Almost 25 years ago, a Japanese schoolboy started dancing, inspired and fascinated by Michael Jackson’s music and movement.
Katsuyuki Ishikawa, better known as B-boy Katsu One, he started getting serious when he was in college. During her vacations she visited the USA and Australia to watch breaking competitions, and despite her parents’ concerns about her future, she decided to continue dancing after graduation. In his first year after graduation, he won a competition in New Zealand and his name was mentioned in a local newspaper, which began to change his family’s views on his art.
Since then, he has been in contact with many breakers around the world and is now a judge in many competitions. In 2021, he chaired the WDSF World Championship in breaking.
When he was a schoolboy, Ishikawa could not have foreseen what his life would be like today.
“Not only my own future, but I never imagined that breaking would become what it is today,” he said.
It started at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, where breaking really debuted on the world stage. Ishikawa arrived there as coach of the Japanese team that finished the Games with three medals: two gold and one bronze.
Two years later it was announced that the break would be part of the Paris 2024 Olympic programme.
Now Ishikawa has spoken to Olympics.com about the beauty of brokenness and the sport’s contribution to modern culture.
The development of the Japanese breaking scene
After witnessing the rise of the breakout scene in different countries, Ishikawa has pointed to an essential factor in the development of the sport.
“If a ‘hip-hop tree’ has been established in a country, the level of brokenness increases,” he said.
The term “hip-hop tree” refers to a structure in which the older generation passes on their knowledge and culture of breaking to the younger generation.
Ishikawa sees these trees growing in Japan, as he has in the US and Europe.
“The younger breakers respect the older breakers. They hold workshops and ask the older generation to talk about their experiences and the history of breaking.”
“They value the old, but they also innovate, which I think is very important for the scene to continue to develop,” Ishikawa continued.
Ishikawa now heads the breaking division of the Japan Dance Sport Federation and organizes events and workshops throughout the year.
There has also been a change in the way parents think about breaking up in Japan. They are now more open to the opportunities that career disruption can bring. In terms of career options, the success of sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding and breaking, which has seen two world champions crowned in the past two years, shows that you can make a living out of these previously marginal activities.
“I’m in my forties and people my age are having children. I feel like less parents have a “you can’t make money breaking” mentality and more parents want their kids to do interesting things.
“In fact, many of the world’s top breakers have supportive parents,” Ishikawa said.
Breaking and connecting
Although Ishikawa began his role developing the breakup scene 25 years ago, it has now become an important part of his life.
“You can express yourself however you want,” he said. “It’s acceptable to do that and a unique part of art. You can be free.”
Culture also respects individual characters and people from all walks of life.
“If you have some sort of disability, that’s okay. If you’re really tough, that’s okay. If you have an extremely flexible body and can use it any way you want, that’s okay, too. Everything’s okay…whatever you can think of how a limitation becomes something attractive in the breaking world.
“Everyone is accepted and that’s great. Breaking gives you a level playing field.”
Breakers often goad each other during dance fights, but does that ever turn into physical fights?
“It’s pretty rare, but sometimes it happens,” Ishikawa said. “They get hot and suddenly it starts. But even if it happens, people watching will stop them and calm them down.
“It’s an absolute rule that you can’t touch each other.
“The kinds of battles that happen outside of the competition can be the most interesting. After communicating through dance, we often find ourselves years later that we have a bond. We forget that we were adversaries and even talk about ‘associate us.
“That’s also an amazing thing about breaking culture. If you dance, you make friends easily. If I go to practice in another country I meet breakers who often invite me to their homes, so I rarely book a hotel when I pass holidays abroad. This is how breakthrough communities are formed around the world.”
It all makes sense if we consider the origins of the breakup.
Breaking developed in the poor black neighborhoods of the South Bronx in New York in the early 1970s. It served as an alternative to physical violence and played a role in resolving disputes, before later becoming a culture which spread throughout the world, creating crews with strong ties to different parts of the country.
“It would be great to see more people committed to the Olympic Games or the exposure the media will have. I hope that, from here, our values will spread and more people will realize that breaking is great.”
