Zen and the Way of the Sword : Arming the Samurai Psyche, Hardcover by King, ...

by Winston L. King

$63 · Offered by eBay

Zen and the Way of the Sword : Arming the Samurai Psyche, Hardcover by King, Winston L., ISBN 0195068106, ISBN-13 9780195068108, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US Zen--serene, contemplative, a discipline of meditation associated with painting, rock gardens, and flower arranging--seems an odd ingredient in the martial psyche of the Japanese samurai. "One who is a samurai must before all things keep constantly in mind...the fact that he has to die," wrote a seventeenth-century warrior. "That is his chief business." But the demands of that "business," writes Winston King, found the perfect philosophical match in the teachings of Zen Buddhism. In Zen and the Way of the Sword, King offers a fascinating look into the mind of the samurai swordsman in a far-reaching account of the role of Zen in the thought, culture, and the martial arts of Japan's soldier elite. An esteemed scholar of Eastern religions, King deftly traces the development of Zen and discusses the personal nature of its practice, its emphasis on individual discovery and attainment. He then presents an accomplished capsule history of the samurai class, from its rise in the middle ages to formal abolition in the nineteenth century--an account filled with details of wars, political maneuvering, and cultural achievements. King also looks at the arms and vocation of the individual samurai, placing the details of armor and weapons in the context of the samurai conception of warfare. In particular, King focuses on the s

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
• Year: 1993
• Binding: Hardcover
• ISBN: 9780195068108
• Condition: Fine

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