Leonard J. ("Len") Pellman was born and raised in San Diego, California. Persistently bullied in elementary school, he finally persuaded his parents to allow him to train in traditional Japanese budo (often mischaracterised as "martial arts") after he and his best friend received a particularly brutal beating in middle school in 1965. He began teaching Japanese budo part time and founded the Nippon Budo Seishin-Kan (a dojo) in 1989. After a 22-year career in global transportation and DOD contracting, Pellman earned an MBA and a PhD in Organisation & Management in order to teach leadership and management in the graduate school of a major midwestern university for 18 years. Since leaving the university in 2020 he has been teaching Japanese budo and writing full time.