What's worrying, though, is the extent to which experiences like Japan and Zen are accessed through stereotypical depictions of women and orientalist portrayals of the Japanese themselves.
Martial Arts
Thoughts on Peter Haskel’s “Sword of Zen: Master Takuan and His Writings on Immovable Wisdom and the Sword Taie”
Peter Haskel's study of the Zen monk Takuan Sōhō (CE 1573–1645) provides a nuanced, in-depth analysis of a topic that is all-too often dominated by nonsense. As a professor of medieval Chinese history told me recently, despite the enthusiasm of undergraduate and graduate students to investigate the connection between Zen and the martial arts, until…Read more Thoughts on Peter Haskel’s “Sword of Zen: Master Takuan and His Writings on Immovable Wisdom and the Sword Taie”