萬花筒 Kaleidoscope

Source:by George 

Website:http://kenshi247.net

Interpreter: myself

上段的復興

Between the years of 1961-1975 the All Japan championships were won 10 times by jodan kenshi. Chiba sensei three times, Toda and Kawazoe sensei twice, and Iho, Hotta, and Yamazaki sensei once each. During this time the largest proportion of jodan kenshi to enter the All Japans was in 1973 when, out of 56 competitors 21 were jodan fighters.

1961至1975的選手權大賽，持上段的劍士曾得過十次優勝，其中千葉仁有三次，戶田與川添二次…而這段期間也不少上段選手取得資格參賽，56名參賽者就有21名持上段。

At this time people were worried about the direction that kendo was going in (partly due to this jodan boom): i.e. that kendo was turning into just hitting something (somehow) and scoring a point is enough. Jodan, which relies on speed and surprise to a certain extent was partly blamed for this. To combat this two things came into effect, and each contributed to the demise of the popularity of jodan. First was the creation and publication of the Kendo Rinen (the Concept of Kendo) in 1975, and the second – more damaging for the jodan specialist – was the introduction of munezuki as a Yuko Datotsu (a valid point) in 1979.

看到這段期間上段的興盛，老師們也開始為劍道未來的發展擔憂，因為劍道漸漸變成打中對手並取得分數為主，快速而強力的上段在某種程度上也因此得到貶抑。為了改變這種風氣，有二個特別的原因宣告了上段的終結。第一是1975年出版的劍道的理念，第二個是1979年開放對上段者實行刺胸，在規則上認定為有效打擊。

The Kendo Rinen explicitly states what kendo is for and why you should be practising it. Shiai exists inside our kendo shugyo but it is not – and should never be – the reason we do kendo. Many people were supposedly choosing the kamae (or sometimes forced into it by zealous high school teachers) because it was advantagious in shiai.

在劍道的理念一書說明了何謂劍道與劍道的目的。比賽的存在應該只是劍道修行的一部份，而不應該是我們學習劍道的理由，而且永遠都不應該是。更何況許多人只是因為上段能在比賽中取得優勢而拿上段，或只是被學校的老師強迫練習罷了。

Munezuki as a valid target vs jodan was introduced to remove the perceived advantage jodan has over chudan in a shiai situation. This rule remained in force until 1995 and – in fact – right up until Shodai’s win today, only 1 jodan kenshi ever won the All Japans after the rules enforcement (Azuma sensei in 1983, during which time the rule was still enforced).

做為對抗上段的刺胸被引入劍道後，原有的上段優勢就消失了。這規則直到1995年都還存在者，事實上直到2012年神奈川的正代賢司贏得比賽為止，也只有1983年的Azuma(東?)得過一次優勝而已。

Even after the ban was lifted – and even now – many shinpan judge jodan quite strictly, especially in regards to katate-waza (1 handed techniques). This has also led to the decline in favour of the kamae.

之後這規則被取消後，許多裁判對於上段的審查還是非常嚴格，尤其是單手技，這也就導致了上段的式微。