Black_Belt_-_October-November_2019

MARTIAL ARTS NEWS YOU CAN USE. READ IT - KNOW IT - LIVE IT

DONN F. DRAEGER’S RESEARCH

ANALYZED IN LECTURES IN JAPAN

artial artists from all over Japan recently as-

sembled in Tokyo for a series of lectures on the

life and legacy of Donn F. Draeger. The American

martial arts researcher and writer is best-known for

his book Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts, co-written with

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serious primer on the subject to reach a mass audience.

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volume set on the martial arts and ways of Japan: Classical

Bujutsu, Classical Budo, and Modern Bujutsu & Budo. Those

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formance. The lectures that took place in Japan explored this

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impact. Three of them were his students and friends: Hunter

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ZDV'U$OH[%HQQHWWDOHDGLQJbudo/bujutsu expert in the

current generation of martial arts researchers and one of the

many people inspired by Draeger to go to the source.

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of the International Hoplology Society. His lecture focused on

how Draeger took the lessons of koryu martial arts and gen-

eralized them into the more global perspective of hoplology.

Armstrong talked about all human combative behavior being

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Armstrong also pointed out that although Draeger was a high-

level judoka, it was his combat experience in World War II that

drove his interest in koryu martial arts and hoplology.

One thing Armstrong emphasized was that the civilian/

martial categories were not about ranking the effectiveness or

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arts expert with advanced rank in the 600-year-old tatsumi-

ryu and the naginata-focused toda-ha buko-ryu.,QDGGLWLRQ

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the 1970s and learned his approach during research trips to

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tinued this work through graduate study in anthropology and

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called mhlabatini. He continues his hoplology work through the

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educate and support fellow practitioners of koryu.

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detailed his research methods. It started with the origins of

hoplology in the 1800s and traced the study of the Japanese

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personally. But given his high rank in seven Japanese martial arts

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tory. Although Draeger was criticized for the way he used Jap-

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ed the facts of history better than simply classifying everything

as an old war skill (jutsu) or a modern means of character de-

velopment (do), pointing out that many koryu martial arts were

developed during peace and were seen as character building

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early 20th century was used to support the Japanese war effort

in World War II.

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part of the continuous reinvention of Japanese martial tradi-

tions throughout history and how he helped unmoor budo from

ethnocentrism and make it a worldwide phenomenon. Bennett

did this by explaining that the period when Draeger was most

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