Although Sensei Hidetaka Nishiyama’s International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF) was far smaller than WUKO and didn’t have sufficient numbers to gain acceptance as an Olympic sport itself, he had a sufficient number of both members and high profile supporters to prevent WUKO from being named.
To my knowledge, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) never approached karate (or most likely any other sport) and said anything like, “We have to have you in the Olympics, please, please, please join us!” Most sports go to them and beg to be included. The IOC has long felt they have too many sports already. “Why should we include your sport?” is a question every applicant must be able to answer.
To convince them to accept another sport, it must prove it has a significant number of practitioners around the world. It must be a competitive sport, not merely an activity. It must be represented by a world organization that is supported by a vast majority of the practitioners of that sport. The organization must have rules for competition that are widely accepted and in keeping with the Olympic Ideal. It must host a regular world championship, etc.
Nishiyama kept insisting that WUKO didn’t practice true karate and that the ITKF was the only world organization that did. WUKO countered with letters from many of the most traditional Shotokan stylists (and former dojomates of Nishiyama) – like JKA Managing Director and WUKO General Secretary Fusajiro Takagi, Takayuki Mikami, and others – stating that what Nishiyama advocated was no different than what WUKO practiced. (I read some of these but don’t think I have copies of any of them. If I can come up with one, I will post it along the way.)
From the reports we received, the IOC seemed convinced on several occasions that WUKO was their choice and that karate would soon be in. Then, Nishiyama would mount another attack and things would be put in limbo yet again. This went on for many years.
One of Nishiyama’s supporters was reportedly Mexican Olympic Committee Chairman, Mario Vazquez Rana, who was also president of the powerful IOC New Sport Committee, which heavily influenced which sports got in and which did not. If true, such a friend would be extremely helpful in blocking WUKO’s application and in keeping Nishiyama informed of what WUKO was saying and doing as well as advising him as to how best to thwart WUKO. (From communications I’ve read between Vazquez Rana and Nishiyama, he may have come to later regret his possible part in checking karate’s entrance. But I could be wrong on both counts. I may publish a copy of this communication sometime soon and you can be the judge.)
The IOC didn’t know what to do with karate. They wanted a unified world body, as TKD had been smart enough to give them, and tried to get the two organizations (WUKO and ITKF) to merge. But Nishiyama refused, even though WUKO offered to allow a separate division for his “traditional karate.” With too many sports in the Olympics already, the WUKO/ITKF fight gave the Olympic Committee the excuse they needed to block karate’s entrance.
People talk about “Tyranny of the Majority,” the powerful or numerous forcing their goals or desires on a small minority. But there is also “Tyranny of the Minority,” where a small number (sometimes even just one person) can bring things to a halt. If consensus is needed, one holdout can achieve this. (Court trials often see justice undone by a single holdout, for example.) Such a position can give power to the otherwise powerless (or less powerful), enabling them to achieve their goals or to right social inequities but sometimes it is used merely to stroke someone’s ego.
Someone once defined Nishiyama’s position as “If I can’t run it, I’d rather TKD got in than karate did under anyone other than me.” Many within the traditional karate world considered him a traitor, that by his long battle with WUKO and the IOC he had prevented karate’s acceptance and facilitated TKD’s. I don’t know if this is true or what his motives actually were. Jon Evans, Shotokan stylist and former head of AAU Karate, wrote an article on the subject for Black Belt Magazine in ‘88, blaming Nishiyama’s resistance on a long-standing rift within Shotokan in Japan. If you’re interested in reading more on his theory, the link is as follows: http://www.shotokai.com/ingles/interviews/wuko.html
Well, let me end this for now. I’ll have more to say about this, including a couple of personal observations relative to Sensei Nishiyama next time. Thanks again for your continued support.
No comments:
Post a Comment