Recommended historical/philosophical martial arts books?

[perceive]

That was. Well. Exactly what sort of drugs were used in the making of that clip?

 

[Carol]

:hmm: Well no, I wouldn't call it sad...but unfortunately, based on the whole spreadsheet thing, you must now be shunned :ubercool: :uhyeah:

Shunning someone for a spreadsheet! Turn in your geek card, Xue, that was uncalled for.

I think spreadsheets are cool.

 

[Chris Parker]

I figured this may be the case, but I wasn't sure. Are there any available reliable texts on the history of the ninja?

Honestly, that's not the easiest question to answer.... Personally, I tend to avoid books by people such as Stephen Turnbull, as I feel there is too much lacking in his understanding of the culture to be truly accurate. Hatsumi's more recent books have a few interesting titbits in them, but they are not based around the history side of things primarily (mainly as Hatsumi isn't that interested in it, from most reports), although he has a new book coming out in a few months that is supposed to be more about such things (the history and Hatsumi's personal philosophy on the arts after all his years training and teaching). Kacem Zoughari's book "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan" is very interesting, but again there are quite a few errors through it (incorrect kanji, pictures, a few other things).

My personal approach is to take as many sources as I can and see where they agree, and where they don't. If a particular book/author is more disagreed with than agreed with, that's when I dismiss them as being a good, or even applicable source. A good example of that in recent times is Antony Cummins, who fails on a huge number of counts.

 

[granfire]

That was. Well. Exactly what sort of drugs were used in the making of that clip?

:lfao:

yes, it was, well...

(SHUNNN the nonbelievers!)

 

[Xue Sheng]

Shunned already! And I didn't even start a flame thread. To answer the question, 6 of the books are on order, so I am hoping to get a decent start there.

I'd explain...but you must be shunned

 

[Xue Sheng]

Shunning someone for a spreadsheet! Turn in your geek card, Xue, that was uncalled for.

I think spreadsheets are cool.

Spread sheets are just wrong..... but a database, NOW your talking COOL..... and if I did not fear you and your maglite :anic: ...you to would now be shunned

 

[perceive]

Spread sheets are just wrong..... but a database, NOW your talking COOL..... and if I did not fear you and your maglite :anic: ...you to would now be shunned

Hmm. Just a database? Any old database? I dunno. There are levels of cool. MS Access? No way. An Oracle cluster? Maybe...