by Anthony Lewis (Ippon Judo Club)
On Tuesday 29th April my family and I were lucky enough to attend the 2008 All Japan Judo Championships at the Nihon Budokan, Tokyo.
The All Japan Judo Championships is an Open Weight Class; that is to say that there are no weight classes. A -66kg player could be drawn to fight against someone weighing 160kgs. If you think I am exaggerating the lightest judoka in this year's tournament were Masahiro Tomouchi and Shinya Yoshinaga who both weigh 81kgs and the heaviest player was Shijiro Aoyama who weighs 170kgs.
Also, this year's tournament would decide that the winner would represent Japan in the +100kgs class in this year's Beijing Olympics. The main favourites were Kosei Inoue (the people's favourite), Keiji Suzuki, Yohei Takai, Satoshi Ishii and Yasuyuki Muneta. Many of these players had their own supporter's and cheer squads. Sometimes it was like a soccer match in the Budokan with the place almost packed to the rafter's.
Kosei Inoue's (108kgs) first round opponent was not so difficult but he could not throw a light-weight (?95kgs) Nishiyama with Uchimata. In the second round he fought Oofuji (135kgs) , who he threw earlier last year with a beautiful Uchimata, but who was not an easy opponent this time. Inoue tried a few Uchimata but they did not work. In the 3rd round, he lost to Takai by Yoko Shiho Gatame when Inoue as usual tried Uchimata in vain. Inoue was always looking for the Ippon - something that the Japanese love - and when he tried that uchimata there were only 13 seconds to go on the clock and Takai sidestepped it to perform uchimata-sukashi and held Inoue for 30 seconds for ippon. That was the end of his competitive career, it was the last time he would ever compete in or outside Japan and when he walked off the mat he held his bow for an extra couple of seconds and lower than usual to say farewell to the people. He received a standing ovation and directly opposite from where we were sitting you could tell that he was giving his final competitive interview to the press as the whole wall was lit up with camera flashes. An amazing sight. A little sidenote: Throughout the holiday whenever we mentioned to Japanese people that we had been to this tournament and mentioned Inoue, even people who were not interested in judo said to us that Inoue = Ippon. In a newspaper report Inoue said "It didn't go as I had hoped, but I have no regrets." For someone who has won Olympic gold in Sydney 2000, three times World Champion, four times All Japan Champion and four times runner-up he then said something prophetic and what, to me, is what judo is all about. "I think this experience will be good for me."
Keiji Suzuki (100kgs) had a harder draw and he barely managed to win against Kagawa (93kgs), then Sasaki (130kgs). Masahiko Tomouchi (81kgs) who I mentioned before as being one of the lightest competitor's and who has a great sode-tsurikomigoshi and osotogari (and is one of my favourite player's) pushed Suzuki to the limit and only lost by a decision (hantei). Suzuki then beat Takai (who had beaten Inoue) by Ippon with kosotogari. Suzuki is renowned for his ashi-waza.
Satoshi Ishii (110kgs) had a lucky draw in a way as most were smaller than him, with his two Osotogari Ippon climbed up to the final by winning against Muneta with Osotogari. In fact, Ishii won a decision in an earlier match that probably shouldn't have gone his way. There was tremendous commotion in the crowd after that match. In the final, Ishii got Suzuki with a quick osaekomi (kami-shiho) after throwing him for yuko with oucho-gari but Suzuki managed to get out at the 28-second mark. Suzuki's efforts resulted in alot of blood on the tatami, his gi, and Ishii. It later transpired that Suzuki had broken his nose. Ishii was defensive in the end receiving several shidos but pulled out the win. There was alot of tears as he accepted the the silverware and Asahi Shimbun flag. I thought that he was overcome with emotion for winning the championships but he was crying because he was embarrassed by the way he had won. "I'm embarrassed for winning this way (by penalties and stalling)", he said. "I will try harder."
The best throw of the day was an almost perfect sasae-tsurikomiashi by Muneta (125kgs) on Shoda (120kgs). It was beautiful t watch. If you want to see any of the highlights and throws go to www.kodokan.org or try YouTube.
By the way, the bouts were six minutes long, ippon for osaekomi was 30 seconds, and no koka.
April 2008