Taikyoku Araki-ryu Pacific Northwest

Recommended Reading

This list continues to expand: Of course the works of Ellis Amdur, who heads this line of Araki-ryu: Dueling with O Sensei Old School Hidden in Plain Sight Follow his blog at Kogen Budo for more of his and others' writing on classical martial traditions in practice. Other good reads for an introduction to the classical traditions would be Diane Skoss' Koryu Books series. These bring the work of a number of current martial researchers and scholars together in one place: Koryu Bujutsu Sword and Spirit Keiko Shokon Scholarly Research Scholarship on Japanese warrior culture has expanded considerably over the years, with many new insights developed from ongoing research, some of it made available to the non-specialist reader. More often than not these days, my reading list is more academic work than "martial arts research." Accessible versions of some doctoral theses are out there and in some cases more focussed on martial culture, even specif...

"Reality of Combat"

A video recently gained some attention for its demonstration of the brutal nature of close quarters combat, and how even in the modern day, personal combat with a grenade and rifles can quickly end up in an up close and intensely personal knife-and-bite fight. There is an incredible amount of absolute nonsense put out there in EVERY facet of the martial arts community. People have forgotten the difference between the things they are training and what is seen on this video. Some of the most verbose pontificators, including highly regarded teachers, blathering on "the reality of combat" have never even been in a fight, let alone actual personal combat. If they can't begin to understand where they are wrong, how can they know where they are correct? The places I've seen this video shared is on combatives sites, maybe some jiujitsu pages, probably because the most significant portion of it is on the ground. It is NOT jiujitsu by any stretch, but valid discussi...

Taikyoku Araki-ryu Pac NW

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