Asian fighting arts
By: Donn F. Draeger [and] Robert W. Smith.
Contributors: Smith, Robert W. 1926-
Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd.
Published: 1969 (1974 was seventh printing)
Place of publication: Tokyo
Language: eng
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 207
Copyright date: 1969
Description: Fighting arts are as old as man himself and as varied as his languages. In Asia they developed to a degree of effectiveness probably unsurpassed elsewhere in the world. This book explains the relationships between fighting arts, assesses their strengths and weaknesses, and presents new material about hitherto unknown fighting methods. Written by two of the best-known and most widely published authorities in the field, it covers fighting methods and techniques found in eleven Asian countries-fighting techniques that range from the artful Chinese tai-chi and Burmese bando to Japanese jujutsu and the lethal pentjak-silat of Indonesia. Documentation of these has been supplemented with a wealth of fascinating anecdotes. The reader learns of the daring exploits of the Japanese ninja, of Gama, perhaps the greatest of the great Indian wrestlers, of the Indonesian "trance" fighters-and hundreds of other tales that serve to illustrate some of the most deadly fighting systems that the world has known. The volume is illustrated with over two hundred photographs and drawings, many of them depicting combat styles and techniques that have never been seen in the West.
Table of contents: label: Foreward
title: 7; label: China
title: 11; label: Okinawa
title: 57; label: Korea
title: 69; label: Japan
title: 81; label: India • Pakistan
title: 141; label: Burma
title: 155; label: Thailand
title: 161; label: Malaysia • Indonesia
title: 167; label: Philippines
title: 185; title: Appendices:; label: Select bibliography
title: 193; label: Chinese martial arts books
title: 195; label: Methods of Chinese boxing
title: 199; label: Evolution of t'ai-chi boxing
title: 202; label: Index
title: 205