karate
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Let’s say you’re producing a music video. A tried-and-true method is to simply splice together some clips of the artist’s last concert tour. Or, if the song hasn’t been performed live yet, you could do a “behind-the-scenes” sort of thing with footage of the singer in the studio.
But here’s what happens when you take a third option: Making a music video starring Japan’s most amazing nine-year-old karate expert.
I like to think of myself as having developed a pretty broad palate, what with the fact that I’ll happily choose to eat things such as cod roe, lotus root, and chicken tail. Still, there are a couple of culinary challenges I can’t overcome, and perhaps my greatest dinner plate foes are mushrooms. I mean, I know they’re good for you and all that, but seriously, they’re fungi, right?
Here with a counterpoint is karate word champion Rika Usami, and the ferociously awesome commercial she made in her new role as mushroom spokes-martial artist.
For those of us who grew up with kung-fu movies and fighting games, sometimes it can be hard to cope with the crushing reality that we’ll never be able to pull off backflips or spinning bird kick like Street Fighter‘s Ryu or Chun-Li, no matter how hard we try.
YouTubers CorridorDigital, found a way around the years of martial arts training required to become a King of Fighters, turning two low-level “karate students” into gravity defying, super-speed karate masters with the help of a little stop-motion video and some clever camera angles.
We at RocketNews24 previously told you about the awesome Wushu World Champion women fighters. While Japan has plenty of women who participate in Wushu (and have done rather well) more Japanese women have made names for themselves in karate, judo and taekwondo.
Japan leads the world in women’s judo and karate. Both are gendai budo martial arts, or modern Japanese martial arts that started from or after the Meiji Restoration (1866–1869). The ancient martial arts, such as jujitsu or naginatajutsu, predate the Meiji Restoration.
Women’s Judo, an Olympic sport, wasn’t instituted until the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games. While karate is not an Olympic sport, Japanese women have achieved top results in the Asian Games, the Karate World Championships, and the World Games. Japan also has a top woman in the traditional Korean martial art of taekwondo.
Let’s take a closer look at these leading Japanese martial arts practitioners who, even on a bad day could kick our collective arses.
“Aw, what an adorable little karate tot!” I thought to myself as I stumbled upon a video of seven-year-old Mahiro-chan about to do some adorable flailing. “It’s like someone put a karate gi on a Cabbage Patch Kid!”
Trembling in anticipation of some otherworldly cuteness, I clicked play and GAHHHHHHHH!!!! She’s TERRIFYING!!!!!
Karate has always been one of those martial arts forms that never really had much appeal to me. The idea of repeating the same kata routines – with names like “Black Dragon Karate Chops 20 Weasels at Midnight” or whatever – to commit the moves to muscle memory always seemed kind of boring and counter-intuitive to me.
And now, upon learning that at least one school has students train half naked, in freezing water, in the dead of winter, I’m even less inclined to try the sport. I’d rather go four rounds in the Octagon with Brock Lesnar.
Tokyo-born Rika Usami began her karate career at just 10 years old when she joined a local dojo. Progressing through a number of minor competitions during her teenage years, she soon began winning medals in tournaments in multiple countries, ultimately becoming one of the most well-known female karateka in the world and officially recognised as female kata world champion.
When it comes to kata – the performance of choreographed routines intended to demonstrate proficiency in the execution of learned movements – Rika is simply unmatched, and is admired the world over for her dazzling skills. As you can see in the following video taken during her performance at the 21st WKF World Karate Championships in France last year, her movements are fast, powerful and starlingly accurate.
Karate is a martial art which takes a high level of discipline and training to master. Those who make it to the highest ranks of the fighting technique deserve all of the respect and honor that comes along with such a position.
That being said, watching an official karate tournament on TV tends to rank somewhere around pro-bowling and bass fishing in terms of excitement. This is why seeing a video like the one on YouTube titled “Karate referee gets into the fight” is too good to be true!
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