Inner Dharma is a writing project authored by Mark Raugas that began in 2006 and is concerned with classical and traditional martial arts and culture. I want to thank all those who provided feedback and encouragement over the last twenty years.
Training
I continue my practice of Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu and Chinese internal martial arts in the Pacific Northwest.
Publications
This effort has resulted in several publications, listed below. Excerpts from each book can be found at the links below. If you find the work here interesting, please consider a copy in order to help support the maintenance of this site:
Books
Shugendō and Heihō: Sacred Space and Martial Practice. Mountain, Sword, and Mind, Volume I. Inner Dharma, 2026. 407 pages. Peak entry, tengu and gongen, the sacred sites and the martial traditions attached to them, and the Shugendō pantheon and its military rites.
Mikkyō, Zen, and Daoist Sources in Shinkage-ryū. Mountain, Sword, and Mind, Volume II. Inner Dharma, 2026. 462 pages. The Heihō Kadensho, the Tsuki no Shō and Takuan’s writings in translation, with the later Shinkage-ryū tradition.
From the Kōbusho to the Butokukai: Swordsmanship in Transition. Inner Dharma, 2026. 402 pages. The late Edo period Kōbusho, the martial academy of the Tokugawa, its swordsmen and their styles, and the institutions that followed it into the modern era.
The Truth of the Calm Spirit. Inner Dharma, 2025. 368 pages. An examination of the practice of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu through the lens of internal martial arts.
Essays
Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū (opens in a new tab). Kogen Budo, 2024. An essay on kata, heihō and shugyō, comparing and contrasting different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū, with reflections on my own practice.
General Qi Jiguang’s Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue (opens in a new tab). Kogen Budo, 2023. A look at some older writings from Japanese koryū that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and how the practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
Mark Raugas
Seattle, WA
