Oscar Ratti - Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan

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Please note that the publisher and author(s) of thisinstructional book are NOT RESPONSIBLE in anymanner whatsoever for any injury that may resultfrom practicing the techniques and/or followingthe instructions given within. Martial arts trainingcan be dangerousboth to you and to othersifnot practiced safely. If youre in doubt as to how toproceed or whether your practice is safe, consultwith a trained martial arts teacher before beginning.Since the physical activities described hereinmay be too strenuous in nature for some readers, itis also essential that a physician be consulted priorto training.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint ofPeriplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

Copyright 1973 Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.Acknowledgments, Foreword, Portfolio of Drawingsin new edition Copyright 2009 by Futuro Designs& Publications/Adele Westbrook.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced or utilized in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,recording, or by any information storageand retrieval system, without prior written permissionfrom the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ratti, Oscar.
Secrets of the samurai : the martial arts of feudal
Japan / by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook.
399 p. : ill. ; 27 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-4-8053-0960-5 (hardcover)
1. Martial arts--Japan. I. Westbrook, Adele. II. Title.
GV1100.77.A2.R37 2009
796.815--dc22

2009014305

ISBN 978-4-8053-1405-0
ISBN 978-1-4629-1900-0 (ebook)

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TO THOSE RARE MASTERS OF BUJUTSU
who revered the arts of the warrior
but who revered human life even more;
and

TO THOSE SCHOLARS
without whose reflections
and painstaking recollections
this book would not have been possible

If we open ourselves up to the divine Life Force in its physical andspiritual manifestations we are all right, as individuals and as societiesof individuals. If, on the contrary, we turn our backs on theGod-made universe and insist on living in the home-made, verbaluniverse of fancies and ideals, imagining that we can improve onnature and make God in our own image, then we ruin our privatelives, physically and spiritually, and create societies such as we livein today. Our habit of doing most of our living in a home-madeworld of words, fancies, and illusions is so deeply ingrained that itrequires hard work with special techniques to get back to where wehave always beenthat is to say, to the given reality of Nature andGrace, to things as they really are, in themselves, and quoad nos , in relation to our egos.

Aldous Huxley
The Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley
James Sexton, editor
Ivan R. Dee. 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHARTS

FOREWORD