Inner Dharma

Martial Arts and Culture; writing by Mark Raugas

Writing and Research

The Inner Dharma writing project began in 2006 and has evolved substantially as my training interests have shifted over time. The photo gallery preserves some content drawn from event updates (annual gatherings, memorial demonstrations, seminars, and pilgrimages) from 2004 to 2026. I want to thank all those who provided feedback and encouragement over the last twenty years.

I have collated my writing into several larger volumes by theme, which resulted in expanded treatments of several topics Inner Dharma was concerned with: Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryu kenjutsu; late Tokugawa, Taisho, and Meiji era swordsmanship; and the influence of Japanese mountain religion on older martial traditions.

Links to some of the work that resulted from this project can be found below:

  1. Mountain, Sword, and Mind: Volume I (Shugendō and Heihō, 399 pages) examines Muromachi-era martial traditions that drew on religious culture in their founding narratives and contains summary analyses of the Shugendō canon. Volume II (Mikkyō, Zen, and Daoist Sources in Shinkage-ryū, 503 pages) takes a closer look at the core texts of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū and related traditions from this philosophical perspective. Inner Dharma, 902 pages (vol 1-2), 2026.
  2. From the Kōbusho to the Butokukai: The late Edo period Kōbusho that many famous Jikishinkage-ryū swordsmen were attached to, its teachers, the arts they practiced, and subsequent institutions. Inner Dharma, 366 pages, 2026.
  3. An Overview of Wú Tàijíquán Practice: Tàijíquán, along with Xíngyìquán and Bāguàzhǎng, forms the core of the internal martial arts, distinguished by their grounding in Daoist philosophy and Nèigōng practices. April 2026
  4. The Truth of the Calm Spirit: Research on Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu, including its early history, curriculum, and its philosophical content drawn from available Japanese language scholarship and library holdings. Inner Dharma, 368 pages, 2025.
  5. Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū: An essay on kata, heihō and shugyō, comparing and contrasting different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū, with reflections on my own practice. Kogen Budo, September 2024.
  6. General Qi Jiguang’s Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue: 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. Kogen Budo, February 2023.

Please visit jikishinkageryu.org for additional content on Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu. The work above completes this project – I hope some of it winds up being of lasting interest. I continue my training in the Pacific Northwest.

Mark Raugas
Seattle, WA

饒静思