Questions of a prospective Iaidoka.

[Josh Reyer]

All of Dave Lowry's publications are good recommendations for those involved in the martial/fighting arts (except the one about sushi, but its a good, humorous, read anyway)! 'In the Dojo' is a bit rambling, but it grows on you until you'll love it.

Take large grains of salt with any of Lowry's writings on Yagyu Shinkage-ryu history, and especially anything involving the Japanese language.

[Durandal]

Tsuki!

[Wraith]

Take large grains of salt with any of Lowry's writings on Yagyu Shinkage-ryu history, and especially anything involving the Japanese language.

Oh, now you've done it!

Kokoro777 is either Lowry's love child or publicist; you'vr probably ignited a war now.....

[Kokoro777]

I wait...in dark alley ways....in Nagoya....

Is what he writes rubbish, Josh?

[Josh Reyer]

I wait...in dark alley ways....in Nagoya....

Is what he writes rubbish, Josh?

No, not rubbish.

There's a lot of good information in Lowry's writings. Indeed some real gems. The problem is there are also some real rocks, too. The one I recall from "In the Dojo" is his gloss of "kankyaku" as "guests of the hall". I guess he was thinking "budokan" -> "kan" + "kyaku" (guests). But "kankyaku" is written 観客, and literally means "viewing guests", i.e., "spectators". In this article, he describes Yagyū Sekishūsai doing mutō-dori on Tokugawa Ieyasu, after which Ieyasu gets up and says, "Suki desu! I like it!" Setting aside the fact that neither "suki" nor "desu" were used in that way at that time (desu didn't even exist as a word), this essentially gives the impression that Sekishūsai knocked Ieyasu over, and Ieyasu stood up and said, "I love you!" like a young girl.

In terms of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū history, he gets the broad strokes right, but makes some pretty egregious errors. In Autumn Lightning and some other articles, he refers to Munenori's brother Muneaki as "Munetoshi" (in reality, the correct way to say Sekishūsai's name), and says he was a mediocre swordsman, so Sekishūsai passed him over for inheriting the headship of YSR. In reality, Muneaki was passed over because he died in battle after cutting down 18 men. Mediocre, indeed. In this article, he talks about the Yagyu tsuba on display at Hōtoku-ji in Yagyū village, forged by Yagyū Renya, 5th headmaster of YSR. In Autumn Lightning, he has facsimiles of Renya's tsuba, and mentions that Renya was better known as a craftsman than a swordsman. Quite a few problems with this: yes, there are tsuba at Hōtokuji, but they are not Yagyū tsuba, and certainly not forged by Renya. Renya made rough design sketches, one particular artisan cleaned up the design, another forged the tsuba, a third did the engraving, and still a fourth did the polishing. To the best of my knowledge, no originals dating to Renya's time exist; only copies based on the collected designs. And far from being better known as a craftsman than a swordsman, Renya was renowned as a swordsman, perhaps the last true master of Shinkage-ryū. He was a second son (actually a third, but his eldest brother died in the Shimabara Rebellion), and yet his older brother stepped aside so that Renya could become the teacher of the lord of Owari domain. Renya took no wife and remained celibate from the time he received that position until his death, devoting himself entirely to perfecting his swordsmanship. His design of the Yagyū tsuba and the Yagyū-goshirae reflect his devotion to swordsmanship, not craftsmanship.

My other issue, particularly in the view of YSR history, is that Lowry mixes fictional narrative with history ("Suki desu!" being but one example), but doesn't cite his sources, and given his status as a practitioner of YSR, the reader is led to believe that much of his information comes via oral tradition in the ryu. Unless one has already done the research, one can't be sure what is fact and what is fiction, making it good reading, but a questionable resource.

So, grains of salt. I would say the same of Draeger, as well, which has similar historical and linguistic issues (Draeger's spoken Japanese was passable, but by his own admission he had little reading ability). I would rate the posts of Rennis Buchner and Steve Delaney here on Kendo World as higher, both of whom have the hands-on practice and Japanese ability. Neither's history or Japanese has ever made me go "Erk?!" like Lowry's and Draeger's.

Still, Lowry and Draeger are probably the best budo books in the Japanese culture section of a library or Kinokuniya.

[Kokoro777]

How very interesting.

after which Ieyasu gets up and says, "Suki desu! I like it!" Setting aside the fact that neither "suki" nor "desu" were used in that way at that time (desu didn't even exist as a word), this essentially gives the impression that Sekishūsai knocked Ieyasu over, and Ieyasu stood up and said, "I love you!" like a young girl.

I suppose if we were 'quoting' dialogue spoken by Henry VIII here in the UK, we'd use modern English too, unless the style of speaking was pertinent to what we were trying to say. If Lowry was just meaning he appreciated his experience of YSR then wouldn't you say that's a literary liberty that's acceptable?

I would rate the posts of Rennis Buchner and Steve Delaney here on Kendo World as higher, both of whom have the hands-on practice and Japanese ability. Neither's history or Japanese has ever made me go "Erk?!" like Lowry's and Draeger's.

That's high praise indeed. I wonder if either would consider writing a book or ten?! They'd go dowm well with me.

Still, Lowry and Draeger are probably the best budo books in the Japanese culture section of a library or Kinokuniya.

Draeger = cure for insomnia!

[Josh Reyer]

How very interesting.

I suppose if we were 'quoting' dialogue spoken by Henry VIII here in the UK, we'd use modern English too, unless the style of speaking was pertinent to what we were trying to say. If Lowry was just meaning he appreciated his experience of YSR then wouldn't you say that's a literary liberty that's acceptable?

No. As I said, it has problems even after you set aside matters of historical linguistics. It's completely unidiomatic. It's not the Japanese a man of Ieyasu's social position would have used. "Kore ga yoi!", "Kore wa suki da!" would have been acceptable (if still a bit stilted -- they are translations of what an English person might say in that situation, not how a Japanese person would likely express appreciation); those are at least the Japanese a man of the highest social status in the room might use. When I say he makes Ieyasu sound like a young girl saying "I love you," I mean exactly that: that's the typical situation one hears spontaneous exclamations of "Suki desu!"

To use your analogy, no one would bat an eyelash if Henry VIII was made to say of Anne Boleyn, "Send her to the Tower!" But it would be an eyesore if he was made to say, "Bitch, please!" Even though both words existed in his time.