The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts: A Graphic Novel

Issai Chozanshi

Mär 2013 · Shambhala Publications

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A visually thrilling graphic novel adaptation of classic martial arts parables on swordsmanship and strategy—written by a real-life samurai
 
The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts is a classic collection of martial arts tales, written by the eighteenth-century samurai Issai Chozanshi. Featuring demons, insects, birds, cats, and numerous other creatures, the stories here may seem whimsical, but they contain essential teachings that offer insight into the fundamental principles of the martial arts. This graphic novel version based on Chozanshi’s text brings these tales alive in a captivating and immediately accessible way.

Infused with Chozanshi’s deep understanding of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto, the tales elucidate the nature of conflict, the importance of following one’s own nature, yin and yang, the cultivation and transformation of ch’i (life energy), and the attainment of mushin (no-mind). Ultimately, the reader learns in a visually exciting way that the path of the sword is a path of self-knowledge and leads to an understanding of life itself.

Autoren-Profil

Issai Chozanshi is the pen name of Niwa Jurozaemon Tadaaki, an eighteenth-century swordsman and intellectual. His writings weave together ideas drawn from Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Taoism, and his treatises on the way of the sword and the martial arts demonstrate a remarkable synthesis of these philosophical traditions.

Sean Michael Wilson is a Harvey- and Eisner-award-nominated comic book writer from Scotland, who lives in Japan. He has had more than a dozen books published by a variety of US, UK, and Japanese publishers, and he often works with Japanese and Chinese artists on manga-style books, such as Hagakure and Yakuza Moon.