Ellis Amdur's writing on martial arts has been groundbreaking. In
Dueling with O-sensei, he challenged practitioners that the moral
dimension of martial arts is expressed in acts of integrity, not
spiritual platitudes and the deification of fantasized warrior-sages. In
Old School, he applied both academic rigor and keen observation towards
some of the classical martial arts of Japan, leavening his writing with
vivid descriptions of many of the actual practitioners of these
wonderful traditions. His first edition of Hidden in Plain Sight was a
discussion of esoteric training methods once common, but now all but
lost within Japanese martial arts. These methodologies encompassed
mental imagery, breath-work, and a variety of physical techniques,
offering the potential to develop skills and power sometimes viewed as
nearly superhuman. Usually believed to be the provenance of Chinese
martial arts, Amdur asserted that elements of such training still remain
within a few martial traditions: literally, 'hidden in plain sight.'
Two-thirds larger, this second edition is so much more. Amdur digs deep
into the past, showing the complexity of human strength, its adaptation
to varying lifestyles, and the nature of physical culture pursued for
martial ends. Amdur goes into detail concerning varieties of esoteric
power training within martial arts, culminating in a specific
methodology known as 'six connections' or 'internal strength.' With this
discussion as a baseline, he then discusses the transfer of esoteric
power training from China to various Japanese jujutsu systems as well as
Japanese swordsman-ship emanating from the Kurama traditions. Finally,
he delves into the innovative martial tradition of Daito-ryu and its
most important offshoot, aikido, showing how the mercurial, complicated
figures of Takeda Sokaku and Morihei Ueshiba were less the embodiment of
something new, than a re-imagining of their past.
