Book Review: Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons From the Tokyo Riot Police

The Cover of Complete Shotokan Karate

Buy this book at Amazon.com

Author: Robert Twigger

Reviewer: Mark Groenewold

Date: March, 2002

This hilarious book is a must for anyone who is interested in learning a few things about living and training in the martial arts in Japan. Having been at this game for more than 7 years myself, I think that I can give you some assurances that the accounts given in this book by Robert Twigger are completely plausible, if not a bold unabashed factual account of living and training here in groovy Nippon.

Robert Twigger, having done what most foreigners do in Japan--as in lazing about, teaching English to make some easy money, prowling bars in search of young saucy things, and turning into a general festering glob of human decay, decides to do something different. He decides to learn a martial art, and in his case, chooses aikido.

But this is not the aikido that you may associate with images of elegant men dressed in hakama (the skirt-like garment that is worn over a karate or judo uniform) who use their “ki” energy to use the forces of nature against their opponents while austerely gliding among them while their assailants crash into trees, houses, and people walking their dogs. This is the aikido of the Steven Segal variety, where there is a lot of crushing, smashing, and breaking of bones. This is hard-core aikido where you are either brain damaged while doing it, or are already partially brain damaged for joining the special “senshusei” class (the instructors training course).

This book has a marvelous tone and is very “matter of fact” in its prose. There is no arrogant puffing up of the author as he tells his story of getting through the rigorous training, and no “tough guy” talk about all the guys he had to beat up on his path to martial arts mastery. Robert Twigger takes us step by step through his one-year apprenticeship as an aikido student in the “senshusei” training program and does so with good humor and style. I greatly appreciate his sense of humor throughout his accounts and challenges.

Every year more and more foreigners are coming to Japan for work and play, and more and more women and men are trying martial arts training in all kinds of disciplines. At my own dojo, in a very rural part of Japan, there have been about a half dozen or so who have come and gone over the years. Very few stick with the program and make the sacrifices necessary to excel. This book, in a very gentle and exemplary fashion, illustrates how important it is to never give up, to stick it out to the bitter end, to truly believe that if you put your best efforts forward you will be make it through to the other side and be a better person for it.

One very interesting thing that we find in this remarkable book is Twigger's ability to simply demonstrate his experiences and leave the evaluation of them to the audience. Naturally, there are times when he draws conclusions of situations for himself, and thus informs his readers of his own take on things. But there are other times when interpretation is left to us.

For example:
(taken from a speech given the author by his girlfriend's father in Japan) “`Of course it is strange for the Japanese to see their traditional arts practised by foreigners; but equally it must be strange for you to see Japanese wearing suits and not kimono.' He guffawed at his own example and continued. 'I myself studied judo at university; it was very healthful for training body and spirit. It was a useful practice. We can say that the Japanese have a better understanding of the way body and spirit work together. Naturally the West has become interested in this. But things born in Japan do not flourish outside Japan. They must change. I believe it is mainly due to climate.”' (page 276)

After reading this passage I had two very contrary reactions. On one hand I was irritated by this father who blithely blathers on about how the martial arts are only knowable by the pure-minded Japanese and that only the glorious race of the Pearl of the Orient truly understands how the body and mind work together. Furthermore, this yahoo quit judo only after messing around with it for a few years while going to university. If he is such a know-it-all about how great the martial arts really are, why did he give it up?

But then, he redeems himself, albeit in a back-handed way by saying that “things born in Japan do not flourish outside Japan. They must change.”

Cool. Yes, they must change, indeed.

Without knowing it, this judo-quitting guy actually articulates very nicely something that is critical for us round-eyes of the martial arts to state explicitly for ourselves. We need to make the martial arts our own. All the cultural baggage, the ridiculous pecking orders, the hazing, the ritualistic beatings, false modesty, and false allegiances of Japanese structures, should all be chucked out for us. We should take what transplants well, enjoy it, use the tools that work for us, but dump the rest.

This was one thing that jumped out of the book and grabbed me by the throat. I think that if you choose to read this excellent book you will find your own striking revelations throughout.

One last thing that I really liked about this book is the introduction, and fusion of the writings of Yamaoka Tesshu throughout the text. I have been, to date, ignorant of this poet-warrior and greatly enjoyed how his text has been artful woven in throughout the book. Nice work. Beautiful. Fun. Mirthful.

Mark Groenewold
Ishikawa-ken, Japan

Copyright Notice