抄録
This study aims to qualitatively clarify, through interviews, how a kendo master reads, attacks, and defeats the opponent. Previous studies related to “reading” have been conducted with the concepts of “clinical intuition,” “situational cognition,” and “predictive judgment” in the field of nursing. In addition, the “reading” of Japanese chess is positioned as a predictive judgment, and there are several pieces of research on strategies used during artificial intelligence battles. However, research on “reading” that comprehensively captures contextual, spatial, cognitive, emotional, technical, and proficient perspectives is still scarce. The subject of this study holds the 8th degree in kendo. He is an outstanding kendo player who has won several Japanese championships and is an experienced teacher. Data collection was conducted through two-to-one semi-structured, open-ended, and in-depth interviews by the two authors. The interview duration was two hours. The interview data were transcribed and then analyzed by the qualitative analysis method. As a result of the analysis, the kendo master’s reading was classified into six subcategories, namely, “determine the entirety of the opponent,” “show movement before the opponent does,” “establishment of linked movements,” “invitation to attack,” “creating inevitability,” and “natural reaction of the body.” These were finally divided into three categories, namely, “identifying the opponent,” “identifying movements of self and others,” and “occurrence of attack.” The study concludes that the kendo master, by demonstrating the power of outstanding reading explained by three elements, identifies the opponent’s ability, predicts the movement, and directs the flow of movement between the opponent and himself within the context of an attack. It is evident that an attack is composed of a series of steps. Further research should examine the relationship between reading and actual behavior, and focus on other masters.
