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Ellis Amdur's writing on martial arts has been groundbreaking. In
Dueling with O-sensei, he challenged practitioners that the moral
dimension of martial arts is expressed in acts of integrity, not
spiritual platitudes and the deification of fantasized
warrior-sages. In Old School, he applied both academic rigor and
keen observation towards some of the classical martial arts of
Japan, leavening his writing with vivid descriptions of many of the
actual practitioners of these wonderful traditions. His first
edition of Hidden in Plain Sight was a discussion of esoteric
training methods once common, but now all but lost within Japanese
martial arts. These methodologies encompassed mental imagery,
breath-work, and a variety of physical techniques, offering the
potential to develop skills and power sometimes viewed as nearly
superhuman. Usually believed to be the provenance of Chinese
martial arts, Amdur asserted that elements of such training still
remain within a few martial traditions: literally, 'hidden in plain
sight.' Two-thirds larger, this second edition is so much more.
Amdur digs deep into the past, showing the complexity of human
strength, its adaptation to varying lifestyles, and the nature of
physical culture pursued for martial ends. Amdur goes into detail
concerning varieties of esoteric power training within martial
arts, culminating in a specific methodology known as 'six
connections' or 'internal strength.' With this discussion as a
baseline, he then discusses the transfer of esoteric power training
from China to various Japanese jujutsu systems as well as Japanese
swordsman-ship emanating from the Kurama traditions. Finally, he
delves into the innovative martial tradition of Daito-ryu and its
most important offshoot, aikido, showing how the mercurial,
complicated figures of Takeda Sokaku and Morihei Ueshiba were less
the embodiment of something new, than a re-imagining of their past.
202 b&w illus.
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