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Carlo Oletti, sailor and judoka –

The sailor Carlo Oletti, pioneer of judo in Italy”, a book written by Andrea and Yuri Ferretti and Giuseppe Galasso for the types of Luni Editrice, is a cross-section of the history of the Italian Navy, engaged in the Pacific in the years of the first globalization, it is the biography of the sailor Oletti, a passionate student and interpreter of the school of judo by Master Jigoro Kano, and is a work on martial arts not to be missed. Our review focuses on this aspect in particular. The sporting and educational aspects of judo are known above all, very well treated in the book.

Joseph Galasso

Less known is the therapeutic aspect, due to the circulation of energy, Qi in China, Ki in Japan, which is cultivated with breathing and form (kata) and in combat, following a conscious practice, prevails over the application exclusive of force. Eastern culture is substantially animist in its various meanings and specificities, including territorial ones, and tends to consider the person in a necessary relationship with nature and the beneficial (and malevolent) forces that emanate from it.

This characteristic of judo, as well as of other oriental disciplines, including wing chun, of which Bruce Lee was an unforgettable interpreter before developing his system called jeet kune do, is correctly stated in the book, thanks to the evident awareness of the authors, in turn expert practitioners of judo. The topic, of great medical and social interest, could be explored in a forthcoming dissemination effort dedicated to young and very young people, perhaps in schools, and to the elderly who want to improve their living conditions.

The treatment of the subject, very delicate even from a legal point of view, of self-defense does not escape the authors, presented through the illustrations of the techniques of inhibition of the adversary’s action, which do not require beatings. But it is specified, in another part, that the discipline is martial, therefore preparatory to real combat even in the phase preceding the grabbing, and therefore also provides for the training of blows carried out with the fist, the cut of the hand and the legs, prudently excluded from sporting competitions. In fact, in the early history of competitions in Japan, it was not uncommon for the confrontation between champions to end with the death of one of the two contenders. To conclude, judo is a physical and mental discipline which contributes to the self-esteem of the practitioners, no less than to their personal safety in case of need. All this is very well explained in the book, which we recommend reading.

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