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Scholarly Works
(unfortunately now out of print)
The Forge of the Spirit
Forge was a rewrite of my doctoral dissertation in
anthropology. In it, I wax academic to a degree that may
scare readers. It's not my best work, but martial artists
interested in more scholarly approaches to the arts
have found it useful. People still ask for it, even though
it's out of print. If you're interested, check out JAMA, the
Journal of Asian Martial Arts. They may have a few
copies available. Keep your eyes open for an updated
paperback version.
Still interested in the book? Read on.
From the Introduction:
When I originally sat down to write this book after just
completing my doctorate in anthropology, I began with a
disclaimer establishing the fact that it was written from
the perspective of an anthropologist, not a martial artist.
Since that time, the situation has changed a bit.
Back then, I had a personal involvement with martial
arts training, but it had not assumed a dominant place
in my life and my outlook. Today, I have to admit that I
am both a practicing martial artist and an academic
analyst of the ways in which people around the world
walk the martial path.
Forge uses an anthropological perspective to
investigate the organization and cultural content of
institutions concerned with the Japanese martial art
forms known today as budo. They include a wide variety
of armed and unarmed activities that have been
inspired by pre-modern Japanese combat systems. The
various budo systems are formal ways of looking at and
doing things, institutions organized to transmit ideas
and facilitate their translation into human action. As
such, they offer us a rich and complex hoard of
information to try to make sense out of through
anthropological analysis.
This book examines the ways in which budo forms in
general are organized-their structure. Since human
institutions are shaped by experience, it also attempts
to explore how Japanese history has contributed to
budo's organization. An important point will be to
develop an appreciation of cultural continuity between
contemporary martial arts and their precursors, but also
to point out how modern budo are different.
Since this work is the product of firsthand study, I also
have an appreciation for the fact that the reasons
people practice budo are somewhat complicated. If the
anthropologist's job is to seek functional purpose in
human activity, then, on the surface, budo is a bit of a
puzzler.
Many people are initially drawn to martial arts training
out of some interest in self-defense. While there is
some fighting application in various budo forms, it
seems that as people practice budo for longer and
longer periods of time, this combat focus tends to fade,
but to be replaced by something more personal and
emotional.
This point is not just an academic observation. I have
been studying various budo forms for twenty-five years,
a period of participant-observation that has brought me
into contact with many martial artists and given me the
opportunity to explore their motivations. To a large
extent, most indicate that training plays an important
role in their lives that has little to do with issues of
fighting, but a great deal to do with self-definition. In my
own personal experience of training over the years, I
have also experienced this shift in emphasis.
So this book examines the idea that budo forms are
cultural systems that create a sense of identity and
belonging for people. As such, budo are not just about
physical activity. They have psychological import as
well. The structure of budo is one that is concerned with
the symbolic transmission of shared meaning.
My concern in this book is to map one corner of human
experience that seems to be of interest to people
around the world, Japanese and non-Japanese. The
martial arts and martial-arts inspired themes are
commonplace in America today, for instance. You can
watch "Walker Texas Ranger" on television, starring
former karate tournament star Chuck Norris (who
manages to insert a choreographed karate fight scene
into every episode). You can watch movies with martial
artists or strong martial arts components, like "Above
the Law," or "The Matrix." Eight year olds can identify
ninja weapons (although wielded by turtles), and it is the
rare shopping plaza that doesn't feature some sort of
martial arts school.
What is the attraction here?
I believe that the symbolic nature of budo, the cultural
and ideological factors embedded within it, creates
significant meaning for participants. In order to support
this argument, this book examines the historical and
cultural background of the Japanese martial arts and
identify significant features of budo's structure. It also
examines a few examples of modern budo forms to
show that, even though they emphasize different sorts
of techniques, their basic organization and emphases
conform to the broad organizational principles of budo's
structure. These tasks completed, I then make some
general suggestions about the functional dimension of
modern budo.
Although I think this work should be of some interest to
scholars, I have written it with the general reader in
mind. Maybe I have spent too long a time on the hard
wood floors of budo training halls where simplicity and
directness are cardinal virtues, but I also believe that
the discourse of academics is frequently inaccessible to
the general reader, that we have become, in Robert
Bolt's words "...the professional describers, the
classifiers, the men with the categories and a quick ear
for the latest subdivision, who flourish among us like
priests". If our flourishing priesthood whispers only to
itself, we have lost our function as educators, and if the
arcana of our ritual language renders us unintelligible,
then we have lost our ability to communicate, to
interpret the form and process of human experience.
The preservation of the essence of human experience
seems to me to be at the heart of budo, at the heart of
anthropology and, I hope, at the core of this little book.
, leaving only a series of predictable adventures. This
one just may be too good to duplicate
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