Karate-Do Kyohan: The Master Text

Description

Nineteen kata (“forms”) of karate–the art of self-defense without weapons–are presented here in complete detail. They’re the ones selected by the great master and teacher, Gichin Funakoshi, to give comprehensive training in Karate-do, the way of karate.

Fully illustrated demonstrations by the translator cover not only every technique of the kata but also the fundamentals and applications: how to make a fist; the right kind form of the open hand; preliminary training in blocking, striking and kicking; the seven stances; and sparring.

The creator presents, but even so kata that he himself originated, beginning and advanced kata from both the Shorei school and the Shorin school, the former remarkable for their forcefulness and development of strength, the latter characterized by their gracefulness and lightning swiftness.

This book, the most comprehensive and authoritative ever published, used to be being revised by the creator shortly before his death in 1957, at the age of eighty-eight, and is translated for the first time. Through his advice on both practical and spiritual aspects of training, the master guides the student from techniques to the Way of karate. Complementing the English edition are illustrations of National Treasures from Kofuku-ji and Todai-ji temples in Nara and Master Funakoshi’s calligraphy.

Karate, whose value for the well-rounded development of strength, coordination and agility is scientifically validated, will also be practiced at any time and in any place, for any length of time, by women and men of every age, and requires no special equipment. It also fosters the development of spiritual qualities: courage, courtesy, integrity, humility and self-regulate.

Gichin Funakoshi’s karate books, the first published in 1922, are landmarks, for the development of this martial art in Okinawa used to be shrouded in secrecy, and almost no records of its early history, dating back more than a thousand years to the Shao-lin Temple in Hunan Province, China, exist. Karate-do Kyohan is a book that lives up to its title: it is actually the master text for karate instruction at all levels and in all aspects of technique and character development.