Samurai Principles & Practices for Teens

Winning the Samurai Way!

The principles and practices that Japan’s famous samurai class used in training their young made the samurai one of the most extraordinary groups of people the world has ever seen. The skills they developed in the martial arts and in cultural pur-suits have never been surpassed by any other people.

I have identified these principles and practices and turned them into a handbook for present-day parents, teachers, preteens and teens...to help dramatically improve the character, behavior and success of the young.

The book is not aimed at turning teens into samurai warriors trained for combat, but rather to instill in them the traits of discipline, courage, perseverance, ambition, orderliness, fairness, respect for themselves and other people, an appreciation for the spiritual side of life, the kinship of all things in nature, and the philosophy of make one's self better today than he or she was yesterday.

The manual is primarily aimed at parents and teachers, but it is also good reading for both preteens and teens. It is available from Amazon.com. Also see my website at BoyeDeMente.com.

SABURO [Sah-boo-roh] - The Saga of a Teenage Samurai in 17th Century Japan

Male members of Japan’s famous samurai class, which took power in Japan at the end of the 12th century, were required to undergo physical, mental and spiritual training that gave them incredible skills in a number of martial arts.

By the 1600s, samurai were also expected to become versed in aesthetics, calligraphy, philosophical matters and writing poetry.

The saga of Saburo [Sah-boo-roh] is a collection of 13 true-to-life short stories of a young boy who opts to become a roving shugyo-sha (shuu-g’yoh-shah), or “samurai in training,” rather than serve a feudal lord, leading him to extraordinary adventures that bring out the culture of his times.

Each story is filled with cultural and historical facts that reveal both negative and positive elements in the lives of the samurai class, with Saburo surmounting those that are negative and eventually finding a master who explains the essence and the purpose of life. The stories are both an educational and an inspirational read for young people, and should be of special interest to those who are into manga, anime, ninja, and action video games.

Each of the stories contains messages of the discipline, ethics and morality that are ideal attributes in people of all ages, in particular the young during their impressionable years. The book is available from Amazon.com.