Asian Fighting Arts

S

Steven F

Joined
Oct 12, 1999
Messages
1,237
I just received my copy of "Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts" (207 pages) by Donn Draeger and Robert Smith. It is an outstanding book and offers a wealth of information regarding martial arts of all kinds. I got my copy from Amazon.com for about $20 ( high quality paperback) and I recommend it to anyone even remotely curious about knives and/or the martial arts.
 
BA, yes, it does have some illustrations, but not a lot. And the illustrations are real basic -- they're for the person who knows nothing about the subject (like me), but who wants some general, introductory information about the various Asian martial arts and weapons. If you would like any additional, specific info, please feel free to email me.
 
(Comprehensive) Asian Fighting Arts is one of the finest books available on martial arts. These two were some of the pioneers to bring a lot of martial art knowledge to American. Smith just wrote another high-quality book (just got it last week) called Martial Musings, available through Via Media, the same group that publishes the Journal of Asian Martial Arts. It costs $40, but it has 400 pages of info in it. If you are a hardcore, it is great reading. Specifically good info about Chinese Boxing and it's development in America.
 
Another book you might want is called -- The Original Martial Arts --- Encyclopedia--- Tradition-History-Pioneers. The company is-- Pro-Action Publishing 1717 N. Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90026

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Out of fairness and considering this is the bladeforums, I should say that the Martial Musings book that I mentioned earlier had very little weapons in it, mostly empty-handed arts. Still a good book.

I recall an exceptional book on various Filipino fighters and teachers, containing stories of different ones. can't miss it if you see it. However, I can't recall the title.
 
"Asian Fighting Arts" is a good base but I liked "Weapons & Fighting Arts of the Indonesian Archipelago" and the rarer "Perisai Diri: Pentjak Silat".

For the Filipino masters, two books are good
"Filipino Martial Culture" by Mark V. Wiley
"Masters of Arnis, Escrima, Kali" by Edgar R. Sulite

Check out the "Martial Arts, History, Traditions, People" by John Corcoran and Emil Farkas, the same people who wrote "Original Martial Arts Encyclopedia". A bit lacking in some places, it's greatest strength is it's bibliography where some books that are listed nobody else has seen.
 
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