Title: The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts
Author: Issai Chozanshi and Sean Michael Wilson, translated by William Scott Wilson
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Publish Date: 2013
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Cover Price: $14.95
Issai Chozanshi (1659–1741), the author of The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts was of the samurai caste. Although he denied having any real knowledge of swordsmanship, he wrote about loving the art and experimenting with techniques and principles. This work shows that he was being modest about what he knew. I’ve studied martial arts for almost two decades now, but only in the most recent years have I developed a basic understanding of certain principles. I found this book filled with ideas common not only to Japanese traditional martial arts but also to Chinese arts (my area of study).
To be completely honest I did not know what to expect from this book and was pleasantly surprised. This is a graphic novel, a retelling of Issai’s original book in manga format. To those readers not very familiar with comic books (or who think them just for kids and teens), don’t let that scare you. The principles are wonderfully explained and the art brings the ideas to life in a necessary way.
Content
The book is a collection of parables on the martial arts. It is divided in five parts, each containing one or two fable-like stories. In most stories the protagonists are animals. In some there are tengu, a kind of yokai (Japanese supernatural beings), very connected to martial arts mythology and folklore. But all of them contain actual insight on deep principles of martial arts. There is a connecting thread, a story about a young samurai who goes to an island in search of deeper knowledge on the fighting arts. We follow him in the interludes between stories until he finds four tengu debating different ideas. A couple of concepts appear in many of the tales: the idea of principle as the ultimate building block of a martial art and its relationship with technique and its connection to qi, mind, and form and how one should train said aspects.
Pros
As I said, this book explores some basic but deep martial arts concepts. I expected something more focused on traditional Japanese arts, mainly swordsmanship, but I found that most, if not all, the lessons from the fables can be applied to any fighting system. The art is very nice and the stories are short. Some explain the ideas in a very clear way, some lose themselves in the metaphor. I really enjoyed the tale of the tengus. Their discussion about qi, principle, and technique is a fascinating one for me. To the author, qi might have been a very real energy, but in his tales you don’t necessarily see that. The book feels very modern in some aspects. How it discusses certain ideas gets to me in a way that no archaic manual on martial arts would.
Cons
The only negative thing I can say about this book is that some of the metaphors and parables get a bit too metaphysical. As I said, each tale is a sort of fable that mainly has animals or insects as its protagonists. There’s buddhist, daoist, and some shintoist concepts in a lot of the stories. Therefore the lesson on martial arts is there, but it might be hidden in the tale within the tale. Some stories also repeat concepts you’ve already seen in a previous tale. I liked the animals, but some readers might be put off by that. You have to take into account when and where the author lived.
Conclusion
I delved into it without any previous knowledge and found different ways of talking about some very real ideas. Don’t let the fact that this is a comic book put you off. If you are into the philosophical aspects of martial arts, especially as seen from the Japanese
point of view, you’ll like this book. And by philosophy I mean not only metaphors, legends, or fables but a deep interpretation of body mechanics or the discussion of technique vs. principle—not only as theory but how martial arts schools teach and how fighters use those concepts. You may not find this book as a first recommendation in many places, but I assure you it’s worth a read. In fact, I recommend reading it more than once to grasp some of the ideas.
Aside from the content most related to the martial arts, it’s still a compelling book. It’s a window view into the mind of a martial artist and philosopher from a couple of centuries ago, one with ideas not so far from ours, just a different way of expressing them. Using fables, or parables, with talking animals and mystical beings is somewhat new for me on this subject. Then again as an avid comic book reader who’s very familiar with Japanese manga, I’ve seen similar stuff. The main difference here being the more classical narrative style.
Because of all those things, I’ve decided to give this book 4 out of 5 stars. This book contains valuable knowledge explained in a sometimes not-so-clear way, yet it’s interesting.
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