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Japanese Martial Arts (Budō) Demonstrations in 1964

There was a demonstration of budō, which means Japanese martial arts, at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. The budō demonstration included the sports of archery (kyūdō), wrestling (sumo) and fencing (kendo). The demonstration took place on October 15, 1964 at the Nippon Budokan with nearly 9,000 spectators.

Another Japanese martial art, judo, made its debut on the official Olympic program at the same Olympics. Karate and aikido are other Japanese martial arts. Karate is making its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.



Program

The following is taken from the official Budo Demonstration program from the 1964 Olympic Games.

10.00 Opening Ceremony

10.15 KYUDO

11.00 SÜMO

11.40 KENDO

12.20 rest

12.30 KYUDO

14.10 SUMO

15.30 KENDO

Other Demonstrations

Article 43 of the IOC regulations stipulated that the organizing committee may add to the program demonstrations of two sports, the one being a national sport, the other a sport not played in the organizing country. In addition to budo, the other demonstration sport was baseball.

There was plans for kendo and judo to be demonstration sports at the canceled 1940 Olympics. Tokyo were originally selected to host the 1940 Olympics, but due to a war with China they pulled out, and they Olympics were eventually canceled due to WWII.



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