This is a collection of ten things I found out about in the past week that felt relevant to my work.

They can be read as individual curios, or, as I understand them, as waymarkers towards a more interesting and inclusive culture of fitness.

During the Hiruga Suichi Tsunahiki Matsuri festival in Mihama, a small Japanese fishing town, an underwater tug-of-war symbolising the defeat of a mythical giant sea snake has taken place annually for more than three hundred years.

Image from the Postcards from Fukui blog

In other esoteric Japanese tug-of-war news, in Naha, Okinawa, there is a giant game played between teams of hundreds of people. The tradition dates back to the 17th century. The 40-ton rope is exhibited on Kukusai Street throughout the year.

Bristol-based photographer Alex Rotas’ work celebrates active older bodies with the intention of creating a new ageing narrative. The project started after fruitless searching for images of older athletes to use in her work as an academic. She has produced a calendar for 2020.

The Löwenmensch figurine is the “oldest-known uncontested example of figurative art”, dating from 40,000 years ago. Its gender-ambiguous, supernatural form has invited all sorts of fascinating speculation.

German educator Kurt Hahn’s approach to children’s physical education:

To keep mental and physical growth in balance, Hahn developed the notion of a training plan for his students, each of whom committed himself to an individually designed, gradually more challenging regimen of physical exercise and personal hygiene.
Unlike the physical education program of other schools, the aim of the training plan was simply to establish good living habits, not to produce high levels of performance in competitive games.

A mock-up of the climber Warren Harding’s membership card to his Low Sierra Eating Drinking & Farcing Society made, I think, for the film Brave New Wild.

The society was formed in opposition to the “High Minded, Ethical gentlemen” of the American Alpine Club.

And here’s a nice quote from Harding’s 1959 article ‘El Capitan’:

I suppose this article could be titled "The Conquest of El Capitan". However, as I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was conqueror and who was conquered: I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.

The BBC has collected five wonderful hours of conversations with the iconic Scottish sports writer Hugh McIlvanney, who died last year.

The architect Kenzo Tange, talking about the influence of traditional Japanese architecture on his Yogo National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Summer Olympics:

In my opinion it is a mistake to assume that the mere fact of regional differences could elicit creative energy. I believe that regionalism can lead to a result if each region with its own contradictions and difficulties fixes creative standard in order to overcome the local tradition.
I believe that tradition neither be preserved nor converted into a creative impulse. Creative work is expressed in our times in a union of technology and humanity. The role of tradition is that of a catalyst, which furthers a chemical reaction but is no longer detectable in the end result. Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a piece of creation, but it can no longer be creative itself.

At a time of year that can be heavy with resolutions, I found these songs by OSHUN reassuring:

New Fitness Culture Scrapbook #1