the right way.” In other words, there is no short cut in Judo, all we have to do is following the high road.

What Ono has been demonstrating is this attitude. Even though non-Japanese athletes show JUDO techniques for them to win the JUDO games, Ono has kept following that high road.

So, to sum up, the secrets of Ono’s strength are as follows:

In a nutshell, what Ono has been demonstrating to us is Do. In Japanese, Do is the way, path, and the main stream. This word implies a philosophy, the right way as a human being. Ono has always demonstrated the right attitude as a Japanese samurai. This is hard to be analyzed and quite difficult to understand through experience.

Judo is the experimental samurai philosophy and therefore, Ono has been dominating that philosophy in terms of Judo match. Ono also mentioned that among non-Japanese athletes, there are some guys who look more Japanese than do actual Japanese athletes. I have also found the same when I was explaining Aikido in English for non-Japanese.

Therefore, no matter which country they come, regardless of the cultural background, if they understand the fundamental value of the martial art, they could be invincible athletes.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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