Legacies of the sword : the Kashima-Shinryū and samurai martial culture
Karl F. Friday (Author), 関, 文威(1937- ) (Consultant) / Fumitake Seki (Consultant)
Western scholars and educators are generally far less familiar with the samurai in his original - and, ostensibly, primary - role as warrior and master of arms than in his other functions as landowner, feudal lord, literateur, or philosopher. Yet any attempt to comprehend fully the samurai without considering his military abilities and training (bugei) is futile. Karl Friday combines the results of nearly two decades of fieldwork and archival research to examine samurai martial culture from a broad perspective: as a historical phenomenon, as a worldview, and as a system of physical, spiritual, and moral education. Legacies of the Sword is the first attempt by a Westerner scholar trained both in bugei and in Japanese studies and historical methodology to discuss this major and compelling component of Japanese culture. It presents a case study of the Kashima-Shinryu, one of the oldest of the extant samurai training organizations, and was written in close collaboration with its current headmaster, Seki Humitake. The volume illuminates the extraordinary complexity of the bugei and the manner in which various physical, technical, psychological, and philosophical factors merge to produce a coherent art that guides the lives of those who practice it
Print Book, English, ©1997
University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, ©1997
History
xv, 227 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780824818470, 9780824818791, 0824818474, 0824818792
35269921
1. Introduction
2. Heritage and Tradition. Ryuha and the Origins of the Bugei. The Kashima Grand Shrine and Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto. The Three Founders. The Students of Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami and the Shihanke Line. The Kunii House and the Soke Line. The Kashima-Shinryu as an Organization
3. The Philosophy and Science of Combat. Shinbu and the Martial Way. The Framework of the Art: The Fivefold Laws and the Eight Divine Coordinates. Applied Constructs
4. The Martial Path. Kata and Pattern Practice. Historical Problems and Criticisms of Kata and Pattern Practice. The Kashima-Shinryu Kata. Text and Written Transmission. Meditation and the Integration of Body, Mind, and Spirit
App. 1. The Kashima-Shinryu hyoho denki
App. 2. The Kunii-ke keizu
App. 3. The Kashima-Shinryu menkyo kaiden mokuroku
App. 4. Constitution of the Kashima-Shinryu Federation of Martial Sciences
App. 5. Constitution of the Kashima-Shinryu Federation of North America