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BOOK:
Hidden in Plain Sight: Tracing the Roots of Ueshiba Morihei's Power
Ellis Amdur's writing on martial arts has been groundbreaking. In this volume, Amdur has radically reworked his iconoclastic essays first published on the website of Aikido Journal. Here, he attempts to establish the existence of something all but lost in Japanese martial arts -- a sophisticated type of training, encompassing mental imagery, breath-work, and a variety of physical techniques that offered the practitioner the potential to develop skills sometimes viewed as nearly superhuman. Commonly referred to as "internal training," and usually believed to be the provenance of Chinese martial arts, Amdur asserts that not only was it once common among many Japanese martial traditions, but elements of such training still remain, passed down in a few martial arts -- literally "hidden in plain sight." As always, Amdur reminds us that this is a human endeavor and he provides vivid, even heartbreaking portrayals of some of the great practitioners of these skills, men who devoted their lives to an obsessive pursuit of power.
- The Chinese Connection
- The Birth of Daito-ryu
- A Unified Field Theory: Aiki and Weapons
- Aikido is Three Peaches
- Hidden in Plain Sight
- Circle, Square, Triangle: How to Be O-Sensei in Sixteen Easy Steps
- Epilogue
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Use the secure shopping cart provided above. During checkout, you can specify your payment option, either:
1. Credit Card via PayPal, which will process your payment whether or not you sign up for Paypal. You need to follow two steps:
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Add $12.50 shipping to other countries, plus $3.75 for each additional copy.
DELIVERY: 2 - 4 WEEKS
Hidden in Plain Sight can also be purchased at Koryu.com along with a number of the finest books published on Japanese martial traditions.
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BOOK:
Dueling with O-sensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior Sage
Far more than just a martial arts book, Dueling with O-sensei has wide applicability in any field where questions of integrity and leadership arise. This series of 16 essays first appeared in Aikido Journal.
If there were an "ordinary martial arts book," this would be its evil twin. Unflinchingly honest, writing from a perspective both authoritative and unique, Amdur explores aspects of budo, its philosophies and dilemmas, its remarkable rewards and yes, its pathologies, in a way no other author has. He does so with humor, compelling creativity, and a wickedly sharp-edged insight that make this book a delight.
— Dave Lowry, author of Persimmon Wind
- Aiki: A State of the Union
- Aiki is Not Always Pretty
- The Use of Weapons in Aikido Training
- A Conversation with Daito-ryu’s Other Child
- Atemi: Striking to the Heart of the Matter
- So How Tough Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
- Toward Simple Morality – Or, How Come Something So Fine Sometimes Turns So Ugly?
- Otoko (Manhood)
- There Is No Such Thing as Tenkan…Without Irimi
- Hiding in the Shadows of the Warrior
- Life as a Movie
- Setsuninto – Katsujinken
- Tenchi: Head in the Clouds and Feet in the Muck
- Did You Ever Meet O-sensei? O-sensei Who?
- The Knights of the Mouldy Rope
- Oniisan (Elder Brother)
BudoSeek! Martial Arts Community. This is a very well written and easy to read book that will grab your attention from the very beginning. It will bring forth a variety of emotions from the reader, from outrage to laughter and once you pick it up, it is very hard to put down again. Honest and to the point…this book will make you think and explore your own heart. Full review.
Iaido-L, a web-based discussion group for Japanese Marital Traditions. The anecdotes are well-told and well-placed, and Amdur is so at ease at showing how not "at ease" he has been that the readers can identify and sympathize with his shortcomings…Amdur's variety [of humility] does not grow from easy excuses, and will charm the reader as it provokes thought and laughter. Full review.
AikiWeb. Full review.
The Ernest Becker Foundation Newsletter. Full review.
Contact Ellis Amdur directly for Greek or Hungarian language versions of Dueling with Osensei
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Use the secure shopping cart provided above. During checkout, you can specify your payment option, either:
1. Credit Card via PayPal, which will process your payment whether or not you sign up for Paypal. You need to follow two steps:
- A shopping cart form that provides us with your proper shipping address and a summary of the order.
- Paypal's site, which processes your payment.
- NOTE: Paypal uses your billing address, which may be different from your shipping address. We use the address provided by the shopping cart, so do not worry if you see your billing address come up on Paypal's form.
- Until you've pressed "PAY" at Paypal, your transaction is not completed. (Don't stop too soon!)
2. Check/international postal money order. Checks should be made out to EDGEWORK.
Add $5.00 shipping for the 1st copy to U.S. and Canada, plus $1.50 for each additional copy.
Add $12.50 shipping to other countries, plus $3.75 for each additional copy.
DELIVERY: 2 - 4 WEEKS
Dueling with O-sensei can also be purchased at Koryu.com along with a number of the finest books published on Japanese martial traditions.
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BOOK:
Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions
Includes photographs of practitioners of Japanese Martial Traditions
There are few non-Japanese exponents/masters of Koryu who are capable of commenting on these traditions and their arts and weapons at the same level of complexity and depth as Ellis Amdur. I am drawn more and more to the conclusion that there are fewer still who demand the same respect for their passionate objectivism.
If you profess to practice a Koryu, are a practitioner of naginata in any of its forms, practice jodo, are a female martial artist or simply desire an education in the wonders and complexities of the classical martial traditions of Japan then this book should be on your bookshelf.
— From a review in Kendo World
Koryu
Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu
Maniwa Nen Ryu
Higo Ko Ryu
Japanese Ancient Weapons
The History of the Naginata
Chigiriki -The Japanese Flail
Kusarigama - Chain-and-Sickle
History and Traditions
Women Warriors of Japan
The Origins of the Araki Ryu
Blood Vows in Japanese Martial Traditions
BudoSeek! Martial Arts Community. In a series of essays, this book has the feel of an “insider” that is telling you the little known secrets of the classical Japanese martial arts. And indeed it is! Amdur has teaching licenses in two Koryu traditions, Araki Ryu and Toda-ha Buko Ryu. So he is uniquely qualified in this respect. Also a scholar, it is apparent from the very first chapter that he has extensively researched the topics covered in this book, and is unafraid to separate the facts from the myth. Full review.
Aikido Journal. Full review.
Electronic Journal of Martial Arts and Sciences. Full review.
Contact Ellis Amdur directly for French or Spanish language versions of Old School
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Use the secure shopping cart provided above. During checkout, you can specify your payment option, either:
1. Credit Card via PayPal, which will process your payment whether or not you sign up for Paypal. You need to follow two steps:
- A shopping cart form that provides us with your proper shipping address and a summary of the order.
- Paypal's site, which processes your payment.
- NOTE: Paypal uses your billing address, which may be different from your shipping address. We use the address provided by the shopping cart, so do not worry if you see your billing address come up on Paypal's form.
- Until you've pressed "PAY" at Paypal, your transaction is not completed. (Don't stop too soon!)
2. Check/international postal money order. Checks should be made out to EDGEWORK.
Add $5.00 shipping for the 1st copy to U.S. and Canada, plus $1.50 for each additional copy.
Add $12.50 shipping to other countries, plus $3.75 for each additional copy.
DELIVERY: 2 - 4 WEEKS
Old School can also be purchased at Koryu.com along with a number of the finest books published on Japanese martial traditions.
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DVD:
UKEMI from the Ground Up
This DVD offers a step-by-step procedure to learn and/or instruct safe aikido ukemi. Whether entirely new to the art, or desiring to retool one’s skills, the methods here will enable any reasonably fit practitioner to be able to take falls in aikido (and other similar arms-length grappling systems) safely. The methods here are not merely to assist in learning how to collude with the person executing the technique these methods enable one to be prepared and able to gracefully manage both the malevolent and the inept as well as skilled practitioner executing ordinary technique.
Ellis Amdur's elegant, no-nonsense approach to ukemi training has been a huge positive for my aikido classes in NJIT's Phys Ed Department. I've found that new students taught using this method are typically able to safely execute both basic and advanced ukemi, including breakfalls, within one or two classes, rather than weeks, months, or years.
— Fred Little, Aikido Instructor
Department of Physical Education
New Jersey Institute of Technology
If I had the benefit of this method of training 20 or 30 years ago, I believe that I would not have incurred most of the injuries I’ve gotten taking ukemi.
— Dennis Hooker, 6th Dan
Director of the Shindai Dojo
Orlando Florida
E-Budo.com. Amdur is a highly qualified, senior instructor in classical Japanese martial arts, and has ample experience and insights to the subject to produce such materials publicly. You'll be in good hands with this DVD. Full review.
BudoSeek. The verdict on Ukemi: From The Ground Up is a definite “must have” for instructors and students of arts that include throwing techniques…It will give you reason to reevaluate why you teach and do things the way you do and maybe even adapt some of the methods in this video to your own curriculum. I know it has in my case, and has given me some ways to help improve how I teach ukemi in my dojo. Full review.
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Use the secure shopping cart provided above. During checkout, you can specify your payment option, either:
1. . Credit Card via PayPal, which will process your payment whether or not you sign up for Paypal. You need to follow two steps:
- A shopping cart form that provides us with your proper shipping address and a summary of the order.
- Paypal's site, which processes your payment.
- NOTE: Paypal uses your billing address, which may be different from your shipping address. We use the address provided by the shopping cart, so do not worry if you see your billing address come up on Paypal's form.
- Until you've pressed "PAY" at Paypal, your transaction is not completed. (Don't stop too soon!)
2. Check/international postal money order. Checks should be made out to EDGEWORK.
Add $5.00 shipping for the 1st copy to U.S. and Canada, plus $1.50 for each additional copy.
Add $12.50 shipping to other countries, plus $3.75 for each additional copy.
DELIVERY: 2 - 4 WEEKS
*This DVD is a DVD-R and its format is NTSC. Please check that your system is compatible before ordering. Delivery will take 2-4 weeks.
Inquiries regarding bulk or wholesale orders should be directed to Ellis Amdur.
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CD INTERVIEW:
Memories of Terry Dobson
In 2009, Ellis Amdur was one of a number of people interviewed for Keigan Production’s DVD project, Remembering Terry Dobson. Because of time and production constraints, only one sound bite of Ellis’ rollicking interview was included. Here we offer it complete on CD, 45 minutes of stories, sacred and profane. As always, Amdur views things on a slant – you will not get a hagiography or testament to a spiritual journey – rather, reminiscences of a mentor and a friend, a man of earth and salt, well worth knowing, even through means such as this.
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Unlike the other items on this website, the button above goes directly to Paypal. It will not show up on your shopping cart, along with other purchases. Instead the sale will be processed directly. However, if you also buy any of the other items on this page, we will send them together. If ordered alone or with books, the CD will come in its own case. If ordered along with a copy of Ukemi from the Ground Up, the two discs will come together in a two-post case.
NOTE: Paypal uses your billing address associated with your credit card on its forms. If you have a different shipping address, please put a note in the "comments" section, so that we are sure where to send the CD.
You can also purchase this item through check or international postal money order, together with any other items on this page. Please include all relevant postage for other items. Checks should be made out to EDGEWORK, and mailed to the address on this website.
DELIVERY: 2 - 4 WEEKS
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Dueling with O-sensei…is filled with wit and humor, every drop of sweat and blood balanced by bouts of mirth.
—Kevin Tsai,
on web-based “Iaido-L”
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