著者

柄本 三代子

出版者

日本メディア学会

雑誌

メディア研究 (ISSN:27581047)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.103, pp.133-151, 2023-07-31 (Released:2023-10-24)

参考文献数

22

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Nowadays, Karate has gained worldwide popularity as a type of martial art. One of the reasons for this is that karate has been found to have a spiritual value that is not found in other sports. Additionally, when propagated domestically and internationally, karate has attracted attention for its educational benefits, especially for young people. It has increased its popularity as a form of learning for children and supported the management of dojos.    Because of the above-mentioned situation, this paper focuses on the globally popular Karate Kid series starting as the Hollywood film released in 1984. We can watch the Cobra Kai series on Netflix as Karate Kid contents. In a nutshell, these films and TV series tell the story of a young boy’s encounter with karate and growing, and it is hard to deny that they have contributed to the spread of karate throughout the world and its popularity over 40 years.    However, this paper focuses on the fact that some academic studies have analysed these contents and found educational value. This paper aims to examine why multidisciplinary researchers have paid attention to Karate Kid contents and what educational value they have found. Although these are academic analyses, it is indispensable to consider these as examples of reading and discussing the social acceptance of karate worldwide. This paper recognises them associated with how the global propagation of karate overlaps with the discourses of popularisation worldwide.    The studies that acknowledged the educational value of karate kid contents varied in terms of the extent to which they considered it necessary to focus on the ideological background. The paper discusses the possibility that the ability to consistently find educational value while allowing for such diverse readings supports the popularity of Karate Kid contents and, in turn, contributes to the propagation of karate.