Martial Musings

Author : Robert W. Smith
Publisher : Via Media Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1893765008
Total Pages : 519 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th Century written by Robert W. Smith and published by Via Media Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In every century there are unique individuals whose fate makes them standing symbols of unique merit and accomplishment. Robert W. Smith's Martial Musings stands out as the sole literary work which offers readers a special perspective of martial arts as they evolved during the 20th century. Smith personally escorts the reader on a martial arts tour. He starts with his own initial involvement in the arts, then launches outward, across the nation, over to Asia, and eventually home again. Some of the topics covered in the book include martial arts theory and practice, portrayals of leading Asian instructors, profiles of Westerners who studied the arts and brought them back to their respective countries and an historical record of the evolution of fighting arts in the West. Martial Musings represents the fourteenth book Smith has written on the subject and is a broader, somewhat historical, semi-autobiographical commentary on martial arts in the 20th century. But, what makes this book such a joy to devour is the literary relish Smith stir-fries in with the books basic ingredients. He astutely couples combatives with literary panache, and a ready wit. In short, Martial Musings introduces the reader to the individuals who shaped martial arts in the 20th century. The hardbound book has 398 pages and over 300 illustrations with a full-color cover and two-color text pages.

Author : Michael DeMarco
Publisher : Via Media Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1893765520
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Best Fight: A Memoir of a Martial Art Practitioner, Publisher, and Author written by Michael DeMarco and published by Via Media Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A needle may draw a thread through printed pages to bind a book. In this little memoir, I feel like a needle that drew a common thread though a segment of martial art history. This book details three interrelated activities: (1) martial art studies, (2) involvement as founder of Via Media Publishing, producing a quarterly journal and books, and (3) teaching martial arts. Publishers, writers, researchers and serious martial art practitioners will benefit with the detailed overview of Via Media and its publications. Via Media produced the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, known for its high academic and aesthetic standards. Its contents reflect the history of two decades and provides rich information for practitioners and scholars, making The Best Fighta valuable reference work. In addition to reading, the primary way to learn a martial art is through instruction. In reading about my studies and teaching experience, readers can relate to their own involvement in martial arts. What is important here is the portrayal of my instructors, their teaching methods, and reasons for being involved in martial arts. Their accounts should offer insights and inspiration for others who study and practice any martial art.

Author : Barry Allen
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231539347
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Striking Beauty written by Barry Allen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to focus on the intersection of Western philosophy and the Asian martial arts, Striking Beauty comparatively studies the historical and philosophical traditions of martial arts practice and their ethical value in the modern world. Expanding Western philosophy's global outlook, the book forces a theoretical reckoning with the concerns of Chinese philosophy and the aesthetic and technical dimensions of martial arts practice. Striking Beauty explains the relationship between Asian martial arts and the Chinese philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, in addition to Sunzi's Art of War. It connects martial arts practice to the Western concepts of mind-body dualism and materialism, sports aesthetics, and the ethics of violence. The work ameliorates Western philosophy's hostility toward the body, emphasizing the pleasure of watching and engaging in martial arts, along with their beauty and the ethical problem of their violence.

Author : Thomas A. Green
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1598842447
Total Pages : 807 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martial Arts of the World [2 volumes] written by Thomas A. Green and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-06-11 with total page 807 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference ever published on the wide range of martial arts disciplines practiced in cultures around the world. ABC-CLIO's Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation is the most authoritative reference ever published on combat disciplines from around the world and across history. Coverage includes Shaolin monks, jousting knights, Roman gladiators, Westerner gunfighters, samurai warriors, and heavyweight boxers. These iconic figures and many more are featured in this title, as well as representatives of less well known but no less fascinating systems, all vividly characterized by expert contributors from around the world who are themselves martial arts practitioners. Martial Arts of the World comprises 120 entries in two volumes. The first volume is organized geographically to explore the historic development of martial arts styles in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The second volume looks at martial arts thematically, with coverage of belief systems, modern martial arts competitions, and a wide range of such topics as folklore, women in martial arts, martial arts and the military, and martial arts and the media.

Author : Michael DeMarco
Publisher : Via Media Publishing
ISBN 13 : 080484870X
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Asian Martial Arts written by Michael DeMarco and published by Via Media Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Asian Martial Arts: Constructive Thoughts & Practical Applications represents an international gathering of friends who happen to be highly qualified martial art scholars and practitioners. This martial arts book is a collection of articles from practitioners who have come together in celebration of the 20-plus years that Journal of Asian Martial Arts has inspired scholarship to higher academic standards while encouraging all aspects of responsible practice. Each article was written specifically for Asian Martial Arts, with topics representing the rich variety found in the Asian martial traditions.

Author : Michael DeMarco
Publisher : Via Media Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Academic Approaches to Martial Arts Research, Vol. 2 written by Michael DeMarco and published by Via Media Publishing. This book was released on with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume anthology conveniently contains useful academic tools for studying the combative arts. Each chapter will prove special to all interested in the intellectual side to the martial arts. Some chapters provide fine details for categorizing the variety of what we commonly refer to as "martial arts." Other chapters focus on the martial arts as living culture and social implications. The quality of instruction can either encourage negative traits such as violence or allow a practitioner to experience a self-transformation that improves character. NOTE: print edition is a single volume.

Author : Jonathan Clements
Publisher : Robinson
ISBN 13 : 1472136470
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Brief History of the Martial Arts written by Jonathan Clements and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2016-10-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Folk tales of the Shaolin Temple depict warrior monks with superhuman abilities. Today, dozens of East Asian fighting styles trace their roots back to the Buddhist brawlers of Shaolin, although any quest for the true story soon wanders into a labyrinth of forgeries, secret texts and modern retellings. This new study approaches the martial arts from their origins in military exercises and callisthenics. It examines a rich folklore from old wuxia tales of crime-fighting heroes to modern kung fu movies. Centre stage is given to the stories that martial artists tell themselves about themselves, with accounts (both factual and fictional) of famous practitioners including China's Yim Wing-chun, Wong Fei-hong, and Ip Man, as well as Japanese counterparts such as Kano Jigoro, Itosu Anko and So Doshin. The history of martial arts encompasses secret societies and religious rebels, with intimate glimpses of the histories of China, Korea and Japan, their conflicts and transformations. The book also charts the migration of martial arts to the United States and beyond. Special attention is paid to the turmoil of the twentieth century, the cross-cultural influence of Japanese colonies in Asia, and the post-war rise of martial arts in sport and entertainment - including the legacy of Bruce Lee, the dilemma of the ninja and the global audience for martial arts in fiction.

Author : D. S. Farrer
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438439687
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge written by D. S. Farrer and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark work provides a wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the traditional Asian martial arts. Most of the contributors to the volume are practitioners of the martial arts, and all are keenly aware that these traditions now exist in a transnational context. The book's cutting-edge research includes ethnography and approaches from film, literature, performance, and theater studies. Three central aspects emerge from this book: martial arts as embodied fantasy, as a culturally embedded form of self-cultivation, and as a continuous process of identity formation. Contributors explore several popular and highbrow cultural considerations, including the career of Bruce Lee, Chinese wuxia films, and Don DeLillo's novel Running Dog. Ethnographies explored describe how the social body trains in martial arts and how martial arts are constructed in transnational training. Ultimately, this academic study of martial arts offers a focal point for new understandings of cultural and social beliefs and of practice and agency.

Author : Rob Jacob
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 0595348610
Total Pages : 108 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martial Arts Biographies written by Rob Jacob and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martial Arts Biographies: An Annotated Bibliography lists hundreds of martial arts related biographies and autobiographies. Most of the entries are annotated, giving a synopsis of the relevant material in the book. Included are listings for martial artists of Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Ninjutsu, Tai Chi, and many other styles. Appendices list productive sources for new and used books, and contact information for major publishers of martial arts books. Martial Arts Biographies: An Annotated Bibliography is a useful resource for martial arts researchers, readers, book collectors, and libraries.

Author : Michael DeMarco
Publisher : Via Media Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Some Western Pioneers in Asian Martial Arts: An Anthology written by Michael DeMarco and published by Via Media Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pioneer” — as a noun is defined as “a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.” As a verb, it means “develop or be the first to use or apply (a new method, area of knowledge, or activity).” This anthology gives the reader the experience of the explorers who went to foreign lands to discover and learn about a specific field of knowledge and skills:the Asian martial arts.The eight chapters included here share a common root in the pioneers' desire to travel far and wide in search for practical martial arts useful in the street as well as for commando units. The pioneers discussed in this anthology experienced lives submerged in foreign cultures, lives compounded by the difficulties of communicating in foreign languages, changing diets, and often being in hostile living conditions. Their lives are far from the associations we usually associate with martial arts now steeped in pure exercise for health, or tournament competitions. Becoming familiar with of some of the Western pioneers of Asian martial arts bring us back to understand many of the original reasons for learning these combatives. Their lives and experience show us how and why the more serious side of Asian fighting arts remain illusive for most who, in practice, need not confront the lethal aspects of these traditions.