Читать книгу Traditions. Essays on the Japanese Martial Arts and Ways онлайн

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It is discouraging. But those who have a real interest in the budo as they were originally practiced have a responsibility to understand them as well, so that these wonderful Ways may be accurately preserved, like my Puritan chair, for future generations. That has been the audience for my writing over the past ten years. I hear from them frequently, when I have made a mistake or when they disagree with something I have written. I am happy to say, however, that far more often, readers write to tell me they have enjoyed the columns and have learned from them.

“I always knew there was a lot more to the martial arts than what I was learning,” one reader told me, “and your column has encouraged me to investigate.” These sentiments, expressed in one way or another over the years, have left me with the feeling experienced by the antique collector who, through his own enthusiasm, inspires others to begin appreciating the things of the past. That is what my writing in these columns has been about, in a real sense. Poking about in the attic of the budo, bringing down the interesting and intriguing odds and ends to be found there, to show them to others who share my preoccupations. I have been encouraged by readers to collect some of these columns and to publish them in the more manageable and presentable form of a book. I have, and that is what you are reading now.