PÀIJEDA
A MONEGASQUE MARTIAL ART
DEMONSTRATION
AT THE OSAKA KANSAI WORLD EXPO 2025 - JAPAN
A demonstration of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, will be presented at the Universal Exhibition 2025 in Osaka Kansai, Japan, on Saturday, April 19, 2025, from the first week of the event's opening.
Supported since its creation by HSH Prince Albert II, this Monegasque martial art, a fusion of ancestral martial traditions and modern defense and combat techniques, will participate, with the valuable support of the Monaco Pavilion, in the promotion of Monaco through sport.
Led by Claude Pouget, the historic founder of the discipline, who was elevated on October 26, 2024, to the rank of 10th Dan in Self-Defense by the International School of Martial Arts during the gala evening of the XXIV Hall of Fame in Valencia (Spain), the Monegasque sports delegation will be part of the Universal Exhibition's aim, which aims to promote the cultural heritage of the exhibiting countries, their art of living, but also their advances in innovation and vision for the future.
An art of living based on respect and the defense of peace, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, is part of the values of Japanese culture and those promoted by Monaco through sport as a factor of peace, equality and inclusion. In view of this presentation, the International Academy of Martial Arts of Monaco (A.I.A.M.M.), under the aegis of the Monegasque Federation of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, approved by the Prince's Government, will organize a demonstration of a selection of athletes, on Saturday March 29, 2025, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
M. VINCI Directeur de la DENJS le 15-oct 2025-copyright entouré de Pàijedals-copyright FMPAMM
The governing members, under the leadership of Alice Pastor, President of the Federation, and Félicia Pouget, President of the A.I.A.M.M., have been active for four and a half years (teaching, ethical actions, partnerships, training courses, Pass’Sport cultures, competitions, demonstrations) with some five hundred (500) practitioners of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, obtaining results and recognition (in Monaco, France, internationally) (see key dates). The demonstration of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, will be held in Osaka Kansai, Japan, on Saturday, April 19, 2025, starting at 2 p.m., on the Pop-up stage North (outdoor esplanade adjacent to the Monaco Pavilion).
Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, on display at the Universal Exhibition in Osaka, Kansai, Japan on April 19, 2025?
Yes. On behalf of the leaders and members of our International Martial Arts Federation and Academy of Monaco, I would like to express my gratitude to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, for having offered our sport, whose support has been decisive since the creation of Pàijeda, the opportunity, with the valuable support of the Monaco Pavilion, to be presented at the Universal Exhibition of Osaka Kansai 2025, at the Monaco Pavilion, on April 19, 2025.
We are particularly deferential to His Serene Highness for allowing our Monegasque discipline to continue its recognition at the international level, particularly in Japan, and happy to participate in this way, with the valuable support of the "Monaco Pavilion" in the promotion of Monaco through sport, our sport Pàijeda, which is at the forefront of a message of peace and a vector of Monegasque culture.
On this wonderful occasion, we will proudly display in our communication the label "Monaco, World Capital of Sport 2025" which rewards the Principality of Monaco's long-standing commitment to promoting sport.
An art of living based on respect and the defense of peace, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, is part of the values dear to Japanese culture and those promoted by Monaco through sport as a factor of peace, equality and inclusion.
In this respect, the theme of Expo 2025 "Designing the society of the future, imagining our life tomorrow" is unifying as these two countries are distinguished by their shared vision aimed at reconciling respect for traditions and adaptation to modern needs.
Martial arts, of which Japan is one of the cradles, are one of the illustrations of the search for this balance.
In response to the aim of the Universal Exhibition Osaka, Kansai, which aims to promote the cultural heritage of the exhibiting countries, their art of living, but also their advances in terms of innovation and vision for the future, we are particularly pleased that Pàijeda, the art of defending peace, is associated with the Monaco Pavilion for the purpose of promoting the Monegasque identity.
How do you approach your participation in this event?
With great pleasure and the desire to put all chances on our side, through meticulous preparation, to honor the trust that is shown to us and that obliges us. Representing our country internationally during a global event such as the Universal Exhibition is exceptional.
The opportunity is given to us, once again, to express our full potential by aiming for total success. This is the spirit of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art and the one that animates our Delegation and myself.
Who will make up the delegation of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art?
Our Delegation will be made up of about ten people.
Everything is ready from a logistical point of view.
Four demonstrators, including myself, three of the brilliant teenagers, aged 16, 17, Raphael Delgado, black belt, and Romain Solerieu, Gabriel Lugano, brown belts, and to whom I would possibly award the black belt on site in Japan at the end of their performance. They participate in a tailored preparation moments. These particularly motivated teenagers will be accompanied by one of their parents, with parental authority. The delegation will be led by the executives of our Federation, by leaders of our Monegasque Federation as well as the International Academy of Martial Arts of Monaco.
Why did you create Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art?
With Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, at the heart of my commitment to martial arts, I wanted to show my gratitude to my country, to its language.
The Principality of Monaco, for me a determining setting that has allowed me over the years to progress in martial arts that fascinate me as much for their technicality and their multiple assets as for the ethical and humanist values that they promote.
What is Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art?
Practiced in compliance with ethical rules, for the youngest educational, sporting, adapted to different practitioners, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, is a martial art, a sport of defense and combat.
It is a martial art, of Monegasque origin, being a modern combat art based on respect for a moral code, which practitioners must respect, drawing its foundations from ancestral martial traditions as well as from modern combat techniques;
It is a sport: a regulated physical practice, for leisure or in competition, supervised by ethical and (for the youngest) educational values.
It shares the highest sporting values of excellence, linked to Olympism favoring "Respect and Friendships" as well as the motto "Faster, higher, stronger, together".
Combat sport, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, is a regulated physical activity, supervised by ethical rules (in particular a moral code) and sporting rules, allowing to manage an opposition (two or more), with physical contact, secured and ritualized, using referenced techniques, percussion, grips, standing/ground with or without object, with a relative margin of uncertainty, in leisure or competition.
As a combat sport, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, develops valuable physical qualities (coordination, endurance, muscle strengthening and elasticity) and mental qualities (taste for effort, resilience, self-control, stress management, self-confidence, concentration, resilience). Training is also done solo, with or without a punching bag,
A defense sport, because in addition to what has already been said for combat sports, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, prioritizes physical and mental preparation, strategies, behaviors and adapted techniques for self-defense, or personal sports defense, of oneself or others, in the face of a simulated and secure aggression situation, supervised by sports regulations (see the similar distinction between sport shooting and shooting).
This sporting practice (combat or defense) can be practiced for leisure or in competition.
A defense and combat sport, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, combines the best assets of combat sports and personal sports defense (see the nuance between sport shooting, even Olympic shooting, and shooting) of oneself or others.
The practice of sports defense also allows awareness of the situation before aggression or prevention ("a fight avoided and a fight won") (vigilance, prevention, dissuasion, negotiation, etc.); aggression (the framework of action: respect for sporting rules and outside the sporting framework of the law, like self-defense, etc.), and after aggression (health, rescue, evidence, legal consequences, etc.).
Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, clearly distinguishes in its practice:
- on the one hand, respect for ethical values (educational, for the youngest), technical and sporting regulations;
- on the other hand, outside the sporting context or framework, respect for the law (in particular, self-defense).
Are the techniques of Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, those belonging to other combat sports?
It is necessary to specify that the techniques used in martial arts or combat sports were not created nor do they belong to one discipline more than another. Indeed, they are primarily based on the motor capacity that human beings are endowed with. It is therefore more appropriate to specify that such and such motor techniques (defense or combat) are authorized or referenced in the technical and sports regulations of such and such martial art or combat sport concerned.
For example, a straight front arm (whatever its name) is primarily authorized and referenced by certain disciplines (Pancrace, English Boxing, Kickboxing, Muaythai, etc.) and not by others (Freestyle Wrestling, Sports Sambo, etc.).
How does it differ from other martial arts?
A martial art or a defense or combat sport is often a reflection of the cultural, social, historical context of the place where they were created.
Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, thus aspires to meet the characteristics and needs of the contemporary era (reconciling respect for traditions and ethical values and adaptation to modern needs).
If Monaco is rightly recognized as one of the safest places in the world and where the feeling of this is the best for those who live, work or stay there, the fact remains that not all other destinations benefit from the same observation or feeling.
In this context, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art created at the beginning of the 21st century, prioritizes the ability to defend oneself (in a sporting context), through an essential selection of prevention strategies, behaviors, techniques, their arrangements and training methods, more concrete, always in line with the multiple types of violence observed
in particular by their media coverage.
It is important that the confidence acquired (which is a matter of feeling) through a practice of defense and combat is in line with a real ability to act before, during or after a possible aggression as indicated above.
Thus, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art and recognized sport of the 21st century, is characterized by the prioritization of the following themes which constitute its
DNA:
- Ethical values (respect, kindness, etc.), educational (for the youngest), promoting peace, living together, and well-being;
- Physical health (adheres to the fight against doping conducted under the aegis of the Monegasque Anti-Doping Committee in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency; in competition, for interpersonal contacts, principle of assault - percussion on touch with ban on KO) and mental health (philosophy of life "centered");
- Fusion of ancestral martial traditions and modern defense and combat techniques adapted to our century;
- Multidimensional, behavioral and technical reference: defense, percussion, seizures, standing, on the ground, with or without object) rigorously selected, arranged and practiced, in a pragmatic manner with regard to its sporting objective, in an ethical framework: simple, fast, effective, accessible and adapted to a wide audience, in a secure context.
- Practiced in leisure or in competition;
- Open and inclusive sport, accessible to a wide audience (from the youngest to seniors) it is practiced in mixed, and promotes gender equality, social cohesion. Educational values such as respect and tolerance are at the very heart of its practice, all of these values being dear to the Principality;
- Encourages, through its sporting and philosophical dimension, the peaceful resolution of conflicts. (ritual of greeting);
- Defender of Monegasque culture (partly practicing Monegasque vocabulary, in particular).
Peace is at the very heart of the name of the discipline, pàije meaning peace in the Monegasque language. This may seem paradoxical for a combat sport?
Monaco, through the long-standing policy of HSH Prince Albert II, supports sport as a vector of peace. It is in this spirit that we have the honor of counting Peace and Sport as a partner. It must be remembered that the Olympic spirit is above all based on the values of peace and Paris 2024 has offered the world an illustration of a gathering around this common value.
By its name, it also implies a strong cultural anchoring?
It is, in fact, a vector of Monegasque culture; of the approximately 500 licensees that the Monegasque Pàijedà Federation currently has, all master the Monegasque vocabulary used in the context of certain techniques.
It is in this spirit in particular that Pàijeda will be represented at the Universal Expo in Osaka Kansai 2025, through a demonstration organized with the Monaco Pavilion on April 19.
I would like to emphasize here that the tremendous rise of Paijeda was only made possible by the benevolent support of H.S.H. Prince Albert, since the creation of this sport. T.L.A.S. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene, accompanied by their children HSH Hereditary Prince Jacques and HSH Princess Gabriella, did us the immense honour of their presence at the 2nd Pàijeda Open, on 6 April 2024, Peace Day.
During the Commemoration of the Centenary of Prince Rainier II, on May 31, 2023 in Monaco-Ville, demonstration on the Government esplanade.
In addition to the presence at the Osaka Kansai Universal Expo 2025, what are the Federation's plans for this new year?
This year 2024, as we have said, has been fundamental in our development, the Federation having received the approval of the Government, as well as the visit of Mr. Jean-Philippe Vinci, Director of National Education, Youth and Sports last October, whom I thank once again.
Monaco having been designated World Capital of Sport 2025, we will continue our commitment to promoting sport, as we have done since the beginning (Pass'sport culture, internships, etc.).
You obtained the grade of 10th dan in self-defense, on October 26 in Valencia. What does this mean for you?
It is the expression of the natural evolution of a cycle towards development within the framework of cultivated, promoted values and transmission. My ultimate mission: to perpetuate our Monegasque martial art so that it integrates every day and as best as possible, according to the means at our disposal, the Monegasque Heritage.
A word to conclude?
I would like to express my gratitude to the leaders, of exceptional quality, of the federal team, and to our friends, alongside whom I am delighted to share this magnificent historical mission in the Principality of Monaco, for our sport. Their trust honors me and obliges me.
May all those who participate in the epic of our discipline find here the expression of our gratitude. The recognized martial arts are part of the human, cultural, philosophical and sporting heritage.
To conclude, Pàijeda, a Monegasque martial art, recognized, in constant ascent, aspires to become one of the many prides of Monaco.
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ROYAL ARTS VISIONS; PÀIJEDA, A MONEGASQUE MARTIAL ART DEMONSTRATION AT THE OSAKA KANSAI WORLD EXPO 2025 - JAPAN