Winning a Competition

Yesterday, the Japanese team won the women’s Football World Cup. Against whom did they win?

In case you have a chance to visit the Engakuji Temple in Kita-Kamakura, let me suggest to leave the beaten track and turn left before passing through the big wooden Sanmon-gate uphill. You will find a small sub-temple, which functions as a Kyudo Dojo (a place to practice Japanese archery).

Isn’t archery exemplary for sports competition, winning or loosing, hitting the bull’s eye or failure?

The answer is given by the head-master of the Kyudo Dojo, the old priest Suhara Koun (I was so lucky to meet and talk to several times during my visits the past decade). In the show-case right hand side after entering the Dojo grounds, he hung a newspaper article about the 1960 and 1964 Olympic marathon winner Abebe Bikila. 

abebe

Suhara Koun quoted in his own calligraphy from that article:

Words of the athlete Abebe: The other 69 runners were not my competitors, I myself was my competitor. Therefore, I won against myself.

Congratulations to the Japanese soccer team, for not giving up in the face of disaster and invincible opponents, and winning the World Cup competition against themselves!

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.