I am preparing two additional volumes I hope to have available in late 2026 or early 2027. The first is focused on Shugendō and its influence on Muromachi and early Edo martial traditions. The second is centered around Yagyū Shinkage-ryū and its primary sources, related traditions, and modern scholarship on the art.
Mountain, Sword, and Mind
Volume I: Shugendō and Heihō
Shugendō and Heihō: Sacred Space and Martial Practice, Mountain, Sword, and Mind, Volume I. Inner Dharma, 2026. [forthcoming]
Contents Include: Introduction (the Shugen shinkan-shō, the ten realms and the body of the Buddha, Tengu, Gongen, Sacred Mountains), Sacred Places (Kuramadera, Atago, Kashima, Katori, Udo, Hikosan, Dewa Sanzan, Kumano Sanzan), Sacred Practice (Kukai’s Key to the Heart Sutra), select Buddhist deities (Mahakala, Marici [Marishiten], Vaisravana, Acalanatha [Fudō Myōo], Manjushri), Shugendō-centric figures (En no Gyōja, Rigen Daishi, Zaō Gongen, Sanbō Kōjin), Military Shugendō (Kuji and Goshinhō), and the Diamond Body.
Tengu and Shugendō related origins of martial traditions associated to sacred places are discussed, drawing from the Honchō Bugei Shōden (本朝武藝小傳) and Bujutsu Ryūso-roku (武術流祖錄), and other sources.