Tales of a Canadian Judoka Michelle Marrian Anna
Twentieth Century Travels: Tales of a Canadian Judoka Michelle Marrian Anna Rogers B.A., University of British Columbia, 2000 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Anthropology O Michelle Marrian Anna Rogers, 2005 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permissions of the author ABSTRACT Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Walsh In 1960, Doug Rogers, my father, travelled to Japan to study the martial art of judo. In Japan, Rogers was able to hone his abilities in judo, which enabled him to succeed in competition at both the national and international level. Using photographs belonging to Rogers that were taken during the time he went to Japan (1960-1965), I was able to enter into a series of conversations with him about his reasons for travelling to Japan and his experiences during his stay there. Rogers' early life provides an opportunity to not only explore the unique experiences of an important individual in Canadian and Japanese sports history, but a chance to investigate specific examples of how large-scale, 'global' processes (the circulation of media, culture 'flows', and historical processes and events) can influence at the level of the individual. I examine how Rogers' original decision to travel to 'traditional' and 'exotic' Japan, and his actual stay in Japan, were contingent upon a revised cultural heritage that Japan was trying to project after the Second World War, which displayed Japan as a peaceful, proper, ethnically homogenous, and aesthetically-oriented nation.
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