The techniques are really a vessel for carrying all the things that are budo…

Most books about martial arts (budo) focus on techniques, although some tell the history, and a few wax philosophical. It is rare indeed to discover a book that so fluently combines all this within the broader context of culture and lifestyle, and does so in such a humble, engaging, and accessible way. Budo Bum Anthology is a book that answers not so much how or what as it does why? Why call budo teachers sensei ? Why do we bow? Why kata? Why keep training?

Peter Boylan, aka the Budo Bum, has achieved high rank in several martial arts - judo, iaido, jodo, and more-spending decades immersed within budo, straddling the worlds and cultures of Japan and America, and translating between them. In these essays, the reader is invited to walk alongside a quiet man who thinks deeply about the worlds in which budo was created and is practiced, and who brings the meaning of all the things that are budo into our daily lives.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Getting Started

Do you have to study in Japan to understand budo?

Etiquette: Form and sincerity in budo

Sensei, Kyoshi, Hanshi, and Shihan: budo titles and how (not) to use them

Different ranks in martial arts?

Zanshin

Budo

Do versus Jutsu (???)

What kata isn’t

Trust in the dojo

Training

Training, motivation, and counting training time in decades instead of years

The most effective martial art

The dojo as the world: learning to deal with violence and power

Budo and responsibility

Investing in failure

The spirit of learning

Training hard and training well are not the same thing

When it comes to training, fast is slow and slow is fast

Getting out of the comfort zone

There are no advanced techniques

Essentials

The most essential principles in budo: Structure

The most essential principles in budo: Spacing

The most essential principles in budo: Timing

Philosophy

The only things I teach are how to walk and how to breathe

Budo expectations and realities: understanding the limits of what we study

Will budo training make me a better person?

Budo as a professional skill and professionalism in budo

Budo training and budo philosophy

How to adapt an art form to fit you

Is kata too rigid and mechanical?