The Fighting Man of Japan: The Training and Exercises of the Samurai
> published in 1905 by Archibald Constable & Co Ltd., London
> extract published in Badminton magazine entitled The Sword of Japan
F.J. Norman lived and taught English in Japan at the Etajima Naval Academy during the Meiji Era. Being one of the first westerners to study kenjutsu in any great depth, he praises their technique and training methods, whilst sounding a - with hindsight - prescient warning about the bushido mindset:
Though highly scientific, kenjutsu is a very rough-and-tumble sort of sword-play, absolutely free from parade and all theatrical touches, but wonderfully practical withal. As Japanese chivalry is most uncompromisingly based upon the idea that all is fair in war, so Japanese swordsmen resort to certain methods which are highly reprehensible from our point of view. Such a thing as giving another man a chance never appears to enter their heads; and so, should a fencer lose his shinai, or fail in any way, his adversary immediately takes advantage of this to push his attack home with all the greater vigour.
Other chapters cover Japanese military history and education, and the wrestling arts of sumo and jujutsu.
This 1905 edition is held in 5 libraries around the UK (Wellcome, Cambridge, Oxford, National Library of Scotland, British Library (see COPAC); and in the Library of Congress in the US
The 2003 republication by Kendo World Publications Ltd has now made this work widely available: copies available here. Everyone over at Kendo World forums seems to be enjoying it!
Notes and a Report on the Kazusa Systen of Deep Boring for Water
> 2nd Ed. 1902, reprint 1916 published by Thacker, Spink & Co, Calcutta and Simla
> 1916 copy held in the British Library, and in the Kazusa Museum, Chiba prefecture, Tokyo (thanks to Alex Bennett for digging this one up!)
Copied from http://www.tonderai.co.uk/fjnorman.php
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