CompleteMartialArts.com - Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryu and Samurai Martial Culture

With verve and wit, 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.

The book focuses mostly on iaido, specifically the kashima-shinryu style, but much of it is relevant to the other sword styles as well. You'll also learn a fair amount about many of the other arts and how they were used on the battlefield, such as the naginata, spear, and bow. For example, I knew that the naginata became a favorite of samurai women, as well as monks, but I didn't know that kyudo or archery was originally a ceremonial and not a battlefield art back in the 8th and 9th centuries, the period during which the foundations of the later samurai-dominated social order were first laid.

In addition to discussing in detail the sword arts and a number of other martial traditions, Friday also gives a good account of Japanese history from the 9th to the mid-19th century, when the samurai order was finally abolished. The lineage of quite few iaido styles and their most important masters and exponents, and their lives and exploits, are also often colorfully discussed in detail, perhaps in more detail than most people will want, but since this is an academic work that pretty much goes with the territory. But I suspect the average reader of this book will have at least some previous knowledge of Japanese history and martial arts, so that shouldn't be a problem. But the book will probably be most useful to those readers with some first-hand experience with iaido who also have a more than a passing interest interest in Japanese martial history and culture.

I note the comments by a previous reviewer that the author's command of the physics is less than impressive, but as he concedes, most writers on the martial arts aren't that good with the physics and often get it wrong. Although this is an academic work, and as he says, should be held to higher standards, I'm more interested in the author's historical expertise, which is his forte, rather than his knowledge of the physics, since I have enough background there to figure that out for myself. Since the author is a professor of Japanese history, I assume he can read Japanese fluently and can therefore consult original sources, which is an important point, and he lists many of these under "primary sources" in the back of the book.

As has also been pointed out, the author is too uncritical in accepting the tales of his master's exploits and many matches and duels in which he says remained undefeated, but again, this is a typical attitude among most martial arts students, no matter how advanced. Worse in my opinion, is that the author seems to subscribe to Chinese medical theories such as the circulation of the Chi and the theory of meridians which have no basis in fact whatsover and are best regarded as pre-scientific and metaphorical depictions of physiological processes rather than truly scientific theories. A better approach would be some discussion of the relevant neurophysiology and biophysics, but that would likely be too technical for a work such as this, although much has been learned in this regard in recent decades (this was my own field of doctoral study) and there have been Nobel Prizes awarded for work in this area. Anyway, I don't expect a history prof, however proficient in his own specialty, to have a "black belt" in physics or neurobiology, so that wasn't really a problem for me, either. The book more than makes up for the above problems with the author's ability to read the original sources in Japanese, its wealth of historical detail, and its in-depth discussion of one of the most important weapons schools of the samurai era. For anyone interested in koryu this is an exhaustively reseached and detailed study that is well worth your time and money.

The book is not without serious flaws, however. Very often writers on the martial arts explain the techniques and principles of their arts using the language of physics, and the result is almost uniformly a painful thing to read for anyone with any training in the subject. Sadly, Legacies of the Sword is no exception. The author is unaware that momentum and power are distinct concepts, and doesn't understand what a vector is. The principle of "Motion and Stillness as One" (one of five basic principles in KSR theory) is given a long treatment, where the argument is made that the expert can deliver more power (or momentum!) than his (presumably stationary) untrained opponent because the expert is always moving, even if imperceptibly. However, from the point of view of power delivery as explained in the text, small motion is no better than standing still. Also ignored is the fact that in order to deliver increased power, one would have to be moving along the line of attack before the attack is delivered. However, to appreciate this point, one needs to know that velocity, position, and acceleration are vectors, while `wedges' and `spirals' are not.

In popular discussions of martial arts one is accustomed to these sorts of errors. In fact, they are expected. Legacies of the Sword aims higher than this, as it is presented with the trappings of academic rigor (the author is a tenured member of a respected institution, the book is published by a university press, and is exhaustively footnoted), and so invites judgement according to a different standard. Unfortunately, Dr. Friday fails to meet this standard in an important way. As stated above, for the purpose of this work he attempted to act as an anthropologist, and his time in the ryuha is referred to as `field work' on the book jacket. The problem is that study in one of these very traditional ryuha involves deep personal commitment on the part of the student to the school and its teachers. This would be difficult (maybe impossible) to do without compromising the objectivity one expects from scholarly work done at a modern western university. Dr. Friday is clearly in awe of the current headmaster of the ryuha (Seki Humitake) and his predeccessor (Kunii Zenya), repeating without substantiation (or question) claims of their undefeated records in no holds barred matches with other martial arts practitioners. We learn they won many fights, but we never get the names of who they defeated. Given that the martial arts subculture is rife with people making incredible, but always unsubstantiated claims about the superiority of their arts and abilities, more is needed before such claims can be accepted. It might be noted that there are descriptions of Kunii Zenya's defeat of a Greek orthodox exorcist in a duel of psychic energy, and of Seki Humitake frightening a bear with a `kiate' attack, given without apparent irony.

These problems aside, I believe the book is of value and interest to most martial arts practioners. However, the problem of balancing scholarly objectivity with an insiders understanding of a martial tradition is a very serious one, and is one the author needs to address.

This book would be a valuable addition to any Japanese Military History collection, Samurai Philosophy collection, or general Military Studies collection. Not to mention collections on martial arts, sword studies, and guys named after days of the week.

Well written! Get this book!