ABSTRACT
In this essay I want to demonstrate that not only male competitive sport in general but the Oriental martial arts in particular show that female dominance in the education of modern boys is not at all total. In Oriental martial arts we find a number of rituals and a kind of manhood test where boys and young men are taught masculine codes of behaviour. In our non-sensuous, highly technological society it seems that young people and especially young men have a strong need to experience the limits of the body and the importance of pushing the limits of daily life. But it makes it even more important that within the framework of the ritual should be found people who have themselves experienced this fascination and still preserve a humanistic, ethical perspective. Going in for rituals and authority, martial arts may be seen as young people’s revolt against youth rebellion, but also against the paucity of sensuous experience and against the cultivation of literary and verbally abstract abilities in our modern society. Nonetheless, martial arts also contain elements familiar to youth rebellion such as an interest in the Far East and in meditation.
