A question came up in a budo group I’m part of asking what the 3 most important concepts in budo are. It’s an interesting question. What id...

A number of people sent me comments about a recent post.  They were telling me there is no reason to learn the Japanese or Chinese etiqu...

For a lot of people outside Japan, Japanese reishiki  or etiquette seems quite heavy, stylized and empty. There is so much of it in Japanes...

You see and hear a lot of different titles in Japnaese martial arts.  Unfortunately, a lot of people have little or no idea how these title...

Forging is a common metaphor when talking about training, whether it is in the martial arts, the military, or anywhere else that people lea...

So you do budo?  What exactly does that mean?   It’s some kind of moving zen right?   Or maybe Taoist philosophy?  After all, the character...

After hearing me comment about what a great day I’d had at Judo practice, a friend of mine lamented the fact that there is no one senior to...

The classical arts of Japan (pre-1868) have a very different structure from the modern arts. The classical arts are entirely defined by the...