The Warrior's Path: Wisdom from Contemporary Martial Arts Masters

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Ontario photographer James Sidney has written a book that should strike
positive chords in those who practise the Japanese martial arts. His
method is practical and effective: interview some of the best sensei
martial arts teachers he could find, write an introduction for each of
them, and combine the stories and interviews with artistic photographs.

The masters included in the book trained in the early 20th century, an
important time in the history of Japanese martial arts. They represent
the most important of the disciplines: karate, judo, aikido, iaido,
kendo, atarashii naginata, and Shorinji Kempo. Sidney, himself a black
belt in karate, emphasizes in his interviews the delicate balance
between the martial arts themselves and the self-development of the
practitioner. Yoshimitsu Takeasu, who began his kendo career at the age
of eight, says in his interview that kendo has helped him develop “an
unyielding spirit.” You can win at kendo, he says, “technically,
skilfully, using technique, but that is only a one-time thing.
Eventually, the final goal is to find the right method of living—to go
through life the right way.”

Sidney’s black-and-white portraits of the teachers are startling in
their clarity. The other photos, abstract in their exposures, are less
striking and often too blurred for identification. There is a useful
glossary and a list of the disciplines covered in the book.