Keiko Shokon: Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan (Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan, 3) Paperback – January 1, 2002

Refreshing to find a American writer with so much accurate knowledge of traditional Japanese Bugei. Too many books are eronneous at best, All Martial Art Mags are akin to the National Enquirer, with faulty and inacurate info. This Book dispels some of the Common Traditions and provides insight that you will find in no other book - for example the term, "Soke" , that for the most part used incorrectly by 99% of all Non- Japanese Dojos. Another volume in a great collection of needed info for the Warrior Tradition in this world of peace time Budo nonsense

Diane Skoss has done the field of martial arts a great favor by assembling this collection of articles by people well-versed in their fields of Japanese classical martial arts. All the articles are wide-ranging and informative. This volume, in conjunction with the other two edited by her are almost a "must have" for anyone interested in this field.

This third installment in the series rounds out this excellent set of introductory literature on the classical martial arts of Japan. I sincerely hope that a great deal more will come from Skoss and her team.

I have been reading English language books about different aspects of traditional Japanese culture for the last eight years. I have read the other two books in the Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan series Sword and Spirit Vol. 2 and Koryu Bujutsu Vol. 1 and found them very informative and well written. It wasn't a big surprise when I found the book "Keiko Shokon: Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan Vol. 3" edited by Diane Skoss to be a wonderful collection of deep and well written essays about the traditional Japanese martial arts. The collective term for these martial arts is bujutsu in the Japanese language. These traditional martial arts outlined and discussed in the assays were the direct ancestors of today's more commonly know modern Japanese martial arts such as Kendo. These modern Japanese martial arts are collectedly referred to as gendai budo in Japanese. One essay I found practically useful and educational was the one entitled "Itto-ryu Kenjutsu: An Overview by Meik Skoss. In it the writer does a wonderful job of discussing all of the many different lines and styles of Itto-ryu kenjutsu and how they have developed and how there individual styles had been synthesized or directly influence modern Kendo. This I think should be standard reading for any long time practitioner of Kendo so that he/she would have a more complete understanding of the cultural and historical context that lead to the development of their martial art.

All is in the title. Collection of interviews, thinks about martial arts - no opinion - for those who like

I found this book insightful and informative for my field of interest in traditional martial art by experienced and authorative practioners.