Rising Series III: Satsuki
May 20, 1995 in Kagoshima, Japan
Kagoshima Arena drawing 3,482
WERE WE TO CONSTRUCT OR INDEED COMPOSE AS THOUGH SONG A RINGS-NO-KATA (リングの形, "Forms of Rings"), of which waza (技) might it consist? Would we organize these representative techniques in groups according to their classification broadly (nage-waza [投げ技, throwing techniques], atemi-waza [当て身技, body-striking techniques], shime-waza [絞技, strangulation techniques], kansetsu-waza [関節技, bone-locking techniques])? I would say probably we should, yes; I would also suggest that five sets of three waza seems a fine place to start, and we can adjust it from there should we find that insufficient (which we may, but if we select or our waza wisely we should not). Should the progression through these techniques form a narrative of not just pedagogic but æsthetic value, as in the several kata of Kodokan Judo? I would argue that definitely, for sure it should. Uke shall be the aggressor, unwise in waza but adjusting his/her attacks inevitably foiled by the lore-wise tori who enacts each successive stage of waza as his/her partner grows in wariness. It will be utterly remarkable. Let us scheme on it. What place shall Volk Han's Double-Agony-in-Man hold in this schema? Surely one of privilege -- though, I would argue, not of primacy, which, if one must be granted (and perhaps it should not), would fall to Ude-Hishigi-Juji-Gatame (腕挫十字固), which google translate renders as "an armored cross," which is heavy to me.
Lost in such thought as I have been you will understand and sympathize with the extent to which I have let much of this thirty-minute draw between Wataru Sakata and Nobuhiro Tsurumaki pass me by but please know that it is has been my steady companion throughout these critical and maybe even crucial musings on RINGS as its own distinct martial way whose waza must be preserved in kata and perhaps even densho (伝書, transmission scrolls, literally "written teachings") though I suppose these tapes that we study here together are themselves the densho. As thirty-minute-RINGS-openers-contested-between-young-lions go this is a fine one, and it is a genre of which I am probably kind of a lot more fond than are most other people (if we consider the population broadly this has to be true). Yuji Shimada raises the arms of both men.
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka continues to come to the ring in a sleeveless but puffy Adidas vest as though it were not even a big deal but he's incorrect in that it is in fact a huge deal.
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| tkvest.blogspot.com |
His foe on this day shall be Sotir Gotchev, who usually has totally good matches, and I feel that his ability to usually have totally good matches combined with TK's ability to have literally the best matches should result in a match . . . of quality. Gotchev is taller than Kohsaka, somewhat slimmer though I will not say leaner (that would be untrue); he is kind of slim yet loose, this Gotchev, but that is his affair and we need not address ourselves to it beyond noting it. KOUCHI-MAKIKIMOI (小内巻込, minor inner form of winding) INTO ASHI-DORI-GARAMI (leg-taking-entanglement) WHAT SORCERY IS THIS this is a major achievement in shoot-style judo and I really can't believe what I am seeing here and judging from his reaction after the rope-break neither can TK himself?
The crowd is supremely into this technique also. That thing where I accidentally slow the playback speed when trying to back the tape up happened again so the commentator is like KOOOOOOOSHAAAAAAKAAAA TSUUUUUYOOOOOOSHIIIIIII but with like an ogre's voice and it is a pretty crazy time for me. A single-legged kani-basami (flying crab scissor) is TK's next move and though it finds him clutching the ropes after Gotchev's kata-ashi-hishigi (single-leg-Boston-crab) counter it was worth it. TREMENDOUS belly-to-belly form of ura-nage from Sotir Gotchev as this match continues to dare to be great. Kohsaka's juji-gatame is true but alas too near the ropes to end the bout. Knees to his general upper-area put Kohsaka down but he beats the count and continues his winding, low leg attacks, this time into an arm-in front choke turned to juji-gatame turned to a straight mae-hadaka-jime (another kind of front choke). Gotchev is getting work in, too, mostly in the form of nice big throws displaying his souplesse (as an affectation let's all say "souplesse" instead of suplex, seriously it will be great) but I would argue he might want to ease off slightly on the standing full-nelsons (this one led to a fine saka-otoshi/headlong-drop type throw so why fight it, I guess). Soon thereafter Gotchev finishes with hadaka-jime, that nakedmost of strangles, at 8:30 with TK's legs all tied up underneath to such an extent that a foot-lock was at the very least implied. Excellent match!
The steady hand of Masayuki Naruse will try itself against Herman Renting whose work I still do not particularly enjoy so longtime readers and even I suppose new ones just reading this sentence right now will be able to deduce where my sympathies lie. Renting has tossed Naruse over the top rope and earned himself a yellow card but to me that is hansoku make, a grave infringement, and deserving of a direct disqualification:
Referee Yuji Shimada is, to his credit, very much his own man, and will not be swayed by my certain bias against all of Herman Renting's deeds (Herman Renting opened an orphanage but only so people would say he was good). What starts as a rolling front-choke (mae-hadaka-jime) ends as a tidy little kubi-hishigi neck crank and this day at least has been won by Herman Renting at 5:21.
Masayuki Naruse and Mitsuya Nagai are so close to being the same guy as far as RINGS is concerned that whenever they aren't competing against each other, their matches are on back-to-back; I have not checked to make sure this is actually what always or usually or even often happens, but maintain that it is true emotionally at the very least (feelings matter). The Q&A segment this week address Mitsuya Nagai and the subject of his recent wedding (Akira Maeda attended and is not known to have assaulted anyone). My best to the young couple!
Before the newly-wed Nagai joins the fray against Andrei Kopilov I should note that Yoshihisa Yamamoto joined the commentary team earlier as clips of his bout with Rickson Gracie were aired; they no doubt discussed his lengthy showing (against this unbeatable legend) but I am woefully inept in the field of understanding what Japanese people are saying when they aren't saying body parts or describing exceedingly basic movements, please forgive me once more. Andrei Kopilov very early on secures the closest thing to a shoot(style) figure-four leg-lock any of us are likely to see and it is quite a moment. Do you recall the first time you applied the figure four for real, to, let's say, your brother? Or indeed had it applied to you, by let's also say your brother? The figure-four, we all learned then and should perhaps remind ourselves now, is legit. But no hold is more legit than the ude-hishigi-juji-gatame that for example Mitsuya Nagai has just now applied, even if its end result was that he found himself hoisted aloft and tangled up in the ropes, saved from a terrible fall only by Yuji Shimada's timely intervention. HARAI GOSHI (払腰), the sweeping hip throw of Andrei Kopilov delights the crowd! Everybody loves a big throw! And why not! They are really great! And kind of feel like magic, a little, when they happen, even though it is claimed that they are physics. I have always been a better ne waza (ground technique) player and now teacher than tachi waza (standing technique) but groundwork has always seemed to me entirely rational whereas throwing can seem that way but can also feel completely mystical when it's happening, I don't know how to really talk about this, and perhaps now is not the time, as Mitsuya Nagai has kneed Kopilov unto knockout at 8;00 of yet another really very good match.
GROM ZAZA RETURNS AND HE HAS A T-SHIRT:
I am reminded that I guess it must have been five years or so ago, there was a new line of RINGS shirts and sweaters, perhaps to coincide with the the relaunch of the RINGS: Outsiders small-time mixed fight shows (they will not be reviewed here; we must accept certain limits) and if any of us had had any sense at all we would have bought two of each of every item, because the taste-level exhibited in these garments was truly -- and clearly I do not say this lightly -- RINGS-level. I am in no way a collector of MERCH or really of any material object except for judo books (I really like judo books and I can tell myself that they improve my teaching and so enrich my students [they do, plainly, but I would still get them even if they didn't, probably, so I'm not sure what counts here]) but I will admit that my eye has been turned when recent RINGS searching has revealed that you can get old TK and Yamamoto figures for quite reasonable prices except for that they have to shipped from Japan as though they were Koji Komuro's judo book that he signs and then mails you and it turns out to be exquisite. The only problem is that contemplating such a purchase even momentarily turns one toward the Sanae Kikuta Pancrase figure, which is super cheap and which looks so great in his little GRABAKA judogi, but which is from the same ebay seller who has the big-headed Hidehiko Yoshida PRIDE FC toy (not the little one, the little one stinks) that is expensive but which maybe you could get the guy to combine the shipping on? So it's not even worth thinking about any of it because before you know it you're a hundred dollars in like an absolute fool. so just let it all go, man, you don't need any more things. WILLIE WILLIAMS! I thought he had retired like eight times! I even wrote a special RINGS Blog supplement where we considered his matches against Antonio Inoki! What was it all for! Although I suppose art is autotelic and thus its own end! Grom Zaza is so good. Willie Williams, love him though we do, is very old and very slow, and so it falls to Grom (who we should all go as for Hallowe'en next year, let's figure out how) to do pretty much everything, up to and including falling over and lying on his face for a while after a knee at 6:47; karate is strong.
Finally we have a RANKING MATCH (the last one might have been one too, I am have failed you) between Akira Maeda and Nikolai Zouev. That the crowd chants MA-E-DA MA-E-DA is self-evident, why even address it. The commentator says "sambo" a lot as Zouev enters the ring, which is only right I suppose. A workmanlike RINGS main-event follows that is an exemplar not of the heights to which RINGS could at its best ascend (the highest in all of græpplart, as we have seen already, and which we will see again) but instead of the overall show-to-show quotidian sikkness of its style. Akira Maeda's juji-gatame entries looked stronger than usual, his hadaka-jime finish with legs grape-vined at 9:10 stronger still.
This was a very very good show!
AH, BUT DAVE MELTZER, WHAT SAID HE OF IT:
May 29, 1995:
"5/20 Kagoshima (RINGS - 3,482): Wataru Sakata d Naoki Tsurumaki, Sotir Gotchev b Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Herman Renting b Masayoshi Naruse, Mitsuya Nagai b Andrei Kopilov, Willie Williams b Grom Zaza, Akira Maeda b Nikolai Zouev"
Referee Yuji Shimada is, to his credit, very much his own man, and will not be swayed by my certain bias against all of Herman Renting's deeds (Herman Renting opened an orphanage but only so people would say he was good). What starts as a rolling front-choke (mae-hadaka-jime) ends as a tidy little kubi-hishigi neck crank and this day at least has been won by Herman Renting at 5:21.
Masayuki Naruse and Mitsuya Nagai are so close to being the same guy as far as RINGS is concerned that whenever they aren't competing against each other, their matches are on back-to-back; I have not checked to make sure this is actually what always or usually or even often happens, but maintain that it is true emotionally at the very least (feelings matter). The Q&A segment this week address Mitsuya Nagai and the subject of his recent wedding (Akira Maeda attended and is not known to have assaulted anyone). My best to the young couple!
Before the newly-wed Nagai joins the fray against Andrei Kopilov I should note that Yoshihisa Yamamoto joined the commentary team earlier as clips of his bout with Rickson Gracie were aired; they no doubt discussed his lengthy showing (against this unbeatable legend) but I am woefully inept in the field of understanding what Japanese people are saying when they aren't saying body parts or describing exceedingly basic movements, please forgive me once more. Andrei Kopilov very early on secures the closest thing to a shoot(style) figure-four leg-lock any of us are likely to see and it is quite a moment. Do you recall the first time you applied the figure four for real, to, let's say, your brother? Or indeed had it applied to you, by let's also say your brother? The figure-four, we all learned then and should perhaps remind ourselves now, is legit. But no hold is more legit than the ude-hishigi-juji-gatame that for example Mitsuya Nagai has just now applied, even if its end result was that he found himself hoisted aloft and tangled up in the ropes, saved from a terrible fall only by Yuji Shimada's timely intervention. HARAI GOSHI (払腰), the sweeping hip throw of Andrei Kopilov delights the crowd! Everybody loves a big throw! And why not! They are really great! And kind of feel like magic, a little, when they happen, even though it is claimed that they are physics. I have always been a better ne waza (ground technique) player and now teacher than tachi waza (standing technique) but groundwork has always seemed to me entirely rational whereas throwing can seem that way but can also feel completely mystical when it's happening, I don't know how to really talk about this, and perhaps now is not the time, as Mitsuya Nagai has kneed Kopilov unto knockout at 8;00 of yet another really very good match.
GROM ZAZA RETURNS AND HE HAS A T-SHIRT:
I am reminded that I guess it must have been five years or so ago, there was a new line of RINGS shirts and sweaters, perhaps to coincide with the the relaunch of the RINGS: Outsiders small-time mixed fight shows (they will not be reviewed here; we must accept certain limits) and if any of us had had any sense at all we would have bought two of each of every item, because the taste-level exhibited in these garments was truly -- and clearly I do not say this lightly -- RINGS-level. I am in no way a collector of MERCH or really of any material object except for judo books (I really like judo books and I can tell myself that they improve my teaching and so enrich my students [they do, plainly, but I would still get them even if they didn't, probably, so I'm not sure what counts here]) but I will admit that my eye has been turned when recent RINGS searching has revealed that you can get old TK and Yamamoto figures for quite reasonable prices except for that they have to shipped from Japan as though they were Koji Komuro's judo book that he signs and then mails you and it turns out to be exquisite. The only problem is that contemplating such a purchase even momentarily turns one toward the Sanae Kikuta Pancrase figure, which is super cheap and which looks so great in his little GRABAKA judogi, but which is from the same ebay seller who has the big-headed Hidehiko Yoshida PRIDE FC toy (not the little one, the little one stinks) that is expensive but which maybe you could get the guy to combine the shipping on? So it's not even worth thinking about any of it because before you know it you're a hundred dollars in like an absolute fool. so just let it all go, man, you don't need any more things. WILLIE WILLIAMS! I thought he had retired like eight times! I even wrote a special RINGS Blog supplement where we considered his matches against Antonio Inoki! What was it all for! Although I suppose art is autotelic and thus its own end! Grom Zaza is so good. Willie Williams, love him though we do, is very old and very slow, and so it falls to Grom (who we should all go as for Hallowe'en next year, let's figure out how) to do pretty much everything, up to and including falling over and lying on his face for a while after a knee at 6:47; karate is strong.
Finally we have a RANKING MATCH (the last one might have been one too, I am have failed you) between Akira Maeda and Nikolai Zouev. That the crowd chants MA-E-DA MA-E-DA is self-evident, why even address it. The commentator says "sambo" a lot as Zouev enters the ring, which is only right I suppose. A workmanlike RINGS main-event follows that is an exemplar not of the heights to which RINGS could at its best ascend (the highest in all of græpplart, as we have seen already, and which we will see again) but instead of the overall show-to-show quotidian sikkness of its style. Akira Maeda's juji-gatame entries looked stronger than usual, his hadaka-jime finish with legs grape-vined at 9:10 stronger still.
This was a very very good show!
AH, BUT DAVE MELTZER, WHAT SAID HE OF IT:
May 29, 1995:
"5/20 Kagoshima (RINGS - 3,482): Wataru Sakata d Naoki Tsurumaki, Sotir Gotchev b Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Herman Renting b Masayoshi Naruse, Mitsuya Nagai b Andrei Kopilov, Willie Williams b Grom Zaza, Akira Maeda b Nikolai Zouev"
"The biggest show of the past week was the UWFI cared on 5/17 in Osaka which drew 6,000 fans as Nobuhiko Takada made Joe Malenko submit in 21:36 on top. The biggest story of the show was Masahito Kakihara (23) beating Gary Albright via submission in 11:09. It was the first time a member of the "big three" of UWFI (Takada, Vader and Albright) had ever lost to anyone other than another of the "big three." With interest seemingly falling and Rings having created a new young star in Yoshihisa Yamamoto [GOOD FOR HIM!--ed.], it was time for UWFI to kick-start one of its younger wrestlers. The win sets up a title match in June with Takada defending against Kakihara, with Albright-Vader as the semi, which logically this time would be an Albright win. There was a win on the show for the veterans over the younger guys when Kazuo Yamazaki beat Kiyoshi Tamura"
"Rings drew 3,482 fans to Kagoshima on 5/20 with Akira Maeda over Nikolai Zouev on top. Yamamoto missed the show still out of action from injuries suffered in the match with Rickson Gracie. Yamamoto was at a wedding [YEAH, MITSUYA NAGAI'S!--ed.] this past week and still has a patch over his eye from the Vale Tudo match. That's the down side of making a rep in that type of environment in that he's missed two cards. Yamamoto is supposed to return on 6/17 and will be given the main event at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum against Volk Han on a Japan vs. Russia show with mainly new Russians debuting. Don Nakaya Neilsen, a retired kick boxer who had a legendary mixed match against Akira Maeda in 1986, debuts for Rings against Mitsuya Nagai on the show. 7/18 in Osaka will be headlined by Maeda vs. David Hahareshivili [OOOOHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIT--ed.], a Russian [Georgian--ed.] who won the gold medal [well, one of them, "a" gold medal--ed.] in judo at the 1992 Olympics."
"Saw a tape (edited highlight form) of Vale Tudo. This was largely proof of what UFC proponents have been saying about the gloves making fights more dangerous. With gloves to protect the fighters hand, these matches turned more into punching battles and there were more shut eyes and injuries, plus with the gloves on, it kills using ones hands for gripping and takes the game away from the wrestlers. Actually, the ground fighters still won at the end in almost every case, it just took them a lot longer and the matches were both sloppier and less entertaining because of the gloves and the ring. Yamamoto did have Gracie in a front facelock a few times and people sensed he had a chance to win. As far as Craig Pittman, he easily won his first round match against the kick boxer. Yuki Nakai, who beat Pittman in the semis, actually had his eyes shut early in the first round against Gerard Gordeau, but still lasted four rounds of either stalling or getting unmercifully pounded on without quitting, before finally taking Gordeau off his feet and making him submit to an ankle lock. He then gave up more than 100 pounds and almost total eyesight against Pittman, who started punching him out at the beginning. Because of the huge size difference, it looked like a big kid playing with a small puppy. Pittman appeared to get tired and it got a lot slower. The submission was called too quickly, however."
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