Siegel, Charlie. To Become a Living Art: The Life Story of Roy Shingen Goldberg Sensei. 2023. There is not much material on Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, here in the united states. Outside of the instructional books and videos, there are not many history-based or instructor-focused works. Besides Stanley Pranin’s book with conversations with prominent Daito-ryu teachers from … Continue reading Reflecting on To Become a Living Art
Cummins, Antony. How to be a Modern Samurai: 10 Steps of Finding Your Power & Achieving Success. Watkins; London. 2020 I am always interested in what Antony Cummins produces, whether it pertains to the ninja, to Natori-ryu, or anything in between. His perspective on these topics is different, refreshing, and, at times, enlightening to consider … Continue reading Reflecting on How to be a Modern Samurai
Klein, Liese. The Life-Giving Sword: Kazuo Chiba’s Life in Aikido. Independently published. 2019. The amount of detail was unprecedented for any one aikido shihan. Such details seemed to be reserved only for O-Sensei or any political figure outside of the martial arts. Liese Klein dove headfirst into Kazuo Chiba’s life, from his humble beginnings in … Continue reading Reflecting on Kazuo Chiba’s Life in Aikido
Stevens, John. The Way of Judo: A Portrait of Jigoro Kano and His Students. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc, 2013 I had been wanting to read more about Jigoro Kano for a while now, however, I was always wary of the few biographies published in English because of the reviews relating how incomplete they were. It … Continue reading Reflecting on John Steven’s The Way of Judo
Rouse, Wendy. Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2017. With many female martial artists coming into the limelight, regardless of what art or circles one is a participant of, it may seem that such modern trend - something that is helped by the digital age … Continue reading Reflecting on Her Own Hero
Perry, Susan, and Ronald Rubin. Aikido Talks: Conversations with American Aikidoists. Claremont, Calif.: Areté Press, 2001. What are conversations if not bits of oral history? What are conversations if not small instances that allows one to better know and understand another? These are the aspects that drive the interview in Aikido Talks: Conversations with American … Continue reading Reflecting on Aikido Talks: Conversations with American Aikidoists
Anglo, Sydney. The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. New Haven. Yale University Press. 2000. Finally! After two years of reading, I finally finished reading Sydney Anglo’s The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe! I can say for certain, it was a deep and detailed book cataloguing and comparing fight books or manuals from the medieval period … Continue reading Reflecting on The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe
Stone, John, and Ronald C Meyer. Aikido in America. Berkeley, Calif.: Frog: Distributed by North Atlantic Books, 1995. Aikido is a Japanese martial art; however, it has spread all over the world from the 1950s onward. Many of the early histories of the art focused on the Japanese experience of the art, magnifying the life … Continue reading Reflecting on Aikido in America
Pranin, Stanley. Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu: Conversations with Daito-ryu Masters. Aiki News. 1996. In his never-ending research to better understand the many and the martial artist that was Morihei Ueshiba, the late Stanley Pranin followed the influence of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, specifically that of Ueshiba’s teacher, Sokaku Takeda. The aikido sources at the time of Pranin’s research seemed … Continue reading Reflecting on Conversations with Daito-Ryu Masters
Cohen, Richard. By the Sword: Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai Warriors, Swashbucklers, and Olympians. London: Pocket, 2003. I recall starting this book when I was much younger, driven by my desire to take and ingest all things sword and samurai. I remember my younger self being disappointed that though in the subtitle mentioned samurai, the book wasn’t … Continue reading Reflecting on By the Sword
Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 