Ellis Amdur’s writing on martial arts has been groundbreaking. In Dueling with O-sensei, he challenged practitioners that the moral dimension of martial arts is expressed in acts of integrity, not spiritual platitudes and the deification of fantasized warrior-sages. In Old School, he applied both academic rigor and keen observation towards some of the classical martial arts of Japan, leavening his writing with vivid descriptions of many of the actual practitioners of these wonderful traditions. His first edition of Hidden in Plain Sight was a discussion of esoteric training methods once common, but now all but lost within Japanese martial arts. These methodologies encompassed mental imagery, breath-work, and a variety of physical techniques, offering the potential to develop skills and power sometimes viewed as nearly superhuman. Usually believed to be the provenance of Chinese martial arts, Amdur asserted that elements of such training still remain within a few martial traditions: literally, ‘hidden in plain sight.’

Two-thirds larger, this second edition is so much more. Amdur digs deep into the past, showing the complexity of human strength, its adaptation to varying lifestyles, and the nature of physical culture pursued for martial ends. Amdur goes into detail concerning varieties of esoteric power training within martial arts, culminating in a specific methodology known as ‘six connections’ or ‘internal strength.’  With this discussion as a baseline, he then discusses the transfer of esoteric power training from China to various Japanese jūjutsu systems as well as Japanese swordsman-ship emanating from the Kurama traditions. Finally, he delves into the innovative martial tradition of Daitō-ryū and its most important offshoot, aikidō, showing how the mercurial, complicated figures of Takeda Sokaku and Morihei Ueshiba were less the embodiment of something new, than a re-imagining of their past

Contents

Acknowledgements

Author’s Notes

Forward

Section 1 - The Cultivation Of Power

1. Physical Culture: A Uniquely Human Preoccupation

2. The Development of Specialized Martial Skill and Power

3. Six Connections—Comprehensive Power Development

Section 2 - Heaven And Earth Within Man

4. The Chinese Connection

5. Kitō-ryū: Rising and Falling

6. Yoshin-ryū: A Garden Of Willows

7. Tenjin Shinyō-ryū: Heaven and Man

8. What Happened To Jūjutsu?

Section 3 - Daitō-ryū: The Past is Future

9. Aizu Bujutsu: Takeda Sokaku’s Birthright

10. Takeda Sokaku: Opening Our Eyes To True Budō

11. The Heart of Aiki Is The Sword: Takeda Sokaku’s Legacy

12. Aiki Nitō Hiden

Section 4 - Aikidō and Ueshiba Morihei: More Than A Martial Art & More Than A Martial Artist

13. Is The Heart Of Aikidō The Sword?

14. Aikidō is Three Peaches

15. Hidden in Plain Sight

16. Triangle, Circle, Square: How To Be O-Sensei In Sixteen Easy Steps

Epilogue

Appendix A

Appendix B

Glossary

Photo Credits