Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/101

Rh at the moment when they spring upright to commence the play, neither has the slightest advantage in priority of rising or in difference of inhalation. Sometimes this prefatory performance occupies several minutes, for when the men are well matched and highly skilled, they attach importance to points of the most trifling nature, quite imperceptible to ordinary observers. At last, rising erect on terms of absolute equality, and receiving the signal from the umpire, they begin to fence for grips, or to make thrusting motions with the hands, or even to butt with the head. In this part of the contest the onlooker might conclude that there were no limitations whatever. The arms, the legs, the girdle, the neck, the throat,—in short, every part of an adversary's body may be seized, and it is even lawful to slap the face with the open hand, though such a manœuvre seldom commends itself on account of the dangerous opportunity it offers to a nimble adversary. Kicking alone is seen to be strictly forbidden. But this absence of restraining rule is only apparent. Every grip or thrust has to be strictly conformed to what is called the "direct" principle; that is to say, a combatant must not divide his force and apply it in opposite directions so as to produce what are mathematically termed "moments." For example, to deliver a downward thrust on an opponent's arm while forcing his wrist upward, or to bend his fingers