Toshinari Masuda When I went to the house of my junior who had died, my parents and sisters and younger brothers asked me. "How did my son spend time with everyone?" "What kind of person was my brother?" Only we know about university life in Hokkaido. So I told you what I knew. Considering the feelings of my family, it's harder than us. But the family listens carefully and hard to any small episode. I think it's really painful ... Hiromasa Tatsuzawa, a member of my synchronous judo club, appears as the quasi-leading role in "Seven Emperor Judoki", but it is modeled on a real person. He wrote while thinking if. When I was twenty-four or twenty-five, I wrote this novel, thinking about what would have happened to me if he had died and disappeared from me. rice field. If Tatsuzawa had died, my dad and mom would probably ask me. "What kind of life did your son live in Hokkaido?" Of course, he is alive and well, but he cried to tell his parents that he was such a man who lived such a life in the judo club. Among the models of the characters, there are many people who have died besides the judo members. I'm dead so much that I don't know how many people have died. So while I was writing, I was crying all the time.
 


I want ordinary office workers and women to read it

——Mr. Tatsuzawa is depicted as a selfish boy who left a little childishness when he joined the club, but at the end of the story, he grows up brilliantly and becomes a fine young man. I felt that one of the major reading points of this novel is that it depicts the changes and growth of human beings.
 

Toshinari Masuda Actually, I myself was the same. When I first entered university, I was rather withdrawn and had a literary boy. But after a year, I let the yakuza wash my back in the bath (laughs). That scene is also a true story. When I was admitted to the hospital because of an injury, a young yakuza and a bed were next to each other. At first I wasn't on good terms with him, but eventually he followed me and took me to drive the Cadillac when I went shopping outside. Even in Tatsuzawa, he became a majestic young man with a power like a lion, and he was favored by the nurses at the hospital and grew up to be a really cool man. Everyone changes in a year. Professor Ryuichiro Matsubara, a socio-economist, is the director of the judo department at the University of Tokyo, but I often hear that. "The most interesting thing about me is that the students change." Not just me and Tatsuzawa, but anyone can change in a year. It will grow more after two years. It will grow further after three years. Seven Emperor Judo, where you practice to the limit, is such a place. So, if you bring thirty members of the University of Tokyo Judo here, I can easily tell from the first grade to the fourth grade. Even if you don't know them at all, you can easily tell by looking at their faces and appearances. It is the same whether it is Tohoku University or Kyoto University. If you spend time in the judo club of the Seven Universities, it will change steadily year by year. Of course, this novel is about judo on the surface, and the title says so, so some people may think it's about martial arts, but it's actually different. Therefore, even if a woman reads it, she will say "interesting" and "impressed". It is a novel that depicts the meaning of human beings alive. So if you read it, anyone can sympathize with it. I've been interviewed by a lot of media this time, but when I asked who I liked the most among the characters, they were all different. Each person who reads it reads while projecting himself to someone. Looking at the impressions on the internet, I had the impression that "I want all mothers to read this as a textbook for raising their sons," but I thought so too. Then, by drawing an organization called the judo club, it is also a hymn to the organizers. Furthermore, by drawing some captains, it has become a management philosophical content. That's why I want office workers to read it.
 

The harsh scene is said to be the "life of this book"

——I would like to ask you to go into the specific content a little, but many pages are devoted to the practice scene as well as the game scene. It's a terrible practice, and I think there has never been a novel that clearly depicts fainting, incontinence, bleeding, bone fractures, and such intense practice scenes. The words on the first page of the cover, a passage drawn from the essay "Youth Wandering" by Yasushi Inoue, who experienced the Seven Emperor Judo, "We will create judo where the amount of practice determines everything. It was just practiced. "
 

Toshinari Masuda That was ... it was painful. After all, the students who enter the former imperial university are the children who came mainly to study. In such a situation, there is a part where I have lived by misunderstanding, and when I join the club, I suddenly find the reality of the world of "strength" where there is no escape. Such children practice like Olympic athletes, and do harsh practice to surpass it. It's not a fuss about studying for entrance exams. There will be a lot of terrible scenes, including the part of the training. Just before the book came out, various problems occurred in the judo world, and I thought about cutting that part. However, the editor advised me that "this part is the life of this book" and decided to leave it. When I think about it again, I think it's more like a war story in a sense. Yasushi Inoue also wrote in an essay, but he said that his experience at the judo club was more difficult than the war.
 

A place to control yourself instead of coercion

——In the case of a war, you are forcibly drafted, but the judo club is free to enter or leave, and nevertheless continue on its own will. That's why, isn't it another point of reading this novel?
 

Toshinari Masuda Yes. But it was really hard (bitter smile). Even though I longed for the Kitadai Judo club, I regretted it immediately after joining the club. But if I quit there, I would have lost. The other day, essayist Junko Sakai wrote about "Seven Emperor Judoki" like "They are so tight and proud because they are practicing like hell that you can't imagine." But I was happy. Even now, when I go to the game field and watch the fourth graders, their dignity and charm are rare. I don't meet such a face when I live a normal social life. Even the OBs who have retired from active duty have no more charm. When I was wondering what this kind of face was, I happened to see it recently. At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Self-Defense Forces went to support from the direction of Nagoya to Tohoku. I happened to see a SDF truck stopped at an intersection, but the dignity of the profile of the young people in their twenties riding there. When I saw that face, I thought it was just like that. They are devoting themselves to others. It's a tremendous sense of mission, isn't it? I cried when I saw the profile of the young men riding the truck. I went straight to the disaster area without a disgusting face. The profile when humans do something for others is really wonderful. Seven Emperor Judo is also a large group competition of fifteen people, and each player will do his best to abandon himself for the other players. I will do my best for my life. Therefore, in a sense, "Seven Emperor Judoki" can be called a military record. It is the war record itself, and the title was taken from Caesar's "Galia Senki", but I think that is the aspect.
 

I think I had a great experience at that time

——The annual Seven Emperor Battle is exactly the battlefield, isn't it? "Masuda Shonen," who is modeled by Mr. Masuda himself, is also asked by his seniors before the match, "Are you dying for us?" Mr. Masuda takes the words that would be unthinkable in the general world as they are. It's not a metaphor, and you can never "visit" whether you faint or break your arm. It was a battleground for living or dying.