Introduction


“What is most exciting in this world is to see our own ability develop day by day.  This is one of the essential pleasures we humans can experience.”

“A Real Thought on Sports”
by Yukio Mishima (1984)



 “After three months onward, your job-grade and pay will be rated at the lowest. However, if you can show us satisfactory performance by that time, then we will rethink about it.” 

 As a matter of fact, I received a suspended lay-off. For almost a year after I entered the company, I failed to produce results as had been desired.  Worse still, because of the economic slump, many businesses were placed under a tight managerial control.  To my shame, however, I had least expected that I would fall prey to it.
 “Should I leave the company before I am laid off?”
 I had already changed jobs twice with two defeats, which incurred an inerasable blot on my career record.  On top of that, I was over 35 years old, which was supposed to be the limits for job hopping in the business world.
 “Is this the end of the road?” I asked myself.

 Looking back, I had certainly exerted all possible effort to gain expertise and experience as a business person, but was I simply a stray dog? I felt as if the foothold for escape was shaking.

 It was exactly at the time that I ‘met’ triathlon.


The Japanese original text "KAKUSEI-SEYO-WAGA-SHINTAI (Wake up, My Body and Soul!) - The Auto-ethnography of An Amateur Triathlete" is intended to explore the process in which a Japanese young man transforms himself into a triathlete.
 I have participated in more than 30 triathlon events both at home and abroad in the past 6 years, and for more than 3 years in the second half, I have conducted participant-observation as a sociologist, while at the same time competing in the races as one of the players. Through the ethnographical approach, which aims at combining the sociological theories with the intrinsic realities of the triathlon, I would like to reveal what is actually taking place both in the mind and body of triathletes while they are engaged in tough competition.

 To explore the mystery of our body and mind, and their relationship with the present-day society, which is the main theme of this book, is far beyond the realms of quantitative analyses by manipulating statistics. It is achieved only by careful observation of your ‘whole-body’ sensations.

...to be continued

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