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2020 All Japan Men’s Open Weight Judo Championship Reflections

January 13, 2021 By judo fan 2 Comments

Before getting started, Happy New Year! I want to express my sincere appreciation to all who have been reading this blog and following me on social media throughout 2020. I wish all readers a joyful, prosperous and blessed year in 2021.

After the conclusion of the All Japan Open Weight Championships (Dec. 26), I made my way down to my friend’s dojo to visit a former student, who will be graduating from high school and transitioning into working life. He finished his high school judo career with achievements that put him in a category that few people in Japan ever match. He was 5th in Japan as a junior high school student and the top high school athlete in the -73kg division in his prefecture.

As we were talking, he lamented the fact that he never had the chance to compete in the Nippon Budokan. It had been his dream of his to compete there since he first saw the All Japan Open Weight Judo Championships as a child. He said he was fascinated by the judo, but also by the lighting, and taiko drums, and the ceremonial atmosphere of the tournament. This tournament has an appeal that is unrivaled. It truly is one of a kind and though I don’t believe it is the toughest tournament in the world as I once did, it is still the tournament I look forward to more than any other. I believe it brings out the best that judo has to offer.

This year’s tournament was no different, though highly unusual. Aside from being held in the Kodokan without an audience, rather than the usual venue, there were a number of other peculiarities. For starters, the day began with a report in the morning that the athletes competing for Park 24 would be withdrawing from the tournament due to “poor physical condition”. Two hours later, a follow-up announcement was made that the team was withdrawing due to a positive coronavirus test, though it was unclear whether that meant it was one of their athletes, or simply someone present at the venue. Nevertheless, Yusei Ogawa, Masashi Ebinuma, and Kenta Nagasawa all withdrew abruptly from the event. With the withdrawal of defending champion Aaron Wolf due to injury, and the non-participation of Hisayoshi Harasawa, the tournament was not only wide open but also void of several favorites for the title.

Luckily for us, this ended up not mattering a great deal because viewers were still treated to some top-class judo and all the drama that one could hope for. One of the other abnormalities of this tournament was the number of athletes 90kg and below. This year, Olympic team members, alternates, and world champions were all invited to compete through a special wild card invitation, rather than having to qualify in their home region. This created a number of highly anticipated matchups between athletes with huge weight disparities, but none more intriguing than those involving the 156cm, -60kg lightweight, Ryuju Nagayama. By far the smallest athlete in the tournament, I honestly didn’t think his participation would amount to much more than some good PR for the tournament, but he put on a clinic for how smaller athletes can deal with the heavyweights. His former teammate at Tokai University and current national team member Daigo Kagawa told us that Nagayama holds his own against heavyweights in practice but it is still hard to believe how well he competed.

Unlike other lightweights who have entered the open weight tournament before him, namely Masato Uchishiba and Naohisa Takato, Nagayama’s strategy was not to overwhelm opponents with his speed and a refusal to engage for long periods of time when coming to grips. Rather, Nagayama was at ease being gripped and didn’t seem to be as rushed as his predecessors did. He looked much more assured of himself. He went on to lose a long and drawn out match against Kentaro Iida, who was my pick to win the entire tournament, but he put in a performance that proved he was in every way deserving of his invitation to compete at this tournament. He said his purpose in entering the tournament was to set an example for smaller children that they could compete against larger children. Mission accomplished.

All that said, as a former world champion, Nagayama was still not the day’s biggest underdog. That title belonged to Ryusuke Ishihara (28), a journeyman making his debut in this tournament, that would also serve as his retirement tournament, which he announced back in November. Competing for the tiny corporate team, TOEI, located in Asahikawa City, he brought with him the least amount of credentials out of the entire field of competitors but ended the day with the most viral throw of the tournament.

With an apparently dislocated shoulder and gash in his head from his previous match, as well as giving up 55kg to Takeshi Ojitani (three-time winner of this event), he produced a throw that will be remembered for a very long time. He can retire with his head held high and be able to tell his grandchildren about the time he went toe-to-toe with the best in the world. It is precisely moments like these make this tournament unlike any other.

I would give my vote to Ishihara for tournament MVP, except he was outdone by -81kg international, Takeshi Sasaki. Injuries and inconsistency have plagued Sasaki’s career for a number of years now, but when he is going well, I believe he is the best -81kg athlete in Japan, and he showed why at the tournament. It was unfortunate he was injured in his semi-final match against his arch-rival, Hyoga Ota in a rematch of their nail-biting final in the All Japan University Championships, but he showed the best judo of the day, in my opinion, beating two former champions (Hirotaka Kato and Takeshi Ojitani) as well as perennial contender, Kyohei Kakita.

I think that if there is anyone in Japan in the -81kg category that can win this tournament someday, it is him. Hopefully, he can stay injury-free between now and next April when he will have the chance to give it another shot.

Speaking of next April, while it is exciting that the tournament will be held again so soon from now, it is disappointing that the police officers won’t have more time to prepare. It was repeatedly discussed during the broadcast that the police officers were at a huge disadvantage at this tournament as they weren’t able to practice much, if hardly at all in the past year due to the coronavirus. Though many had anticipated Hirotaka Kato making another run at the title, he seemed to be a lot heavier than he usually is, probably due to the fact that he wasn’t able to train regularly. Since most police teams have committed to not practicing until at least the end of March, it is unlikely that we will see any improvements in his performance at the next tournament in April. Unfortunately for Kato, he is now 35 and one has to wonder how many more times we will get to see him compete.

Ryu Shichinohe, another top contender just a few years ago lost in the first round to a -81kg athlete, Sedai Sato and has publicly stated that he is contemplating whether or not he will continue his judo career. For Shichinohe, it is almost inconceivable that he hasn’t been able to win this tournament given his achievements internationally. Unfortunately for him, it seems time has passed him by.

It was also inconceivable that the winner of this tournament, Ryunosuke Haga hadn’t won a title until this year. Luckily for him, time certainly has not passed him by. The 29-year-old narrowly missed making his second Olympic team last year after battling back from injuries. Though he didn’t look particularly spectacular throughout the day, he always seemed in control of his matches, gauging his efforts and never running out of gas. He competed like a veteran and true master of judo. At 29 years of age, he may not be able to stick around until Paris in 2024, but one more world championship seems like it could well be within reach. Congratulations to Ryunosoke Haga and thank you to all of the athletes who made this tournament so enjoyable!

Though it is unlikely we will get to see the Olympic athletes compete at the next All Japan Championships, such is the nature of this event that we can be assured of another great spectacle as it never ceases to disappoint. I’m already looking forward to April 29th, when it will happen all over again.

2020 [35th] All Japan Women’s Judo Championships and Olympic Alternate Ramblings

December 30, 2020 By judo fan Leave a Comment

All Japan Women’s Judo Championship 2020

The year is done, and for many, good riddance. Luckily, the year ended with some really good judo, and the All Japan Women’s Judo Championships was a great way to finish things off.

Since the full tournament is online, there won’t be any match analysis here, but instead, just a few reflections on the tournament.

The highlight of the preliminary rounds for most was watching 18-year-old Moka Kuwagata defeat 2x world champion, Sara Asahina. Kuwagata attends the same high school that world champion Uta Abe went to and has been one of the top junior athletes in Japan for the past few years. She was a silver medalist at the Cadet World Championships in 2019 and won the All Japan Inter-high School Championships as a first-year high school student in 2018. At 70kg, she gave up 65kg to Asahina, who was the heaviest athlete in the tournament. The match itself was fairly uneventful with Asahina picking up three penalties and being disqualified, but Kuwagata showed incredible heart and put in lots of good attacks. She showed her win was not a fluke by beating some very good athletes on her way to 3rd place overall. This is a great start in her push for the 2024 Olympics as the next cycle gets underway.

In winning her first All Japan Championships (open weight), Wakaba Tomita has put together a very impressive streak of wins, winning the tournament in a final that was a repeat of last month’s Kodokan Cup where she faced off against her teammate (Komatsu), Akemi Hashimoto. She has now won back-to-back Kodokan Cup tournaments and along with this title has shown very consistent results domestically. This, of course, gives her the best possible start to a new Olympic cycle, but before that, we need to ask why she isn’t named as the alternate in this Olympic cycle. While the decisions have already been made, and only a disaster would see her filling the Olympic alternate spot, her performance here warrants an alternate spot on the 2020 team, considering the abysmal performance of Asahina, who really seems to out of sorts in terms of her judo career.

As you may recall, Akira Sone became the first Japanese athlete to be named to the Olympic team after winning the 2019 World Championships, immediately followed by her win at the Osaka Grand Slam later that year. Sara Asahina was named the alternate, but one has to wonder if that decision was made prematurely. Earlier this year, she quit her Park 24 trade team and enrolled in medical school at Dokkyo Medical University. Her original plan was to retire from judo at the 2020 Tokyo Grand Slam after the Olympics, but with the postponement of Tokyo 2020, she has committed to continuing until the 2021 Tokyo Grand Slam.

It has been an understandably difficult period for Asahina, as she has made some major life changes, moving from Tokyo to Tochigi Prefecture, entering medical school and picking up a new corporate sponsor (Big Tree Sports Club in Tochigi). It seems she doesn’t even have elite athletes to train with in her area. After her latest loss to Kuwagata, she said she wasn’t making excuses, but that the tournament conflicted with some tests that she had at medical school, which did not allow proper preparation. Anyone who has studied and tried to compete in elite-level sports knows how difficult it is to study while competing at an elite level, so her result is entirely understandable. The problem lies in the fact that she is the current Olympic alternate.

As we saw from the withdrawal of the entire Park 24 men’s team due to a positive case of COVID-19 in the men’s tournament, Asahina is only one positive test away from becoming the 2021 Tokyo Olympian, which is quite a possible scenario given the current circumstances. With everything going on in the world, who knows what might happen.

As tough as it is to continue training as an alternate, she has agreed to the task and she needs to do right by those who entrusted her with the job.　As a 2x World Champion, Asahina may understandably view her spot as the alternate as a demotion of sorts, but for someone like Tomita or her teammate, Hashimoto, the title of Olympic alternate and the opportunity to attend the Olympic games and be a part of the experience would most likely be a welcomed opportunity, and possibly even the experience of a lifetime. How many people on earth can actually say they were an Olympic alternate? Hopefully, this all becomes a moot point and Akira Sone is able to compete as planned next summer, but it’s food for thought. Perhaps the alternates were named too soon? A similar case could be made in the men’s -100kg division, with the Olympic alternate, Kentaro Iida losing to a fairly unknown journeyman last week, while his rival Ryunosuke Haga won after battling back from years of injuries. Haga looks to be back to back to full strength, but maybe just a few months too late.

Rant aside, this tournament, as always, was a great event. It was great that the All Japan Judo Federation streamed the preliminary matches online. I hope they continue this in the future. It was unfortunate that Natsumi Tsunoda and Ai Shishime, the two lightweight entrants drew such good opponents in their first matches of the day. Tsunoda fought -57kg Olympic alternate Momo Tamaoki, and Shishime fought -78 Olympic alternate Mami Umeki. Surely lots of people were hoping they’d go a little further in the tournament, but that’s the nature of judo.

Men’s tournament review coming up…

Hifumi Abe vs Joshiro Maruyama was worthy of all the hype, and then some

December 15, 2020 By judo fan 6 Comments

https://www.chunichi.co.jp/article_photo_chuspo/list?article_id=169759&pid=599112

With all the buzz on the internet, I hesitate to write anything, because there isn’t a whole lot I can contribute at this point. Labeled the Ganryujima of the Reiwa Era, this match went above and beyond the buildup.

First of all, not that either of them are ever going to read this, but THANK YOU. THANK. YOU. When my 2.5 year-old son is old enough to appreciate the magnitude of this event and what it meant for judo, I will be sure to tell him about the sacrifices you both made to being the best in your sport and reaching a level in judo that few will ever reach. The match was a beauty to watch, but even more beautiful than that, were the stories you brought with you onto the tatami that evening.

Here are some thoughts on the match:

Abe was totally jacked for this fight. Abe came into the match in the best shape we have ever seen him in. Ryo Kawabata (All Japan Champion, 2-0 vs Takato), one of the color commentators of the event mentioned that he has never seen Abe in the physical shape he was in that night. His facial features indicate he took on a massive weight cut, likely due to the added muscle mass he put on in preparation for this match.

Amano Sensei was the co-champion of the night. I mentioned this in my interview with Dave Roman on the Judo Chop Suey Podcast, where I said the hardest job for the night would be that of the referee. Amano Sensei did a superb job officiating the match. I said on the podcast that there was no way this would be decided on penalties, and I am glad she let them scrap it out until the end. If this was an IJF event, she would have officiated it differently, but this wasn’t and she had to juggle a lot of variables when making the calls she did. In my opinion, she is the best referee in the world right now.

Abe was the rightful winner. There has been some disagreement on the internet about who should have won and whether the format created the proper context to choose an athlete for the Olympics, but I think Abe deserved the win in every way possible. Here is why:

He never deviated from the plan: The gameplan for Abe from the outset was that he wouldn’t let Maruyama get his lapel and surely wouldn’t let Maruyama get two hands on the gi for any length of time. For 24 minutes, he frustrated Maruyama and though he wasn’t 100% successful, especially in the latter portion of the match, Maruyama had very little time to take the match into his comfort zone, where he can throw with one hand on the lapel and one hand on the sleeve. Abe did a great job of adjusting his tactics from previous matches. His use of ashiwaza to keep Maruyama from gaining enough balance to improve on his grip or setup an attack was clearly something he planned and it worked with great efficiency.
His confidence was on full display. Perhaps I am reading too far into this one, but one of the first things I noticed was that the coach he elected to have in the coach’s box was none other than Naohisa Takato’s training partner, Naoki Itami. I would have thought it would have been either Hidehiko Yoshida, his Park 24 head coach, or perhaps Masaru Tanabe, head coach of the Nippon Sports Science University where Abe is an alumnus and frequently trains. Instead, it was a friend of his, similar in age, who lacks extensive coaching experience and has never competed at an international level. Someday I hope to ask why he chose Itami to corner him at the biggest match of his life, but at the moment I really have no solid guesses. What I do know is that it shows that Abe is supremely confident in himself to make such decisions, and it was the right choice as he came out the winner.
He didn’t gas this time: One of the problems that Abe had in previous matches was that when he would start to tire, he would actually turn up the gas and increase his attack rate, partially hoping that he could win on penalties. This would inevitably lead to losing some focus and getting countered. This time, he maintained his concentration throughout the entire match. Sure, the breaks in between were advantageous, but those things happen in judo and are part of the game. Whether he could or couldn’t have kept this amount of gas in the tank if it were a tournament is irrelevant. Both prepared for one match, and Abe had better preparation.
He won the grip fighting contest. This is similar to point number one, but worth a quick mention. Abe has a great tsurikomigoshi and can throw with both sleeves. He can also throw immediately off of the grip and in a scramble. Maruyama is much less comfortable in these situations and Abe did a great job of keeping the match on his terms in a realm that he is most comfortable in. Maruyama rarely established the inside grip on the lapel and had to settle for going around towards the back of the shoulder. Though he started to improve later in the match, Abe still won the gripping sequences the majority of the time.

There are other reasons, but I think those are the ones I noticed for the most part. Under the circumstances, Abe figured out how to win, and I personally think that his preparation and strategy was the better of the two. His improvements in certain areas really showed in the contest.

Joshiro Maruyama just lacked that extra 1%. Let me state my bias upfront, but even after that match, I still think Joshiro Maruyama has the best judo technique in the world. He has such a huge range of throws; he can throw left and right, he has good sutemi waza and excellent newaza (though we rarely get to see it). While Abe sometimes shows his own range of techniques in lesser matches, when the pressure is on, Maruyama has more arrows in his quiver.

This was the equivalent of the Olympic finals and if he were to be selected for the Olympics, he would likely come home the champion. Let’s not forget that this match was unbelievably close and really could have gone in several different directions depending on who was refereeing. I think he just lacked that final 1% that would have put him over the top. I think it was clear that he prepared well physically, and showed some new techniques that we hadn’t seen in previous matches. I also think he was the better of the two for most of the golden score period, but he never figured out how to beat Abe in the gripping department, and that was the deciding factor. Without the grips, he couldn’t get his uchimata going and was perhaps a bit too cautious to go for more risky gripping sequences.

He has said he would continue, and I hope he does because I think he still has one more world championship to win before he hangs it up.

Kosei Inoue, the Kodokan and AJJF staff deserve a lot of recognition. A match like this would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. I doubt the Kodokan would have ever allowed the made-for-tv atmosphere, let alone the blue judogi. In the end though, this was a huge win for judo. It put judo on a stage that I have never seen in Japan. The buildup was bigger than anything I could have imagined.

The one-match format was the correct format. The one-match format was criticized by lots of people, including athletes in Japan. At the end of the day though, having them fight more matches wouldn’t have changed anything. This format showed who would be able to better adjust and prepare for the given challenge and in my opnion, Abe came in the better prepared. Either way, the All Japan Judo Federation already knew they have the most likely gold medalist in the category regardless of the outcome and this was simply a formality to provide a fair and clear way to choose their athlete. They would have no problems going with Maruyama if he had won.

Finally, there has been a lot of comments from top level athletes in Japan, including Satoshi Ishii and Yuka Nishida (who herself lost a heartbreaking match to decide the -52kg representative in London 2012) which I hope to share later this week, so please check back in. This was probably the most fun I have had writing a post since I started this blog. Thanks again, Hifumi Abe and Joshiro Maruyama.

Guest on the Judo Chop Suey Podcast to Discuss the Maruyama/Abe Supermatch

November 26, 2020 By judo fan 6 Comments

Judo Chop Suey Podcast, Episode 84

This is just a short blog post to announce that I was very fortunate to be a guest on Dave Roman’s Judo Chop Suey Podcast. I have been listening to it since the very beginning and I have always enjoyed his insights into judo since I am not very familiar with what is happening in judo outside of Japan.

SOURCE: https://www.sankei.com/west/news/190905/wst1909050009-n1.html

In this episode, we discuss the match that will take place between Joshiro Maruyama and Hifumi Abe on Dec. 13. I did my best to do some match analysis and give my predictions about the outcome of the match.

This was my first time being on a podcast and I realized after listening, I made a few factual mistakes. It’s really hard to think on the spot, so please forgive me!

Akira Sone is not training in Tokyo, but rather Fukuoka, where her high school is located.
Maruyama and Abe have met outside of a finals round on 2 occasions, once in a quarterfinals match in 2015 and once in a semi-finals match at the World Championships in 2019.
I want to also clarify that many of the top police officers are indeed training, though under more restricted conditions than normal. At the moment, many police departments have opted to cease normal practice protocol until March 31, 2021, with the exception being top athletes with national and international competitions coming up. My interview may have given the impression that the police teams are not practicing at all.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the interview and be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Dave Roman has just hit his 4-year mark on the Judo Chop Suey Podcast, so congratulations to him! It was a pleasure being allowed an opportunity to join his podcast and hopefully we can do it again.

As you may have noticed, I am trying to increase my output with this blog and I am really thankful to all who have continued to follow me after more than 2 years of going silent.