<p>This essay analyses the key concepts enunciated by the international literature on martial arts tourism – and of the even broader category of cultural tourism. It combines notes produced by a participant observation and the images produced by the first author himself. The result is the illustration of a particular case of martial arts tourism included in the decade 2009-2018 and focused on Chenjiagou (Chen village), a village in inland China (Wen county, Henan province, People's Republic of China). Here tourists – attracted by the peculiar spirit of the place, <em>genius loci</em>, expressed in the landscape and in the local customs and reinforced by recurring or occasional celebrations – are contributing to the local economic development and urban improvement, by creating an informal planetary-scale network through the common interest in the martial art of taijiquan.</p>
Introduction: After the signing of the alliance among Japan, Germany and Italy's governments in September 1940, several journals arose in order to spread the Japanese culture among people who knew very little about Italy's new allied. Some documentaries also had the same function. Methods: The numerous textual and iconographical references concerning the Japanese warriors' anthropology published in some Italian magazines during the 1940s have been compared, as well as to the few Italian monographs on the same theme and to some documentaries by Istituto Nazionale Luce, government propaganda organ. This subject has also been compared to the first Italian cultural production, concerning Japan, which dated back to the first decades of the 20 th century. Moreover different intellectuals' biographies of those times have been deeply analyzed. Results: Comparing to each other the anthropological references about Japan in the Italian cultural production during the Second World War, we can notice a significant ideological homogeneity. This can be explained through their writers' common sharing of the militaristic, hierarchical and totalitarian doctrine of the Fascist Regime. The Fascist ideology can be summarized in the Bushido concept, as Inazo Nitobe defined it in 1916. This concept was already known in Italy on the early 20 th century, far before Fascism. Discussions and conclusions: We can see how Italian perception of the Japanese anthropology on the early 20 th century didn't change over time and how its features will reappear in the 40s under the influence of the Italian-Japanese coalition. So, Bushido became the essence of the Japanese military and national identity that Fascist Italy took as example for mass education. Some of these stereotypes will reappear after the war and until recent times in popular culture and in mass perception of Japanese martial arts.
<p>This review covers the book <em>Poematica del Principio Tai Chi </em>(Firenze, Italy, 2020) by Massimo Mori, that gather a lifetime multicultural researches converging on the Tai Chi, Supreme Principle coming from the unknowable <em>Dao</em>. When applied to the martial art, tai chi becomes <em>taijiquan</em>, “Punch of the Supreme Principle”. The first chapters provide the coordinates to deepen a holistic paradigm through different trajectories ranging from the classical cultures of the East and the West to the globalized contemporaneity. Complex and fascinating themes are creatively addressed in the subsequent chapters. The book ranges from theology to theoretical philosophy, from physics to literature and art, even to cinema. The chapters on <em>I Qing </em>and <em>Daodejing</em> indicate how the holistic vision of a conscious wisdom can be defined as systemic and essential in the relationship between culture and nature. If the <em>Dao</em> is the <em>Way</em>, this has to be followed in the name of a natural ethic that the <em>Daodejing</em> shows with an enlightening wisdom. Thus, the practice of Taijiquan becomes the “martial art of peace” and the Taiji Supreme Principle, practicable in every activity, is the paradigm of a renewed humanism. Massimo Mori is considered among the masters who have dedicated their existence to the wisdom vision of a New Horizon – as he called his school - and his book is a premise to imagine peace between East and West, between all the people of the globe living under the same sky.</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.