Persimmon Wind: A Martial Artist's Journey In Japan - Hardcover

Lowry, Dave

4.21

136 ratings by Goodreads

9781890536107: Persimmon Wind: A Martial Artist's Journey In Japan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890536105 ISBN 13: 9781890536107

Publisher: Koryu Books, 2005

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Persimmon Wind--part memoir, part martial arts history, and part travelogue--relates Dave Lowry's experiences as he travels to Japan to reunite with his sensei, visit the graves of others of his martial lineage, and explore a country and culture that profoundly influenced his life.

Lowry's account reveals a Japan unlikely to be witnessed by the average Westerner. Drawing on his deep knowledge of the martial arts, Lowry acts as an interpreter of sorts, deftly describing for the reader the myriad ways in which Japan's subtle, yet rich customs and rituals inform and enrich the seemingly mundane practices of life. On his journey, he interweaves musings from his daily encounters--his introduction to an old ryokan-keeper; a contemplative visit to Kyoto's Daitokuji, "Temple of Great Virtue"; he even spots a ghost or two--with reflections on local history and the philosophies and origins of the Shinkage-ryu, one of Japan's oldest schools of classical swordsmanship.

At the same time, Lowry's experiences in Japan serve as an unexpected opportunity bringing him to terms with the extraordinary relationship that exists between teacher and student, with his own past, his place in the long line of swordsmen from whom he has come, and with the challenge he faces in integrating the cultural streams of East and West.

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From the Back Cover:

"An engaging, provocative, and long-awaited sequel to Autumn Lightning... Dave Lowry is a latter-day Lafcadio Hearn with a bokuto!"--Karl Friday, author of Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan and co-author of Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryu and Samurai Martial Culture

"Like fine wine, good writing only gets better with aging. Likewise, Dave Lowry's Persimmon Wind has garnered a richer, more complex taste over the years since its first publication. And like a good vintner, Diane Skoss has nurtured and reedited this wonderful book for a new generation of serious, dedicated budoka to enjoy. May they find even more textual complexity, sweetness and bittersweet wonder as I did when I first read the book!"--Wayne Muromoto, editor, Furyu: the Budo Magazine

In Persimmon Wind, nature and culture form an unbroken unity. Dave Lowry has managed to bypass the oppressive grey of urban Japan and the glitz of neon and technology. It is as if he found a single meandering thread of purity, and this, alone he followed. Village festivals, tea ceremony, even martial arts are part of a single organic unity, not hobbies used to either pass the time or get one in touch with something lost. It is not all of Japan, by any stretch of the imagination. But it is what makes it Japan."--Ellis Amdur, author of Dueling with O-sensei and Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions

About the Author:

One of America's foremost writers on the Japanese martial arts, Dave Lowry has authored more than one hundred articles on the topic for the most popular English-language magazines, including Black Belt, Fighting Arts International, Furyu: The Budo Journal, Karate Illustrated, and Inside Karate. He has also contributed articles on traditional Japanese culture to Winds, the in-flight magazine of Japan Air Lines. Lowry is the author of nine books on budo, including Persimmon Wind's prequel, Autumn Lightning: The Education of an American Samurai. He is the food critic for St. Louis Magazine and has recently completed work on The Connoisseur’s Guide to Sushi. Lowry lives, with his wife and son, in front of a bamboo grove near St. Louis, Missouri.

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