ABSTRACT
The Chapter deals with to and fro diffusion. It outlines differences and similarities between the master tradition in traditional European crafts and in Japanese martial arts. It argues that the concepts of Zen-inspired martial arts can be used to enhance Western understanding of the transfer of ‘tacit knowledge’ in the context of the master-apprentice relationship. The popularity of Oriental martial arts is related to the need to cultivate the idea of personalized leadership and ordered rituals at a time when these appear to be declining in modern life due to the increasing mass production of the new post-millennium, increasingly technological, society.
