The Sword that Saves
by Ambrose Merrell

Review by David Ito

Every once in a while, my beliefs get challenged and I realize that I am wrong. I used to think that to consider yourself a student of a teacher that you had to actually be in the physical presence of that teacher. I am here today to tell you that is not always true. It has been almost 10 years since Furuya Sensei passed away. Most of his so called students have left for greener pastures. A few have still remained fighting the good fight. Recently, there have been a couple of people that followed Sensei via the internet that have demonstrated that they not only were his students but are in fact more loyal and grateful to him than the students who trained directly under him.
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One of those people is Ambrose Merrell. This year Ambrose published his very first book titled, The Sword that Saves. It is a very ambitious first book that he takes on with courage and sense of honest that we don’t see today in books. It is a fictional story about a troubled boy who finds his martial arts master and ultimately finds his way in life thorough Aikido, Iaido, and Japanese culture. The book is well written and is not predictable at all. I found myself riveted and could not put it down.
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Ambrose deftly weaves Aikido and martial arts themes with life lessons in a coming of age story. What makes this book special is that one of the main characters is based on Sensei. Most times, I would have turned my nose up to something like this as I let out an audible sigh of disgust. When I came upon the part which introduced Sensei, I was at first very hesitant, but Ambrose does an excellent job of immortalizing Sensei and paying homage to him. I was also blown away at the detail in which he describes the dojo having never been there.
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Japanese culture and etiquette can be very nuanced and I often have discussions with people who are fluent and miss the point. Ambrose is able to eloquently convey Japanese traditional themes without over complicating them. This book is an excellent read for anyone who wants to start learning more about Japanese culture without trying to learn about Japanese culture. The story is excellent too and I hope that Ambrose does not make us wait too long for the next installment. I wholeheartedly suggest this book to people of any age who want to learn more about martial arts and Japanese culture or if they just want to read a book that is well written.