Journal of Combative Sport

ANNOUNCEMENTS

December 2003

An article about Khmer boxing appears at http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/selected_features/fight_club.htm. Khmer boxing is similar to Muay Thai, but for nationalist reasons, the Cambodians, Laotians, and Burmese do not want to join Thai boxing organizations. According to this article: "In the past five years, 30 [Khmer] kickboxers have sustained serious injury in the ring, said Chhoeung Yavyen, ringside doctor for the Cambodian Amateur Boxing Association. 'There were broken wrists and arms, two broken shins, one kickboxer ruptured his intestine because he ate rice before his bout. Broken noses, dislodged shoulders, hip injuries and broken jaws,' Chhoeung Yavyen said. One boxer died in the ring in Svay Rieng province in 2001, but that death was the result of a heart attack, probably brought on by diet pills consumed to help the fighter reduce his weight before the bout, Chhoeung Yavyen said." See also http://www.gocambodia.com/culture/team_boycott.asp, http://www.shweba.com/News/yangon_02feb02.html, and http://www.marimari.com/content/myanmar/special_interest/special_interest.html.


November 2003

There is now an English translation of Kenwa Mabuni's 1934 text, Kobo Jizai Goshinjutsu Karate Kenpo. It's entitled The Free Self-defense Art of Karate Kenpo: Offense and Defense, and the translation is copyright Mario McKenna, 2002. To obtain copies, contact the author at yasuda@telus.net.

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If your idea of a good time includes spending an afternoon looking at photos of boxing, wrestling, and such, then try Corbis' collection at http://pro.corbis.com/search/searchFrame.asp. The images are copyrighted, so please don't use them commercially without permission. See also http://www.thegalloper.com/backstories/0902rontaylor.html, which discusses British fairground boxing.

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Speaking of boxing, a project for somebody involves documenting Chinese American professional boxers. For example, from 1929-1934, Portland's Jimmy Wan Jower (1908-1994) boxed throughout the Pacific Northwest under the name Ah Wing Lee (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 16, 1931). Jack Capri managed him, and his incomplete career record is 32 wins (18 by knockout), 12 losses, and 6 draws. The name change may have been meant to minimize direct association with his family, as in 1890, his father, Wan Jower, opened a still-extant shoe store in Portland. (The store was originally on North 3rd Street in Portland, and it moved to its present location in 1906.) However, several earlier California boxers also used the Ah Wing name, so it's possible that the promoters simply picked a name that they thought the crowd would remember.

For more on Chinese in Oregon, see http://www.salemhistory.net/ethnic/ec01.htm and http://gesswhoto.com/chineseindex.html. For a bibliography, see http://www.opb.org/edmedia/becomingamerican/localresources.html.

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Houston, Texas, isn't usually where one would think to look for the roots of either the Japanese Communist Party or Chicago judo, but back in 1904, Sen Katayama, then living near Houston, gave a judo demonstration at a Socialist Party Convention held in Chicago. See http://www.chipublib.org/001hwlc/gisconvention.html and http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/YY/fya6.html.
 


Announcements (July 2003)

Medline, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi, is an excellent place to find recent medical studies of wrestling, karate, judo, and other sports commonly found on university campuses. The Merck Manual, at http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual, is also worth checking out.

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Martial arts from around the world use wooden weapons. For weapon grade hardwoods, good pieces of Japanese white oak and North American hickory are hard to beat. However, other woods can be equally satisfactory. For discussions, see:
 
 

You can buy ready-made weapons from Japanese distributors such as Shureido through your local martial art store or retail catalogue. However, you can generally buy semi-custom weapons at a comparable price. At EJMAS, our recommended semi-custom manufacturer is Sei Do Kai, which manufactures wooden weapons for a variety of Asian and Western martial arts. The URL is http://sdksupplies.netfirms.com. However, other North American semi-custom operations that we encourage you to consider include:
 
  You can also make your own. For more on this, go to http://ejmas.com/tin/tinframe.htm, then click on the archives for 2000. Down at the bottom is Kim Taylor’s article about making wooden weapons. Also see his article on making a bo (Japanese and Okinawan 6’ staff) at http://www.uoguelph.ca/~kataylor/bo.htm.


Announcements (May 2003)

I regularly receive e-mail asking me if I’ve heard of some obscure boxer. Unless he’s Japanese American, probably I haven’t. Nonetheless, a place I always check to find answers to such questions is http://boxrec.com. Their databases aren’t complete (and probably never will be), but it’s a great place to start.

A second place I check is the death records at http://searches.rootsweb.com. Like the boxing records, the death records aren’t complete, but they’re always worth a look.

Finally, I go to Google, where I type in the guy’s name, inside quotation marks, like so: "Deceased boxer." Sometimes, I get lucky, and somebody’s already created a web page honoring grandpa.

Anyway, I mention sites such as these because, if you’re someone with a garage full of notebooks filled with fight results from the 1920s, sites such as Boxing Records Archive are surely interested in your findings. Meanwhile, if you have stories about the old days, consider writing them up for EJMAS. What’s the worst that happens, we say no?


Announcements (April 2003)

We've all seen the drawings of the ancient Egyptian wrestlers at Beni Hassan. For a photo showing the actual art, on site, see http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/banihasan.htm.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in Roman gladiatorial activities, see http://pub45.ezboard.com/fromanarmytalkfrm10.showMessage?topicID=75.topic and http://pub75.ezboard.com/bromancombatsports.


Announcements (March 2003)

EJMAS is always looking for writers. Sometimes, the submissions aren’t what we need. But not to fear, there are lots of markets out there. For some guidance on better writing (and more successful submission to both online and print media), see (for example) the unrelated "Writer’s Resources" at http://www.resinets.com/topics/writers.htm, http://www.ability.org.uk/writers_resources_publications.html, and http://www.wcdr.org/links_res.html. For lists of publications that pay, see (for example) http://home.snafu.de/gadfly/i-o.htm. On martial art topics, there aren’t many, so if you find some, let us know, and we’ll start submitting stuff there ourselves.


Announcements (February 2003)

To see how wrestling was done in Great-Grandpa’s day, check out Farmer Burns’ Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture (1913) at http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Burns/lessons/lesson01.htm.


Announcements (January 2003)

On November 28, 2002, Ken Kuniyuki, a longtime leader of judo in California, passed away at the age of 92. The memorial service took place in Los Angeles on December 14.


Announcements (December 2002)

In the October 2002 update of Oxford University Press’s American National Biography Online, Luckett V. Davis cited a Journal of Combative Sport article about Filipino boxing. The context was a biographical sketch of boxer Pancho Villa (Francisco Guilledo).

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There is an online collection of mid-twentieth century newsreel footage at http://www.britishpathe.com, and keywords such as judo, boxing, wrestling, sword, samurai, etc., turn up an astonishing assortment of images.
 
 

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Back in December 2000, when EJMAS was still a just a wee thing, Nicolas Elizaga wrote that Journal of Combative Sport would be better if it included "archive section with older, less available documentation of events." Well, if there are any volunteers for keyboarding duties, let me know and I’ll see what I can do about getting you some textual material to prepare for online posting. Meanwhile, check out our back issues; the links are in the nav bar on the left side of your screen. While visiting the Journal of Combative Sports’ links, be sure to check "Great Enablers," too, as that’s where we keep articles by Donn Draeger, Robert W. Smith, E.J. Harrison, and other pioneers of the Asian martial arts in the West.


Announcements (November 2002)

An article about how Thai children train for professional muay Thai fighting appears at http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DA2D.htm. A companion article about how the Thais train foreigners during 10-day intensive camps appears at http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D0AF.htm.  Say the authors, "Many Thais were slightly bemused as to why we were training so religiously when we were not (at the moment anyway) planning to fight. To them, there are no half measures: you train to fight for a living, or you don't train at all."

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An excellent essay on books and boxing appears at http://www.secondsout.com/ringside/goodman_48472.asp. It’s from Arthur Krystal’s book, Agitations (2002, Yale University Press).


Announcements (October 2002)

Why one needs to be careful about using sources: Frank Slavin, the boxer, is not always the same as Frank Slaven, the miner, in the Yukon papers and memoirs of the Gold Rush era. For details about Frank Slaven, the miner, follow the links at the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve web site, http://www.nps.gov/yuch/Expanded/mining_history/mining_history.htm. Meanwhile, for a good article about one of Slavin’s most famous opponents, Peter Jackson, see http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/DRAM/44-1/pdf/clark.pdf.

Announcements (September 2002)

EJMAS has thousands of readers, but not nearly so many writers. To keep the readers, we need the writers. So, if you have manuscripts that you’d like us to consider, please let us know. We don’t publish everything we get, and many articles will require revisions to meet our editorial guidelines or resolve issues raised by peer reviewers. Nonetheless, our interests are wide and we will read and carefully consider anything you send us.

Meanwhile, if you’re surfing and you find something good, let us know that, too. We probably won’t reprint online articles because there is no use cluttering the Internet with material anybody can find using a search engine, but we might link to it here in Announcements.


Announcements (August 2002)

If you like sumo history, then check out http://www.juryo.com. Although many years are still missing, the site contains the full text of articles from Japan Times and other English-language Japanese newspapers going back as far as 1897.


Announcements (July 2002)

If you’re interested in the comparative risk of participation in various sporting activities, try http://www.fastsports.com/tips/tip12 and http://www.exra.org. If you’d like to compare that to your chances of being struck by lightning, see also http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm.


Announcements (June 2002)

"Most of our important decisions and actions require judgment calls. Judgments that involve whether an act or decision is right or wrong and what we ought to do relate to ethics. Because sports affects our lives and livelihoods in so many ways – as recreation and entertainment, as an income source, as a means for teaching – it makes sense to examine experiences in sports to make sure they are what they should be in a society that is at its very best." From the FAQ at http://www.sportsethicsinstitute.org, a website that offers links to articles about ethical dilemmas faced by participants in all forms of sport, not just martial arts.


Announcements (May 2002)

Anybody have good references regarding Arab sword and stick methods? I haven’t seen much, but the Israeli government photo archive at http://147.237.72.31/topsrch/defaulte.htm includes some pictures of Druze sword dancing. The Jordanian government site at http://www.culture.gov.jo/english/nationalgroup_en mentions Al-Sahja, and describes "the Sword Dance" as "a Jordanian popular dance, accompanied by voices of men, while a young girl dancer called Al-Hashi uses a sword to protect herself. She is skilled and experienced in pursuit and skirmish with the sword." Pete Kautz mentions tahtib (Egyptian cane dancing) at http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/tahtib.html, and a picture appears at http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/islam/nbLinks/Islam_Music_Dance.html. See also http://www.bdancer.com/history/BDhist2b.html, http://www.saharasilk.com/what4.htm, http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=241, http://www.uncwil.edu/people/deagona/raqs/canenotes.htm, etc. The equivalent Saudi sword dance is called ardha, and for a picture and brief description, see http://www.saudiembassy.net/profile/arts/arts_music.html.

It isn’t related, but what the heck – Croatian sword dancers are shown at http://www.korcula.net/grad/sword/festival.htm. Again, if anyone has information to share about these or similar cultural activities, anywhere in the world, please let me know.

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A reader of my article about early Filipino boxers had seen Corky Pasquil’s great video about the Pinoy boxers of the 1920s and 1930s, and so he asked why I essentially stopped my account with the death of Pancho Villa. The reason is that Pasquil’s article on the Pinoy boxers of the 1920s and 1930s appears in volume III of the Filipino-American National Historical Society Journal (http://www.fanhs-national.org), and so far as I know, back issues are available.

There were, however, scores of good Filipino boxers in California and Hawaii in the 1930s, and even a few in Seattle. For an interview with one of the latter, see http://www.historylink.org/output.CFM?file_ID=2428. Peter Bacho's novel, Man in the Dark Blue Suit, contains fictionalized accounts of the role that boxers played in Seattle Pinoys’ lives. For some background on Bacho, see http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/lifestyles/html98/pbacho_030198.html. There is also a nice photo of Speedy Dado at http://www.sports.nd.edu/exhibits/winkexhibit/winkmenu.html.

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If you’re researching sport in general, a website worth checking is http://www.ucalgary.ca/library/ssportsite.

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Announcements (April 2002)

Martial arts industry statistics appear at http://www.masuccess.com/industry/stats.htm . According to these estimates, most martial arts students train just over once a week (65 times per year). Most active participants are aged 6-17, and interestingly, only a third of the total respondents say that martial arts are their favorite athletic activity. Therefore, presumably, many parents make their children take martial arts. Equally interesting, adult practitioners tend to be college graduates; hopefully these people are there because they want to be!


Announcements (February 2002)

For recent ideas on the medical treatment of cauliflower ear, see the article at http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1998/09sep/lane.htm.

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US Army doctrine on safe sports and athletic training appears at http://www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/p385_5.pdf. The bottom line is that the supervisor/coach bears considerable supervisory responsibility.


Announcements (January 2002)

Want to try your hand at Japanese mounted archery via the Internet? Then try http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/virtual/yabusame/virtual.html.

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Go to http://www.barnard.edu/amstud/resources.htm, and among other things you will find transcripts of the 1955 US Supreme Court decision regarding the International Boxing Commission and its 80% control of boxing. If that particular link doesn't open, then it means that you need to install Adobe Acrobat (a free download), because that is the format in which many government documents are posted to the Internet.

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To my knowledge, http://www.geocities.com/tigerliondance/history.html is the website of the oldest extent ch’uan fa club in Canada, and there is no doubt that this club recently celebrated its 61st anniversary with a lion dance. The University of British Columbia Archives have some additional club records, but probably they’re written in Chinese.


Announcements (December 2001)

If you’re a regular reader of EJMAS, you probably buy books. If so, please remember that if you make your online purchases through the Barnes and Noble or Chapters links at EJMAS, we get a tiny percentage of the sale price, and that this helps support the site. That said, B&N and Chapters do not always give the best price, and far be it from us to discourage you from shopping. Websites that offer online comparison-shopping include http://www.addall.com, http://www.bookfinder.com, and http://www.abebooks.

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The Armour Archive, at http://www.armourarchive.org, has some nice information, so check it out.

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I am often asked how to go about researching combative sports. The first step is to realize that you’ve got to do most of the work yourself.

Your best source of information is generally a large university’s library, as what you need are a wide variety of old newspapers. These are usually available on microfilm. If you think sitting seiza for a couple hours is fun, then you’ll certainly enjoy watching microfilm go by. The university’s physical education library is also worth visiting, as on the shelves you’ll often find rare books. Copy them if you like, but please don’t steal them.

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Announcements (November 2001)

State-subsidized "leisure time activities are intended to compensate workers for low wages and divert them from any effort to increase them." This from a 1938 US government study of the Nazi "Strength through Joy" program. For additional details about this euphemistically-named program, the most famous results of which include the Volkswagen Beetle, see http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box32/folt301.html.

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Announcements (October 2001)

EJMAS is not the only website that devotes space to old-time Hawaiian boxing, and for more pictures and stories, see Brent Shigeoka’s Hawaii Hazy Moon site at http://www.hawaiihazymoon.com/boxing1.html.

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering why we don’t publish articles about old-time boxing elsewhere, well, let me give you a clue – nobody’s submitted any.

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Ever heard the story that boxing champion Jack Johnson was refused passage on the Titanic because White Star Line wouldn’t allow blacks in first class? The tale is urban legend: in April 1912, Johnson was in the US, arranging a fight with Fireman Jim Flynn. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/misc/unlisted-passenger-crew.shtml. Nonetheless, the legend apparently began shortly after the sinking. See, for example, http://www.crt.state.la.us/folklife/edu_ss149_shine_titanic.html; see also http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/titanic/downex.htm. Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) most famously told the story in a 1948 song; the lyrics appear here: http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/titan13.html.

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Announcements (September 2001)

If you like capoeira, check the Planet Capoeira website at http://www.planetcapoeira.com. Other useful capoeira websites include http://www.bibvirt.futuro.usp.br/acervo/paradidat/capoeira/capoeira.htm, http://www.capoeira.com, http://www.capoeira-angola.org, and http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/capoeuropa/literat.htm.

On Trinidad, an equally musical stick-fighting game is called bois or sticklick. (Its musical accompaniment is called kalinda, and is a direct ancestor of calypso.) A nice introduction to the topic of Trinidadian batonniers appears at http://webserver1.oneonta.edu/faculty/hilldr/1971cc.htm, while some photos appear at http://209.94.197.2/feb/feb23/features.htm. For additional context, see also http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Places/places_East-Port-of-Spain_history.htm, http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/DRAM/42-3/pdf/liverpool.pdf, and http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/DRAM/42-3/pdf/intro.pdf.

Of course, such games are regional rather than local. So, for a French-language introduction to danmyé, as the game is called on Martinique, see http://www.chez.com/madinina1502/culture/culture.htm.

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For photos and biographies of old-time strongmen such as Charles Atlas and Eugen Sandow, try http://www.sandow.plus.com/index.htm.

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Announcements (August 2001)

If interested in Nigerian traditional wrestling and boxing, try the keyword search "kebbi nigeria" on Google. Lots going on in that province, it seems. Meanwhile, if your tastes run more toward Nigerians in Western boxing, don’t forget Dick Tiger (http://hometown.aol.com/adeyinkamakinde/page7.html) or Hogan "Kid" Bassey (http://www.maxboxing.com/Mulcahey/mulcahey061801.asp and http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/lf41/na/apr98/nasp0401.htm). Meanwhile, for Jake N’tuli, the first black South African to win an Empire championship, see http://www.suntimes.co.za/1998/11/29/insight/in09.htm.

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Speaking of boxing, Mike Tyson’s 1998 psychiatric evaluation appears online at http://www.milwaukee.tec.wi.us/featur/libr/reserves/Tyson%20Psychiatric%20Report.pdf.


Announcements (July 2001)

For a website dedicated to old-time black prizefighters, try Kevin Smith’s site http://members.aol.com/ksmith9116/carmel.html.


Announcements (June 2001)

For judo book reviews, try Ben Holmes’ reviews at http://bestjudo.com and Kim Sol’s at http://www.bstkd.com. Meanwhile, for reviews of books about Shotokan karate, try Rob Redmond’s reviews at http://www.24fightingchickens.com/shotokan/reviews/01_int.html. Clearly Redmond has read the books, too, otherwise how else would he know to write, "Very few of them have any value at all to me other that to sit on my shelves and gather dust. The writing is generally bad. The publication quality is usually bad too. The cover art is ugly. The authors spend more time promoting themselves than teaching karate. The content is usually written in an intentionally vague fashion to avoid pissing off people who do things differently."

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Bill Beaulieu’s article about the development of the modern leather boxing glove appears at http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/wail1100_bill.htm.


Announcements (May 2001)

Interested in the sociology of Mexican American boxing? Try Gregory S. Rodriguez, "Boxing and the Formation of Ethnic Mexican Identities in 20th-Century Southern California," http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/nov12/greg.htm.

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FightingArts.com has published its third edition, and its magazine section contains articles that should be of interest to readers of Journal of Combative Sports. Examples include portions of Gogen Yamaguchi’s book on Goju Kai karate plus separate articles on teaching judo and karate. See http://www.fightingarts.com.


Announcements (April 2001)

"Before the Tribunal de Première Instance de Namur, Ms. Deliège maintained that the Belgian [judo] federations had improperly frustrated her [judo] career development by not allowing her to take part in important competitions. She considered that she engaged in an economic activity, a matter involving a freedom guaranteed by Community law." Therefore Ms. Deliège, a former national-level player, sued the Belgian judo federations in the hopes of forcing them to allow her to compete. The Court of Justice of the European Community considered her case, but ruled, "The national federations, which reflect the arrangements adopted in most sporting disciplines, are therefore entitled to lay down appropriate rules and to make selections." http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.curia.eu.int/en/cp/aff/cp0029en.htm+%22press+release%22+%22martial+art%22&hl=en

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For some how-to for catch-as-catch-can wrestling, see http://home.earthlink.net/~jman777/catch.html. Meanwhile, for equivalent how-to regarding the Swiss national wrestling method called Schwingen, see http://www.swisswrestling.com.

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If you are in Southern California, check out the Paul Ziffren Sports Research Center in Los Angeles; it is open to the public and its URL is http://www.aafla.org/4sl/over_frmst.htm. Its parent organization, the Amateur Athletic Foundation, has tasked it with digitizing textual documents and journal articles relating to Olympic sports, and this project is well underway. The format used is PDF, so you’ll need Adobe Reader. Go to http://www.aafla.org/index.html, click on "Search," and then use keywords such as "judo," "wrestling," "boxing," "taekwondo," and "fencing," or names of people you are interested in, such as "Jigoro Kano" or "Cassius Clay."

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Announcements (March 2001)

Charles Goodin has a very nice website devoted to the history of karate in Hawaii at http://www.tanega.com/seinenkai/index.html.

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If you want to learn or practice muay Thai in the Great White North, note that Canadian instructors include Calgary’s Mike Miles, whose website is http://www.mikemiles.com, and whose interview at http://www.muaythaionline.net/features/mminterview.html is worth reading.

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In case you wondered who cares about pre-World War II Hawaiian boxers, well, let’s just say that Hawaiians do. For example, on February 2, 2001, "Boxing: Johnny Yasui," http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth2_1000.htm, was reprinted as "Johnny Yasui Was One of the Best," in Hawaii Herald. Likewise, on February 16, 2001, "Fatalities in Hawaii, December 7, 1941," Journal of Combative Sport, http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1200.htm, appeared as "Boxing-Related Fatalities of Dec. 7, 1941: Several Local Pugilists Had Their Careers Ended."

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Announcements (February 2001)

For bibliographic references to sport, try http://perso.club-internet.fr/ghpolge/resources.html and http://www.sportquest.com/index.html.

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If you want to learn more about boxer Joe Louis, visit http://www.ptamerica.com/louis.htm and http://detnews.com/history/louis/louis.htm.

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Clay Buchanan runs a very nice website devoted to kyudo, or Japanese archery. The URL is http://www.netwizards.net/~eclay.

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Interested in running a martial art program that is literally a school? Then consider modeling it after the University of Indiana program described at http://www.indiana.edu/~martial/certificate.htm.

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Now this sounds like my kind of place – the Judokan in London. Established since 1954, "The Club has two dojos and … a fully licensed members' bar." http://www.judokan91-london.co.uk/index.htm

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During January 2001, the BBC featured the Cornish heavyweight wrestling championships at St. Minver. For the story, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/tv_and_radio/newsid_1108000/1108228.stm.



Announcements (January 2001)

Former Playboy centerfold Sung Hi told KoreAM Journal that she likes boxing because, for one thing, her uncle used to box, and for another, she enjoys the workout in the gym. But mostly: "Just the sheer bruteness of it. Yeah. I have a part of me that is just ... I'm very competitive, for one. Number two, I am a very physical person. I used to fight -- big time -- as a kid! I was a tomboy. I love to fight! Seriously. And just the thought that one good punch could just knock somebody out - the thought of that - is very exciting to me. It's so barbaric, but I love it!" http://www.koreamjournal.com/april2000/cover_story3.shtml.



Announcements (December 2000)

Thinking of starting a dojo (or even less lucratively, a martial arts e-journal)? Read this first: http://members.home.net/jdkx2/Startingabusiness.htm.

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A new martial arts website with potential: http://www.asksensei.com. Why do I say it has potential? Well, how could I not like a site whose advice includes "Breathe, relax & smile"?



Announcements (November 2000)

For a Swedish martial arts e-zine published in English, see http://www.martialartsnews.net.

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Though slow to download, a nice site is http://www.sports.nd.edu/exhibits/winkexhibit/winkmenu.html. A Notre Dame site, it provides online photos of California boxers of the 1930s to 1950s, and the base collection has literally thousands of catalogued images from which to choose.



Announcements (October 2000)

The Journal of Sports Tourism is at http://www.sptourism.net/. Speaking of tourists, to see photos of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba in Hawaii in 1961, check out http://id.mind.net/~aiki/aikido_hawaii.htm.

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There are some good articles related to Isshin-ryu karate at http://www.xs4all.nl/~frits007/index2.htm. For Shotokan, try http://user.netomia.com/srsi/main4.html and http://sima-online.org/main.html. For kendo, see http://www.umist.ac.uk/sport/Jjsh1.html and the discussion at http://204.95.207.136/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=1506. And for a variety of martial arts and combative sports, try http://www.wma-india.com/news/articles.html. But all is not joy in Muddville. A fluff piece on ninjutsu appears at http://www.feer.com/_0005_18/p58currents.html and an article about the dark side of training in Japan appears at http://www.hpo.net/users/atansley/training.html.

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If interested about learning more about corruption in the Olympicstm, read some of the articles at http://www.play-the-game.org. Note the tm symbol -- the International Olympic Committee is starting to sue anyone who uses that name without paying. See, for example, http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/pressreleases/press_303_e.html. The law authorizing this can be read at http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t33t36+2597+0.

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Although it hasn't been updated since May 1996, there is a nice martial arts bibliography at http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~yian/frl/06marts.htm. Meanwhile, for video reviews, try http://www.altinet.net/%7Ekarate/mavr.htm.

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At Journal of Western Martial Arts there is an article about the Scandinavian wrestling called glima. For further descriptions, see http://www.diku.dk/students/novice/glima2.html.

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Many of the stories told about the legendary Shaolin Temple are, well, legendary. But if you're interested in discovering what went on inside real Chinese temples, try some of the books listed at http://web.missouri.edu/~religpc/Temples_&_Mountains.html.

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Looking for an arnis school? Try http://www.quick-stick.de/school.htm.

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Some people at Fort Benning are trying to reintroduce Indian clubs to US Army physical fitness training. See, for example, http://www.indianclubs.com. The clubs themselves are described at http://www.antiquesjournal.com/indianclubs.html. Similar Iranian clubs appear along the walls of the Zour Khaneh gymnasium shown at http://www.iranian.com/Arts/Aug97/Kerman/P4.html; note that these Iranian clubs are MUCH larger than the little ones used by the Rangers. By the way, despite what these articles say, a major reason for the decline of wooden weights during the 1920s was the introduction of cheap cast iron weights. See John D. Fair, Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).

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Another US military document worth viewing is "Atlas of Injuries in the US Armed Forces" at http://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/Public/Library/Atlas/atlas.html. Summarized, the data shows that privately-owned motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death during the 15-year period 1980-1994. This suggests that people driving to tournaments or training must exercise considerable caution. Furthermore, carpooling might save more than just gas, especially if the players will be physically exhausted following the competition or if travel to the tournament requires leaving straight from work. Meanwhile, in the Army, supervised physical training resulted in just 7% of injuries requiring hospitalization. On the other hand, competitive sports led to 22% of injuries requiring hospitalization. This suggests that supervised training in the gym is much safer than participation in tournaments. (By the way, boxing fatality data available elsewhere on EJMAS supports this contention.) Therefore coaches are strongly urged to ensure that their athletes are physically fit, use properly fitted safety equipment, and have medical insurance. Meanwhile promoters must ensure that they maintain excess personal liability insurance.

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One of our favorite martial art magazines is Furyu, at http://www.furyu.com. For a 1996 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article about the magazine and its principals, see http://starbulletin.com/96/07/19/business/story1.html.



Announcements (September 2000)

British judoka Trevor Leggett is one of this site's Great Enablers, and the following E-mail was received from Diana Birch of the Kano Society on August 2, 2000: "It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Trevor Leggett. He died of a stroke at St Mary's Hospital during the night of Tuesday 1st August 2000. He had been recovering from an infection brought on by an earlier admission and in typical Leggett style was asking for a room where he could get back to his work whilst in hospital." For more information, visit http://www.kanosociety.org/news.htm.

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If interested in wrestling (other than WWF), try http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Sideline/9563/wreslink2.html. Its links are excellent. Meanwhile, if interested in sport history (probably you wouldn't be here if you weren't), try the British Society of Sports History at http://www.umist.ac.uk/sport/index2.html. For a sample (academic) article, see Benny Peiser's "Western Theories about the Origins of Sport in Ancient China," at http://www.umist.ac.uk/UMIST_Sport/peiser2.html.

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As of August 2000, another online magazine to check out is FightingArts.com at http://www.fightingarts.com.

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For photographs of Mas Oyama's famous stunt involving bulls, visit http://www.interq.or.jp/world/mm514/library-ushigoroshi.htm.

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Clicking on www.rcapoeira.com.br will take you to a Portuguese-language article on the subject of capoeira that includes photos of many living mestres.

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Here's a website that doesn't have a lot on it yet, but with your help could -- it is called the Martial Arts Abuse Center, and it is at http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Ring/9553.



Announcements (August 2000)

Looking for a US judo club via the Internet? Try http://www.martial-artists.com/judo/usa.html.

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For back issues of Iron Game History, a useful publication for background on strength sports of all kinds, visit http://www.edb.utexas.edu/faculty/jtodd/igh/igh.html. The site has not been updated in years, but the University of Texas is still the place to research such things.

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Hikawa Maru, the ship on which Jigoro Kano died in 1938, is today a floating beer garden in Yokohama. For details, see http://www2.gol.com/users/myhrman/hikawa.htm. For an article describing Kano's last days aboard that ship, visit http://www.kanosociety.org/articles.htm.

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How can you not like an article that starts like this?

It is a corrosive factor that can destroy the integrity of even the most hardened steel. It has been described as a cancer that’s spread can quickly become out-of-control. Barry Diller, the Chairman of the Board of the Fox TV Network once told me in a meeting, "When you find it in your company, you must hunt it down and kill it quickly--kill it totally, and kill, by firing, those who spread it." It drove a wedge between my teacher and his teacher--and caused a rift beyond span, regardless of the love and years of training together on the floor. What is this terrible thing? Politics. Politics has done more to arrest the growth, evolution and development of the martial arts than any other thing--including world war. Politics. The author is Gary Gabelhouse, and he's writing about martial arts politics. Okay, so the ancient history he uses to pad his article is wrong, as is his discussion of that so-called "budo ban." (There never was any such thing, as anyone who has read Guy Power's articles knows.) So the editing is sloppy. (Names are sometimes in Japanese and sometimes in American name order, and "Oriental" as a description of anything but a rug is considered pejorative within the Japanese and Korean American communities.) Who cares, when an author's heart beats so firmly in the right place? The article is at http://uechi-ryu.com/articles.htm.

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For online reprints of Philip Zarrilli's Journal of Asian Martial Arts articles about the Indian martial art of kalaripayattu, try the Encyclopaedia Britannica at http://www.britannica.com. Once there, use the keyword search "martial arts" and then follow the links. This is mentioned because these articles are no longer available through their original University of Wisconsin URL. Meanwhile, for a newspaper article about an Indian female judoka turned kalaripayattu practitioner, see http://www.the-week.com/99feb21/life6.htm.



Announcements (July 2000)

It's not koryu (old-style Japanese martial arts), but if you want to do the samurai tour without leaving your computer, try http://www.kiku.com/electric_samurai/cobweb_castle/samurai_tour.html.

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If you think that judo should be about mutual welfare and cooperation rather than inflating national medal counts during the Summer Olympics, then check out the Kano Society at http://www.kanosociety.org. Admittedly there isn't much posted yet, but in time there will be. Internationally known founders of this society include Richard Bowen and Syd Hoare.

Speaking of the Kano Society, member Trevor Leggett recently proposed to give a lecture on the purposes of the Society to members of the Budokwai, which is the judo club at which Leggett taught for several decades. The then-current chairman of the Budokwai (he has since stepped down) said that Leggett, a former president of the Budokwai, couldn't do that with the mere approval of the club manager, he needed the permission of the whole executive council. To me, that smacks of politics rather than courtesy, but then I might just be old-fashioned.

On the other hand, if you think judo is mostly about winning medals, then try http://www.uni-leipzig.de/iat/fg7/texte/wingatit/wingatit.htm for Professor Harold Thuennemann's article called "Means, methods and results of training control in combat sports." You also might visit http://www.dmu.ac.uk/dept/schools/pesl/affiliat/clinic.htm, where there are some introductions to sport psychology.

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In North America, The Learning Channel (TLC) is scheduled to air a two-hour documentary called "Martial Arts: The Real Story" on July 7, 2000 at 9-11 p.m. For details of this show, which features William C.C. Chen, Jon Bluming, Robert W. Smith, W.E. Fairbairn, Meik Skoss, Donn Draeger, and others, see http://www.pacificstreetfilms.com. For verification of show time, visit http://tlc.discovery.com or check your local listings.

Now, as only a couple thousand families are Nielsen families, probably whether you (or I) watch or don't watch won't make much difference to getting more (similar/better) shows on TV. But writing intelligent letters to the network can't hurt. If you agree with this statement, then after watching the show consider e-mailing the network some comments. For the address, go to http://tlc.discovery.com/about/contact.html.

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For a Japanese popular e-journal's look at the state of martial arts in 21st century Japan, visit http://www.jinjapan.org/nipponia/nipponia10/cont.html. The pictures were nice, but to me the best part was the quantification of numbers of practitioners, which range from 1.5 million dan-graded judoka to maybe 1,000 practitioners of sojutsu, or spear.

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Okay, enough about martial arts. For a really good book about boxing, try Roger Kahn, A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1999). If you prefer fiction, then try Boxing's Best Short Stories, edited by Paul D. Staudohar (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1999). If you're ordering from Barnes & Noble or Chapters, remember that EJMAS gets a kickback if you buy through our link.

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Speaking of links, check our Online Resources site. If you find other sites that are as good as these, please let me know and I'll consider posting them.

***

Last month we noted:

Visit the Center for Disease Control site http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/sports/martial.htm, [DEAD LINK, but there is still related information at
http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/home/safehome.htm." ] and you learn that: "The rate of injury for judo appears to be higher than that for karate or taekwondo. In judo, sprains are most common, accounting for more than half of the injuries in the sport. Dislocations and fractures are also common. As many as half of all players in karate tournaments suffer injuries, including contusions (bruises), lacerations (cuts), and hand and finger fractures. Among taekwondo competitors, fractures are the most common injury. During one large international full-contact taekwondo tournament, 54 percent of the injuries that were treated in a local emergency department were fractures."
Allen Schmitt-Gordon didn't think the statistics on judo injury rates were correct and wrote the Center for Disease Control. The government writers checked Mr. Schmitt-Gordon's sources, agreed they had erred, and as a result the Center is changing its fact sheet appropriately.


Announcements (June 2000)


If you're interested in studying savate or la canne, try the USA Savate site at http://www.usasavate.org or the US Savate Federation site at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~eynard/savateconsultants.html. Meanwhile, if you're interested in savate's history, try John Gilbey's Secret Fighting Arts of the World and Way of a Warrior, or visit http://ion.com.au/~mcullen/index.htm and http://www.multimania.com/bfsavate/historikBF.htm (in French).

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In the out-of-print Moving Zen: Karate as a Way to Gentleness (1975) C.W. Nicol took a romantic look at training at the Japan Karate Association during the late 1960s. These days, says Nicol, a naturalist who has lived in Nagano Prefecture since 1980, what the Japanese need isn't karate training but an environmental awareness. "There are too many young people who can write the name of trees and flowers in Chinese characters," says Nicol, "but don't know what they look like. I want them to pay much more attention to the natural treasures around them." For more about Nicol's environmental views, see "Human Beings Are Nothing But Part of Nature," The East, 15:5 (2000), 59-60; http://luna.pos.to/whale/icr_wac_nicol.html, http://www.luna.pos.to/whale/gen_art_nicol.html, and http://japanupdate.com/previous/99/05/28/feature4.shtml.

***

Visit the Center for Disease Control site http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/sports/martial.htm, [DEAD LINK, but there is still related information at
http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/home/safehome.htm."] and you learn that: "The rate of injury for judo appears to be higher than that for karate or taekwondo. In judo, sprains are most common, accounting for more than half of the injuries in the sport. Dislocations and fractures are also common. As many as half of all players in karate tournaments suffer injuries, including contusions (bruises), lacerations (cuts), and hand and finger fractures. Among taekwondo competitors, fractures are the most common injury. During one large international full-contact taekwondo tournament, 54 percent of the injuries that were treated in a local emergency department were fractures."

***

To read about what happened to boxer Tommy Morrison after he tested positive for HIV, see http://www.thebody.com/poz/backissues/7_97/morrison.html.



Announcements (May 2000)

If you find informative sites, drop me a line at jsvinth@ejmas.com. Of course, if your recommendation is spam or an advertisement, it may not get posted until after your check clears the bank. Our ad rates are listed in the navigation bar at http://ejmas.com/ejmasframe.htm. Note that prices are listed in Canadian dollars. If you need a currency converter, then visit http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic.

On an equally crass note, if you decide to order a book you discovered using an EJMAS site from a major bookseller, please consider ordering through Barnes and Noble at http://ejmas.com/bandnbookstore.html or Chapters Canada at http://ejmas.com/chaptersbookstore.html. The reason is that EJMAS is an affiliate bookstore, so if you order through them, we get some money. Speaking of buying books, if you've been thinking about buying Robert W. Smith's Martial Musings, but decided that the price was too steep, note that it is priced just $27.96 at Barnes and Noble, which is 30% cheaper than other sites. Hint, hint.

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For those of you who follow Olympic taekwondo, the United States Taekwondo Union homepage is http://www.ustu.org/index.shtml. Over at the referee's site, you'll see articles by Kim Sol describing the influence of Kodokan judo and Shotokan karate on taekwondo. Also of interest are Sol's judo book reviews at http://www.bstkd.com. Check 'em out.

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If you carry a pocketknife or practice with a sword, nunchaku, throwing stars, or batons, I suggest that you check your local weapon laws. In the US, see http://knifeart.com/knifeart/kniflawbysta.html. While onsite, also follow the links to your local statutes. Why? Well, to take one example, California, nunchaku are legal only inside licensed martial art schools while sticks and batons are legal only if you have passed state certified training and possess a license. Federal and city ordinances are separate matters altogether, but I don't have easy links there.

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Interested in high school wrestling? Then check out Glynn Leyshon's latest book, Mat Wars, which is about the sport in Ontario, Canada. "The sport has only been going since 1959 and even then was unofficial," says Leyshon, whose previous writings include Judoka: The History of Judo in Canada (Glouchester, Ontario: Judo Canada, 1997) and Of Mats and Men: The Story of Canadian Amateur and Olympic Wrestling from 1600 to 1984 (London, Ontario, Canada: Sports Dynamics, 1984). "It was sanctioned by the high school administration in 1961 and since 1993 has included a girl's division. The book includes some overview as well as short bios on selected individuals who reflect the time or have made an outstanding contribution as an athlete or a builder. I have collected a couple of hundred photos to illustrate the text - even including, at the risk of being immodest, a few of myself since I started the whole thing; co-authored the first 'how-to' book and co-organized the first referees' association in the country. It gives me great latitude - now I am the first author to record all his firsts!" The cost is CDN $20, including postage. To order a copy, contact the author at GLey706030@aol.com.
 

Announcements (April 2000)

For some fun stuff on professional wrestling, try http://www.phocian.com/andhttp://www.teal.org/wht.For a less sedate look at the rassling, also check out http://www.walkertown.com/wtnow.

And for people interested in Jewish athletes, there is always http://www.jewishsports.com. No boxing, though. (But where would we be without Dutch Sam, Benny Leonard, Maxie Rosenbloom, and Max Baer?)

Announcements (March 2000)

The BBC has produced a number of films related to martial arts; known topics include Shorinji kempo, kalaripayyatu, and the "Way of the Warrior" series described in Howard Reid and Michael Croucher, The Fighting Arts: Great Masters of the Martial Arts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983). I haven't checked the cost or availability, but copies of segments may be available via the BBC URL http://www.bbcfootage.com or by writing BBC Worldwide, 747 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017.

"More Than A Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community, 1885 to the Present," opens at the Japanese American National Museum, 369 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 on March 4, 2000, and runs until August. The exhibition includes displays on judo, kendo, sumo, and illustrated catalogs that include articles on these topics will be available for purchase. For further information and Museum hours, go to http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/janm/nrc.

People who subscribed to Bugeisha before it folded should check http://www.bugeisha.net;  the final edition appears online plus there are some benefits promised subscribers who lost money on issues never received.

For online discussions of Japanese martial arts, try www.e-budo.com. Meanwhile, practitioners of Chinese arts will want to check out Taijiquan Journal, a new print publication edited by Barbara Davis. The URL is www.taijiquanjournal.com; the cost is $25 for four issues.

Anyone interested in getting Japanese calligraphy for certificates or whatever, check out Mr. Goyo Ohmi at http://ejmas.com/callig_ohmi.htm.
 

Announcements (January 2000)

A forthcoming martial art documentary involving members of the EJMAS community is called "Martial Arts: The Real Story." Produced by Joel Sucher and Steven Fischler, the film is intended for broadcast on The Learning Channel. For further details, to include a RealPlayer ® video clip showing the Netherlands' Jon Bluming explaining a judo technique to producer Joel Sucher, go to http://www.pacificstreetfilms.com. Film length is anticipated at two hours.

If interested in Japanese martial arts as cultural artifacts, check out Michi Online at http://www.michionline.org. For a discussion forum, also see www.e-budo.com.

A nice site for the history of Danzan-ryu (Hawaiian jujitsu) is George Arrington's http://www.danzan.com.

Advertisers and sponsors are solicited for this and other EJMAS sites. For information, contact Kim Taylor at kataylor@ejmas.com.


Announcements (November 1999)

A forthcoming martial art documentary involving members of the EJMAS community is called "Martial Arts: The Real Story." Produced by Joel Sucher and Steven Fischler, the film is intended for broadcast on The Learning Channel.
For further details, to include a RealPlayer ® video clip showing Jon Bluming explaining a judo move to Joel Sucher, go to http://www.pacificstreetfilms.com.
Anticipated length is two hours.

The anticipated publication date of Robert W. Smith's Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th Century is now December 1999. Advance copies cost US $39.95 including postage and handling. We've seen the text, and highly recommend it. To order, telephone 1-800-455-9517 in the US or Canada, or e-mail orders@goviamedia.com.

The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles is planning an exhibition on a century of Japanese American athletics for Spring 2000. Judo, sumo, kendo, boxing, and wrestling are among the sports to be featured. Watch http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/janm/nrc for details.

The Washington State Historical Society is planning an exhibition on Filipino Americans in Washington State. Some boxing material is anticipated. The summer 1999 issue of the Society's  magazine Columbia: The Magazine of Pacific Northwest History, also included an illustrated article about sumo in Washington State and Oregon before World War II. The URL is http://www.wshs.org.

For an introduction to what is available on the Web regarding Japanese Americans and Canadians, check out http://www.najc.ca/nexus; the bibliographic essay produced by the Asian Library at the University of British Columbiais outstanding. The listing on "Sports and Martial Arts" is in my opinion weak, but that's more the fault of the sites they list than the listing itself.

Regarding Korean Americans, check out the equally nice Korean American Historical Society URL http://www.kahs.org. The current issue of their publication "Occasional Papers" includes an article on pre-WWII Korean and Korean American boxers such as JO Teiken and GEN Umio.

For an introduction to generic Asian American history, see also the University of Washington website "A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State". The URL is:
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curaaw/main.html.

-Joseph Svinth.

JCS 2003