brianlkenned1

Thanks much for the warm welcome. It would be great to join you folks but alas, I am down in San Diego. take care, Brian

Greetings, My name is Brian Kennedy and I recently moved back to California after having lived in Taiwan for the past 15 years. As folks might know Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945 and many Taiwanese served (drafted or conscripted, however one describes it) in the Japanese military during WW-2. I only currently own one Japanese machine made sword. The inscription, in english on the leather scabbard, said "taken in Shanghai China October 1945". When I first got the sword (for $50 at a swap meet) it still had a few scraps of the ray skin handle material. My wife and I have written two books on Chinese martial arts history. One came out several years ago, it was titled Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey. The second one will be released in June of next year. It is about the Jingwu Association. Over the years I have done a bit of various martial arts. I started back in 1976 with traditional Chinese martial arts. Then over the years did a range of things including tai chi, western boxing and most recently judo. In fact I just got out of my cast after having broke my foot doing judo! At 51 I maybe a wee bit old for contact martial arts but I wanted to give it a go. I look forward to meeting and talking with folks here. take care, Brian