Tweet02-04-2010 om 11:47 by Sueli Brodin

My husband looked at me in disbelief: “You have never heard of Anton Geesink?”

This was last Sunday, at the annual tournament of our children’s Judo club in Bunde. I was observing the large crowd of parents and family members who had come to watch the competition and support their Judokas and I wondered out loud why Judo was such a popular sport in the Netherlands.



Judo Club Bunde

“It all started in the 1960s with Anton Geesink,” my husband explained.

Who?

Even after living in this country for almost two decades, I realise time and again that there are still major gaps in my knowledge of important Dutch names and events.

“Everyone in the Netherlands knows about Anton Geesink,” my husband said. “Geesink was the first non-Japanese to beat a Japanese opponent at a Judo world championship and he also won the first Olympic Gold Medal in Judo. After that, he became a national hero and there was a huge enthusiasm for Judo throughout the country.”



Dutch Judoka Anton Geesink wins against his Japanese opponent at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan

Bunde’s Judo club itself was founded in 1959 – the quarterly newsletter mentions that the very first trainings were given on gunny bags filled with straw! – and the man who is now honoured as the Patron of the club, Eduard Tummers, last year received a Jubilee award to mark his 50th year of membership.



“Anton Geesink was a massive two-metre tall bulk of a man and his Japanese opponent didn’t stand a chance,” my husband continued. Later that day, when I looked at pictures and videos of Geesink’s winning matches in 1961 and 1964, it seemed indeed that the gigantic Dutchman had been able, almost effortlessly, to throw and subdue his Japanese opponent on the tatami.



A portrait of Judo founder Jigoro Kano

Yet, I thought, Geesink’s formidable posture and weight could not have been the only reasons for his victory. As conceived by its Japanese founder Jigoro Kano in 1882, one of the main assets of Judo lies in the fact that it can provide a weak and light individual with the necessary skills to overpower a physically superior opponent by turning his strength against him. Kano himself was a small, frail man.

My son Tim, 10, and my daughter Naomi, 8, have been practising Judo for the past four years. The lessons take place twice a week, including during holidays, and they’ve both been constant in their progress.



I enjoy looking at them in their white kimonos at the dojo, when they sit in seiza-style and ceremoniously bow and use Japanese words to greet the “kamiza“ (a portrait of Judo founder Jigoro Kano) and their “sensei” (teacher) at the beginning of each lesson.

Even if I don’t know what kind of impact the practise of Judo will have in my children’s future lives, I like the thought that it is giving them an opportunity to establish a personal contact with an aspect of their Japanese background.



They can count from one to five in Japanese and know the official Japanese names of several Judo throws and techniques. Together with their Judo comrades, they come and ask me to teach them how to count a bit further in Japanese, until ten, and say that Japanese sounds very “vet” (“cool”).

Judo literally means the “gentle way” or the “way of yielding” and the guiding principle behind every judo technique is to take advantage of one’s opponent’s force by giving way rather than resisting it, thus achieving “maximum efficiency with minimum effort.”



The winners show their awards


Expanding on this idea, Jigoro Kano also encouraged his students to use Judo as a means to improve themselves, not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and morally, in order to become more harmonious human beings and better contribute to society.

As I watched Tim and Naomi climb on the podium at the end of the Eduard Tummers tournament to receive their medals, I commented to my husband: “If they continue like this, they will be able to handle any physical or moral Anton Geesink, don’t you think?”

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