Angry White Pyjamas
Angry White pajamas is a book written by Robert Twigger with the subtitle A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons From the Tokyo Riot Police, which mainly deals with the Senshusei course, an 11-month training program of the Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo. Edit source text
The book plays in Tokyo in the mid-1990s. Robert Twigger lives with two friends in a small apartment near the city center. They all decide to start Yoshinkan-Aikidō to get fit and break out of their monotonous life.
Soon after the beginning of normal training, Twigger decides that the only way to truly experience Aikido is the Senshusei course, an extremely stressful eleven-month program for the training of Yoshinkan Aikido teachers. The course consists of four hours of training on five days a week. In addition, there is an obligation to clean the Dojo and participate in special weekend training and demonstration events.
Twigger describes the severity and agony of the very intense course. He refers to techniques that are performed on knees, also called Suwari Waza, until the knees bleed, only to train again the next day, and thereby again the half-healed wounds again. He describes techniques that are performed with such force and intensity that it often occurred that someone's head was dashed on the mat.
Other experiences of the course include so-called "Hajime" units, where a technique is repeated continuously, sometimes for up to half an hour or more. During these training sessions the practitioners are often unconscious or surrendered - especially during the summer months. Teachers sometimes give punishment to the trainees when they think they are not doing enough, including push-ups, sit-ups, and squats.
Among the others, there are several top Yoshinkan teachers, including Tsutomu Chida, Yasuhisa Shioda and Susumu Chino, as well as Robert Mustard, the presiding teacher for foreigners. Teachers are sometimes described as quite cold, sometimes brutal, and unsympathetic to pupils, who are encouraging them to ever greater efforts to develop their technique and mind.
Furthermore, Twigger describes other aspects of Tokyo and his life there, including the relationship with his girlfriend and their family, his work at a Japanese university as an English teacher and stories from life with his two roommates. He also writes about Japan and observations of Japanese culture. Edit the source text
Twigger is criticized by many combatants for his tone and the content of his book. In a very controversial controversy, he mentions that he was extremely pleased to hear that Shioda Gōzō had died because it meant for him and the other students a one-week training pause. Particularly from the stoic standpoint of many Budo philosophers, his constant complaints about the severity of the course, accompanied by sincere embarrassment, are dubious. Twigger had clearly known what he agreed to when he registered for such an intense course, critics argue, and it is evidence of an unfair character that he then writes a book about his complaints.
Many people have also complained about the personal remarks and the negative presentation of other Senshusei students and teachers.
However, most people find the book funny, which is undoubtedly. Those who criticize it are themselves criticized for not having a sense of humor. One might also say that the author has a special attitude as a writer. It is clear that the book does not claim to be taken completely seriously. Edit LobQuelltext
Others have praised Twigger for his frank sincerity with which he describes the course and the people in the dojo. Instead of writing a "clean" version that makes everyone happy, he describes the course as he really thought about it - for example, as a difficult, frustrating and demoralizing experience. Some also say that the book evoked more interest in Yoshinkan-Aikido and the Senshusei course and encouraged some people to train Yoshinkan-Aikido.
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