Reddit reviews The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sohei in Japanese History
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Univ of Hawaii Pr
Sort of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikk%C5%8D-ikki
https://www.amazon.com/Teeth-Claws-Buddha-Monastic-Warriors/dp/0824831233
Interesting. If anyone's read that one or any of the below I would appreciate comments:
The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sohei in Japanese History This seems to be "the classic" martial buddhist book but I had no interest to tackle it as it seems to be portraying a profane materialist interpretation of history. The description you provided for the Sri Lanka book seems similar: use of modern "textual" and "anthropological" tools usually simply means a framework totally lacking in metaphysical knowledge and therefore distinctions and hierarchy of what is important and what's not, and obscure, tainted modernist interpretations like an analysis of "historical circumstances", that includes a lot more suggestive elements than usually admitted to it by "critical schools". Such usually leave the agents or hêgemonikons of history fatally hanging in fatalism or inspire naive equalitarian awes like
"we're all human" or "such were the times!". And how can there be "ethical dialogue" if the premises to understand hierarchies (dharma) are missing?
Jeff Eisenberg has written two books on martial buddhism: Fighting Buddha & Buddha's Bodyguard
The gist here is probably the differentiation between violence and skilled use of force. The first book seems to be of the apologetic type and the latter one more like a regular martial arts manual with buddhist techniques.
What's missing is a kshatriya or royal interpretation of "buddhist" warfare, but I don't expect to see such appearing outside traditionalist circles.
Maybe the Eisenberg books are worth a buy?