Autumn Lightning: The Education of an American Samurai by Dave Lowry

Dave Lowry’s Autumn Lightning intertwines his apprenticeship in Japanese swordsmanship in Missouri with stories from the samurai tradition. Personal recollections of learning kenjutsu sit alongside accounts of earlier masters and the culture surrounding their arts.

More than a technique manual, this coming-of-age memoir considers discipline, apprenticeship and a traditional way of life carried into modern America. It will interest readers exploring martial practice as a lived philosophy and the experience of studying across cultures.