What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake was writing about a tiger (tyger) but we are speaking of daggers. The dagger is made with a fearful purpose and a beautiful symmetry. The dagger is defined by its symmetry around the long axis and by its emphasis on the point overContinue reading “DAGGERS”
Category Archives: Manuals
KORYU 古流
Aikido is a modern art founded in the 1920s but its techniques are derivative from older material. With a penchant for hierarchy, Japan classifies its arts as Gendai (new) and Koryu (old) with the Meiji Restoration (1868) as the demarcation line. A great resource to begin researching Koryu martial arts is >here< and Don Draeger‘s worksContinue reading “KORYU 古流”
Sir Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton – polyglot, explorer, writer, swordsman – perhaps the quintessential warrior-scholar. His life and works are impressive and deserve study. While written in Victorian prose, his work remains accessible and is deeply informed with the experience of a man who has been there, seen it, and done it all. A link to digitized versions of hisContinue reading “Sir Richard Francis Burton”