DANISH TRADITIONAL KENDO FEDERATION

LITERATURE

CLASSICAL BUDO THE MARTIAL ARTS AND WAYS OF JAPAN, VOLUME 2 By Donn F. Draeger Weatherhill, 1973. ISBN 978-0-8348-0234-6

DESCRIPTION

The classical budo, or "martial ways" are not combat systems like their forerunner, bujutsu, or "martial arts"; nor are they sports like modern kendo, judo or karate. They are first and foremost spiritual disciplines, whose ultimate goal, achieved though the most rigorous mental and physical training, is self-realization in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. The author details the history, philosophy, and methods of a variety of these "martial ways", some using weapons, and some weaponless.

Concerning Zen Buddhism
The Federation recommends the book above but have following comment:
Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, and D. T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture, 87-214, are perhaps the two authors most responsible for creation the association of the bugei with Zen. Most subsequent works on the bugei seem to have accepted this association rather uncritically, discussing at lenght the nature of Zen and why it ought to have appealed to the samurai, but never questioning whether or not it actually did have a widespread influence on the bugei prior to modern times.
In the near future the Federation will supplement the list of literature with a couple of books which have a better perspective on the intersection of Zen with samurai traditions.

AUTHOR

Donald "Donn" Frederick Draeger (1922-1982) was a U.S. Marine Corps officer and a historian of martial arts disciplines, in which he held a variety of expert ranks and teaching licenses. Draeger gained membership to Japan's oldest cultural organization for the study and preservation of classical martial arts and ways, the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai and author of many books on fighting arts of Asia. The most significant studies of the Japanese martial tradition and its combative systems come from the researches of Draeger. Basing his work on first-hand experience, participant-observation, and interviews with leading contemporary practitioners, Draeger is the first author to present a general specific features of organization, philosophy, and training methodology. Presented in development order Draeger's trilogy Classical Bujutsu, Classical Budo, and Modern Bujutsu and Budo are the most complete volumes on the Japanese martial tradition in English. Furthermore Draeger successfully gave lectures on Japanese martial culture at several universities.